Kidnapped
es una novela de ficción histórica, del escocés Robert Louis Stevenson, publicada en 1886. La novela atrajo la
admiración de escritores como Henry
James, Jorge
Luis Borges, and Hilary Mantel.
Kidnapped
tiene lugar en el siglo 18 y cuenta la historia de un joven que sufre a manos
de un tío que no quiere reconocer sus derechos.
En vocabulario buscamos manse, redd up, dominie, y aye.
Tapa de Kidnapped, 1886 |
Paragraphs
I will begin the story of my adventures with a
certain morning early in the month of June, the year of grace 1751, when I took
the key for the last time out of the door of my father's house. The sun began
to shine upon the summit of the hills as I went down the road; and by the time
I had come as far as the manse, the blackbirds
were whistling in the garden lilacs, and the mist that hung around the valley
in the time of the dawn was beginning to arise and die away.
Mr. Campbell, the minister of Essendean, was waiting
for me by the garden gate, good man! He asked me if I had breakfasted; and
hearing that I lacked for nothing, he took my hand in both of his and clapped
it kindly under his arm.
"Well, Davie, lad," said he, "I will
go with you as far as the ford, to set you on the way." And we began to
walk forward in silence.
"Are ye sorry to leave Essendean?" said
he, after awhile.
"Why, sir," said I, "if I knew where
I was going, or what was likely to become of me, I would tell you candidly.
Essendean is a good place indeed, and I have been very happy there; but then I
have never been anywhere else. My father and mother, since they are both dead,
I shall be no nearer to in Essendean than in the Kingdom of Hungary, and, to
speak truth, if I thought I had a chance to better myself where I was going I
would go with a good will."
"Ay?" said Mr. Campbell. "Very well,
Davie. Then it behoves me to tell your fortune; or so far as I may. When your
mother was gone, and your father (the worthy, Christian man) began to sicken
for his end, he gave me in charge a certain letter, which he said was your
inheritance. 'So soon,' says he, 'as I am gone, and the house is redd up and the gear disposed of' (all which, Davie, hath
been done), 'give my boy this letter into his hand, and start him off to the
house of Shaws, not far from Cramond. That is the place I came from,' he said,
'and it's where it befits that my boy should return. He is a steady lad,' your
father said, 'and a canny goer; and I doubt not he will come safe, and be well
lived where he goes.'"
"The house of Shaws!" I cried. "What
had my poor father to do with the house of Shaws?"
"Nay," said Mr. Campbell, "who can
tell that for a surety? But the name of that family, Davie, boy, is the name
you bear—Balfours of Shaws: an ancient, honest, reputable house, peradventure
in these latter days decayed. Your father, too, was a man of learning as
befitted his position; no man more plausibly conducted school; nor had he the
manner or the speech of a common dominie; but (as ye
will yourself remember) I took aye a pleasure to
have him to the manse to meet the gentry; and those of my own house, Campbell
of Kilrennet, Campbell of Dunswire, Campbell of Minch, and others, all
well-kenned gentlemen, had pleasure in his society. Lastly, to put all the
elements of this affair before you, here is the testamentary letter itself,
superscrived by the own hand of our departed brother."
He gave me the letter, which was addressed in these
words: "To the hands of Ebenezer Balfour, Esquire, of Shaws, in his house
of Shaws, these will be delivered by my son, David Balfour." My heart was
beating hard at this great prospect now suddenly opening before a lad of
seventeen years of age, the son of a poor country dominie in the Forest of
Ettrick.
"Mr. Campbell," I stammered, "and if
you were in my shoes, would you go?"
"Of a surety," said the minister,
"that would I, and without pause. A pretty lad like you should get to
Cramond (which is near in by Edinburgh) in two days of walk. If the worst came
to the worst, and your high relations (as I cannot but suppose them to be
somewhat of your blood) should put you to the door, ye can but walk the two
days back again and risp at the manse door. But I would rather hope that ye
shall be well received, as your poor father forecast for you, and for anything
that I ken come to be a great man in time. And here, Davie, laddie," he
resumed, "it lies near upon my conscience to improve this parting, and set
you on the right guard against the dangers of the world."
Here he cast about for a comfortable seat, lighted
on a big boulder under a birch by the trackside, sate down upon it with a very
long, serious upper lip, and the sun now shining in upon us between two peaks,
put his pocket-handkerchief over his cocked hat to shelter him. There, then,
with uplifted forefinger, he first put me on my guard against a considerable
number of heresies, to which I had no temptation, and urged upon me to be
instant in my prayers and reading of the Bible. That done, he drew a picture of
the great house that I was bound to, and how I should conduct myself with its
inhabitants… (Excerpt from Kidnapp, Robert Louis Stevenson)
Vocabulario
Manse: a cleric's
house and land.
Redd
up: to clear an area.
Dominie:
a schoolmaster.
Aye:
still.
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