He insists upon those whom he meets doing battle with him and the clergyman, who makes up an account of the district, extant in the Macfarlane MSS. in the Advocates' Library, gravely assures us, that, in his time, Lham-dearg fought with three brothers whom he met in his walk, none of whom long survived the ghostly conflict. Barclay, in his « Euphormion,» gives a singular account of an officer, who had ventured with his servant, rather to intrude upon a haunted house, in a town in Flanders, than to put up with worse quarters elsewhere. After taking the usual precautions of providing fires, lights, and arms, they watched till midnight, when, behold! the severed arm of a man dropped from the ceiling; this was followed by the legs, the other arm, the trunk, and the head of the body, all separately. The members rolled together, united themselves in the presence of the astonished soldiers, and formed a gigantic warrior, who defied them both to combat. Their blows, although they penetrated the body, and amputated the limbs of their strange antagonist, had, as the reader may easily believe, little effect on an enemy who possessed such powers of self-union; nor did his efforts make a more effectual impression upon them. How the combat terminated I do not exactly remember, and have not the book by me; but I think the spirit made to the intruders on his mansion the usual proposal, that they should renounce their redemption: which being declined, he was obliged to retreat. The most singular tale of the kind is contained in an extract communicated to me by my friend Mr Surtees of Mainsfort, in the Bishopric, who copied it from a MS. note in a copy of Burthogge «On the Nature of Spirits,» 8vo. 1694, which had been the property of the late Mr Gill, attorney-general of Egerton, Bishop of Durham. « It was not,» says my obliging correspondent, <«< in Mr Gill's own hand, but probably an hundred years older, and was said to be, E Libro Convent. Dunelm. per T. C. extract., whom I believe to have been Thomas Cradocke, Esq. barrister, who held several offices under the see of Durham an hundred years ago. Mr. Gill was possessed of most of his manuscripts. » The extract which, in fact, suggested the introduction of the tale into the present poem, runs thus: «Rem miram hujusmodi que nostris temporibus evenit, teste viro nobili ac fide dignissimo, enarrare haud pigebit. Radulphus Bulmer, cum e castris quæ tunc temporis prope Norham posita erant, oblectationis causa exiisset, ac in ulteriore Tuedæ ripa prædam cum canibus leporariis insequeretur, forte cum Scoto quodam nobili, sibi antehac ut videbatur familiariter cognito, congressus est; ac ut fas erat inter inimicos, flagrante bello, brevissima interrogationis mora interposita, alterutros invicem incitato cursu infestis animis petiere. Noster, primo occursu, equo præacerrimo hostis impetu labante, in terram eversus, pectore et capite læso, sanguinem mortuo similis evomebat. Quem ut se ægre habentem comiter allocutus est alter, pollicitusque modo auxilium non abnegaret, monitisque obtemperans ab omni rerum sacrarum cogitatione abstineret, nec Deo, Deiparæ Virgini, Sanctove ullo preces aut vota efferret, vel inter sese conciperet, se brevi eum sanum validumque restituturum esse. Præ oblata conangore ditio accepta est; ac veterator ille, nescio quid obscoeni murmuris insusurrans, prehensa manu, dicto citius in pedes sanum ut antea sublevavit. Noster autem, max 123 ima præ rei inaudita novitate formidine perculsus, Mi JESU! exclamat, vel quid simile; ac subito respiciens, nec hostem nec ullum alium conspicit, equum solum gravissimo nuper casu afflictum, per summam pacem in rivo fluvii pascentem. Ad castra itaque mirabundus revertens, fidei dubius, rem primo occultavit, dein conDelusoria fecto bello, confessori suo totam asseruit. proculdubio res tota, ac mala veteratoris illius aperitur fraus, qua hominem christianum ad vetitum tale auxilium peiliceret. Nomen atcunque illius (nobilis alias ac clari) reticendum duco, cum haud dubium sit quin Diabolus, Deo permittente, formam quam libuerit, immo angeli lucis, sacro oculo Dei teste, posset assumere. » The MS. Chronicle, from which Mr Cradocke took this curious extract, cannot now be found in the chapter library of Durham, or at least, has hitherto escaped the researches of my friendly correspondent. Lindesay is made to allude to this adventure of Ralph Bulmer, as a well-known story, in the 4th Canto, Stanza XXII. p. 86. The northern champions of old were accustomed peculiarly to search for, and delight in, encounters with such military spectres. See a whole chapter on this subject in BARTHOLINUS De Causis contemptæ Morlis a Danis, p. 253. CANTO IV. Note 1. Introduction. The morn may find the stiffen'd swain. I cannot help here mentioning, that, on the night in which these lines were written, suggested, as they were, by a sudden fall of snow, beginning after sun-set, an unfortunate man perished exactly in the manner here described, and his body was next morning found close to his own house. The accident happened within five miles of the farm of Ashestiel. Note 2. Introduction. Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, Baronet, unequalled, perhaps, in the degree of individual affection entertained for him by his friends, as well as in the general respect and esteem of Scotland at large. His « Life of Beattie,» whom he befriended and patronized in life, as well as celebrated after his decease, was not long published, before the benevolent and affectionate biographer was called to follow the subject of his narrative. This melancholy event very shortly succeeded the marriage of the friend, to whom this introduction is addressed, with one of Sir William's daughters. Note 3. Stanza i. Friar Rush. This personage is a strolling demon, or esprit follet, who, once upon a time, got admittance into a monas tery as a scullion, and played the monks many pranks. He was also a sort of Robin Goodfellow, and Jack o' Lantern. It is in allusion to this rischievous demon that Milton's clown speaks,- She was pinch'd and pull'd, she said, «The History of Friar Rush» is of extreme rarity, and for some time, even the existence of such a book was doubted, although it is expressly alluded to by Reginald Scott, in his « Discovery of Witchcraft.» I have perused a copy in the valuable library of my friend Mr Heber; and I observe, from Mr Beloe's « Anecdotes of Literature,» that there is one in the excellent collection of the Marquis of Stafford. Note 4. Stanza vii. Sir David Lindesay of the Mount, bable that the coronation of his predecessor was not less solemn. So sacred was the herald's office, that, in 1515, Lord Drummond was by parliament declared guilty of treason, and his lands forfeited, because he had struck, with his fist, the Lion King-at-Arms, when he reproved him for his follies. Nor was he restored, but at the Lion's earnest solicitation. Note 5. Stanza x. A large ruinous castle on the banks of the Tyne, about seven miles from Edinburgh. As indicated in the dif The late elaborate edition of Sir David Lindesay's Works, by Mr George Chalmers, has probably intro-text, it was built at different times, and with a very duced him to many of my readers. It is perhaps to be ferent regard to splendour and accommodation. The regretted, that the learned editor has not bestowed oldest part of the building is a narrow keep, or tower, more pains in elucidating his author, even although he such as formed the mansion of a lesser Scottish baron; should have omitted, or at least reserved, his disquisi- is now a large court-yard, surrounded by buildings of but so many additions have been made to it, that there tions on the origin of the language used by the poet :' but, with all its faults, his work is an acceptable pre- above a portico, and decorated with entablatures, beardifferent ages. The eastern front of the court is raised sent to Scottish antiquaries. Sir David Lindesay was well known for his early efforts in favour of the reing anchors. All the stones of this front are cut into formed doctrines; and, indeed, his play, coarse as it diamond facets, the angular projections of which have now seems, must have had a powerful effect upon the an uncommonly rich appearance. The inside of this people of his age. I am uncertain if I abuse poetical part of the building appears to have contained a gallicense, by introducing Sir David Lindesay in the chalery of great length, and uncommon elegance. Access racter of Lion-Herald sixteen years before he obtained was given to it by a magnificent staircase, now quite that office. At any rate, I am not the first who has cordage and rosettes; and the whole seems to have been destroyed. The soffits are ornamented with twining been guilty of the anachronism; for the author of far more splendid than was usual in Scottish castles. <«< Flodden Field» dispatches Dallamount, which can The castle belonged originally to the Chancellor, Sir mean nobody but Sir David de la Mont, to France, on the message of defiance from James IV. to Henry VIII. enlargement, as well as its being taken by the Earl of William Crichton, and probably owed to him its first It was often an office imposed on the Lion King-at-arms, Douglas, who imputed to Crichton's counsels the death to receive foreign ambassadors; and Lindesay himself did this honour to Sir Ralph Sadler in 1539-40. Indeed, of his predecessor Earl William, beheaded in Edinburgh the oath of the Lion, in its first article, bears reference Castle, with his brother, in 1440. It is said to have been to his frequent employment upon royal messages and totally demolished on that occasion; but the present state of the ruins shows the contrary. In 1483, it was Garrisoned by Lord Crichton, then its proprietor, against seducing his sister Margaret, in revenge, it is said, for King James III. whose displeasure he had incurred by the monarch having dishonoured his bed. From the Crichton family the castle passed to that of the Hepburns, Earls Bothwell; and when the forfeitures of Stuart, the last Earl Bothwell, were divided, the barony and castle of Crichton fell to the share of the Earl of embassies. The office of heralds, in feudal times, being held of the utmost importance, the inauguration of the Kingsat-arms, who presided over their colleges, was proportionally solemn. In fact it was the mimickry of a royal coronation, except that the unction was made with wine instead of oil. In Scotland, a namesake and kinsman of Sir David Lindesay, inaugurated in 1592, « was crowned by King James with the ancient crown of Seotland, which was used before the Scottish kings assumed a close crown; and on occasion of the same solemnity, dined at the king's table, wearing the crown. It is pro I beg leave to quote a single instance from a very interesting passage. Sir David, recounting his attention to King James V. in his infancy, is made, by the learned editor's punctuation, to say,The first sillabis that thou did mute, Was pa, da, lyn, upon the lute; Then played I twenty springis perqueir, Quhilk was great plesour for to hear. Vol. I, p. 7, 257. Mr Chalmers does not inform us, by note or glossary, what is meant by the king muting pu, da, lyn, upon the lute; but any old woman in Scotland will bear witness, that pa, da, lyn, are the first efforts of a child to say, Where's David Lindesay? and that the subsequent words begin another sentence,→ Buccleuch. They were afterwards the property of the Pringles of Clifton, and are now that of Sir John Callander, Baronet. It were to be wished the proprietor would take a little pains to preserve those splendid remains of antiquity, which are at present used as a fold for sheep, and wintering cattle; although, perhaps, there are very few ruins in Scotland, which display so well the style and beauty of ancient castle-architecture. The castle of Crichton has a dungeon vault, called the Massy-more. The epithet, which is not uncommonly applied to the prisons of other old castles in Scotland, is of Saracenic origin. It occurs twice in the « Epistolæ Itineraries of Tollius: « Carcer subterraneus, sive, ut Mauri appellant, MAZMORRAS,» p. 147; and again, Coguntur omnes captivi sub noctem in ergastula subterranea, quæ Turcæ Algerezani vocant MAZMORRAS,» p. 243. The same word applies to the dungeons of the The record expresses, or rather is said to have expressed, the cause of forfeiture to be. Eo quod Leonem armorum Regem pugno violasset, dum cum de ineptiis suis admonuit.» See NISBET's Heraldry, Part IV, chap. 16; and Leslai Historia, ad Annum 1515. ancient Moorish castles in Spain, and serves to show from what nation the Gothic style of castle-building was originally derived. Note 6. Stanza xii. Earl Adam Hepburn. He was the second Earl of Bothwell, and fell in the field of Flodden, where, according to an ancient English poet, he distinguished himself by a furious attempt to retrieve the day : Then on the Scottish part, right proud, The Earl of Bothwell then out brast, The Englishmen straight down him threw. Adam was grandfather to James, Earl of Bothwell, too Note 7. Stanza xiv. For that a messenger from heaven In vain to James had counsel given Against the English war. them touch thy body, nor thou theirs; for, if thou do it, thou wilt be confounded and brought to shame.' " By this man had spoken thir words unto the king's grace, the evening song was near done, and the king paused on thir words, studying to give him an answer; but, in the mean time, before the king's eyes, and in the presence of all the lords that were about him for the time, this man vanished away, and could no ways be seen or comprehended, but vanished away as he had been a blink of the sun, or a whip of the whirlwind, and could no more be seen. I heard say, Sir David Lindesay, lyon-herauld, and John Inglis the marshal, who were, at that time, young men, and special servants to the king's grace, were standing presently beside the king, who thought to have laid hands on this man, that they might have speired further tidings at him: but all for nought; they could not touch him; for he vanished away betwixt them, and was no more seen.»> Buchanan, in more elegant, though not more impressive language, tells the same story, and quotes the personal information of our Sir David Lindesay : « In iis (i. e. qui propius astiterant) fuit David Lindesius, Montanus, homo spectatæ fidei et probitatis, nec a literarum studiis alienus, et cujus totius vitæ tenor longis This story is told by Pitscottie with characteristic sim-sime a mentiendo aberat; a quo nisi ego hæc, uti plicity: << The king, seeing that France could get no support of him for that time, made a proclamation, full hastily, through all the realm of Scotland, both east and west, south and north, as well in the isles as in the firm land, to all manner of men betwixt sixty and sixteen years, that they should be ready, within twenty days, to pass with him, with forty days' victual, and to meet at the Burrow-muir of Edinburgh, and there to pass forward where he pleased. His proclamations were hastily obeyed, contrary to the Council of Scotland's will; but every man loved his prince so well, that they would on no ways disobey him; but every man caused make his proclamation so hastily, conform to the charge of the king's proclamation. tradidi, pro certis accepissem, ut vulgatam vanis rumoribus fabulam omissurus eram.» Lib. XIII.— The king's throne in St Catherine's aisle, which he had constructed for himself, with twelve stalls for the Knights Companions of the Order of the Thistle, is still shown as the place where the apparition was seen. I know not by what means St Andrew got the credit of having been the celebrated monitor of James IV. for the expression in Lindesay's narrative, « My mother has sent me,»> could only be used by St John, the adopted son of the Virgin Mary. The whole story is so well attested, that we have only the choice between a miracle or an imposture. Mr Pinkerton plausibly argues, from the caution against incontinence, that the queen was privy to the scheme of those who had recourse to this expedient, to deter King James from his impolitic warfare. Note 8. Stanza xv. The wild-buck bells. « The king came to Lithgow, where he happened to be for the time at the Council, very sad and dolorous, making his devotion to God, to send him good chance and fortune in his voyage. In this mean time, there came a man, clad in a blue gown, in at the kirk-door, and belted about him in a roll of linen cloth: a pair of I am glad of an opportunity to describe the cry of brotikings' on his feet, to the great of his legs; with all the deer by another word than braying, although the other hose and clothes conform thereto; but he had latter has been sanctified by the use of the Scottish nothing on his head, but syde red yellow hair behind, metrical translation of the Psalms. Bell seems to be and on his haffets,3 which wan down to his shoulders; an abbreviation of bellow. This sylvan sound conveyed but his forehead was bald and bare. He seemed to be great delight to our ancestors, chiefly, I suppose, from a man of two-and-fifty years, with a great pike-staff in association. A gentle knight in the reign of Henry VIII., his hand, and came first forward among the lords, cry-Sir Thomas Wortley, built Wantley Lodge, in Wancliffe ing and speiring 4 for the king, saying, he desired to speak with him. While, at the last, he came where the king was sitting in the desk at his prayers; but when he saw the king, he made him little reverence or salutation, but leaned down groffling on the desk before him, and said to him in this manner, as after follows: 'Sir king, my mother has sent me to you desiring you not to pass, at this time, where thou art purposed; for if thou does, thou will not fare well in thy journey, nor none that passeth with thee. Further, she bade thee mells with no woman, nor use their counsel, nor let Forest, for the pleasure (as an ancient inscription testifies) of « listening to the hart's bell.» Note 9. Stanza xv. June saw his father's overthrow. The rebellion against James III. was signalized by the cruel circumstance of his son's presence in the hostile army. When the king saw his own banner displayed against him, and his son in the faction of his enemics, he lost the little courage he had ever possessed, fled out of the field, fell from his horse as it started at a woman and water-pitcher, and was slain, it is not well understood by whom. James IV. after the battle, passed to Stirling, and hearing the monks of the chapel-royal de ploring the death of his father, their founder, he was seized with deep remorse, which manifested itself in severe penances. See Note 10, on Canto V. The battle of Sauchie-burn, in which James III. fell, was fought 18th June, 1488. Note 10. Stanza xxv. Spread all the Borough-moor below, etc. The Borough, or Common Moor of Edinburgh, was of very great extent, reaching from the southern walls of the city to the bottom of Braid Hills. It was anciently a forest; and, in that state, was so great a nuisance, that the inhabitants of Edinburgh had permission granted to them of building wooden galleries, projecting over the street, in order to encourage them to consume the timber; which they seem to have done very effectually. When James IV. mustered the array of the kingdom there, in 1513, the Borough-moor was, according to Hawthornden, « a field spacious, and delightful by the shade of many stately and aged oaks.» Upon that, and similar occasions, the royal standard is traditionally said to have been displayed from the Hare Stane, a high stone, now built into the wall, on the left hand of the highway leading towards Braid, not far from the head of Burntsfield-links. The Hare Stone probably derives its name from the British word signifying an army. Note 11. Stanza xxviii. O'er the pavilions flew. ar, I do not exactly know the Scottish mode of encampment in 1513, but Patten gives a curious description of that which he saw after the battle of Pinkie, in 1547 :<< Here now to say somewhat of the manner of their camp: As they had no pavilions, or round houses, of any commendable compas, so wear there few other tentes with posts, as the used manner of making is; and of these few also, none of above twenty foot length, but most far under: for the most part all very sumptuously beset (after their fashion), for the love of France, with fleur-de-lys, some of blue buckram, some of black and some of some other colours. These white ridges, as I call them, that, as we stood on Fauxsyde Bray, did make so great muster towards which I did us, take then to be a number of tentes, when we came, we found it a linen drapery, of the coarser cambryk in dede, for it was all of canvas sheets, and wear the tenticles, or rather cabyns, and couches of their soldiers; the which (much after the common building of their country beside) had they framed of four sticks, about an ell long a piece, whearof two fastened together at one end aloft, and the two endes beneath stuck in the ground, an el asunder, standing in fashion like the bowes of a sowes yoke; over two such bowes (one, as it were, at their head, the other at their feet), they stretched a sheet down on both sides, whereby their cabin became roofed like a ridge, but skant shut at both ends, and not very close beneath on the sides, unless their sticks were the shorter, or their wives the more liberal to lend them larger napery; howbeit, when they had lined them, and stuff'd them so thick with straw, with the weather as it was not very cold, when they wear ones couched, they were as warm as they had been wrapt in horses' dung.»-PATTEN'S Account of Somerset's Expedition. Note 12. Stanza xxviii. -in proud Scotland's royal shield, The ruddy lion ramp'd in gold. The well-known arms of Scotland. If you will believe Boethius and Buchanan, the double tressure round the shield, mentioned p. 83, counter fleur-de-lised or, lingued and armed azure, was first assumed by Achaius, King of Scotland, contemporary of Charlemagne, and founder of the celebrated League with France; but later antiquaries make poor Eochy, or Achy, little better than a sort of King of Brentford, whom old Grig (who has also swelled into Gregorius Magnus) associated with himself in the important duty of governing some part of the north-eastern coast of Scotland. CANTO V. Note 1. Introduction. Caledonia's Queen is changed. The old town of Edinburgh was secured on the north side by a lake, now drained, and on the south by a wall, which there was some attempt to make defensible even so late as 1745. The gates, and the greater part of the wall, have been pulled down, in the course of the late extensive and beautiful enlargement of the city. My ingenious and valued friend, Mr Thomas Campbell, proposed to celebrate Edinburgh under the epithet here borrowed. But the « Queen of the North » has not been so fortunate as to receive from so eminent a pen the proposed distinction. Note 2. Introduction. Flinging thy white arms to the sea. Since writing this line, I find I have inadvertently borrowed it almost verbatim, though with somewhat a different meaning, from a chorus in « Caractacus:>> Britain heard the descant bold, She flung her white arms o'er the sea, The freight of barmony. Note 3. Introduction. Since first, when conquering York arose, Henry VI. with his queen, his heir, and the chiefs of his family, fled to Scotland after the fatal battle of Towton. In this note a doubt was formerly expressed, whether Henry VI. came to Edinburgh, though his queen certainly did; Mr Pinkerton inclining to believe that he remained at Kirkcudbright. But my noble friend, Lord Napier, has pointed out to me a grant by Henry, of an annuity of forty merks to his lordship's ancestor, John Napier, subscribed by the king himself at Edinburgh, the 28th day of August, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, which corresponds to the year of God 1461. This grant, Douglas, with his usual neglect of accuracy, dates in 1368. But this error being corrected from the copy in Macfarlane's MSS. p. 119, 120, removes all scepticism on the subject of Henry VI. being really at Edinburgh. John Napier was son and heir of Sir Alexander Napier, and about this time was Provost of Edinburgh. The hospitable reception of the distressed monarch and his family called forth on Scotland the encomium of Molinet, a contemporary poet. The Eng-knife, spear, or a good axe instead of a bow, if worth Note 4. Introduction. - the romantic strain, Whose Anglo-Norman tones whilere Mr Ellis, in his valuable introduction to the « Specimens of Romance,» has proved, by the concurring testimony of La Ravaillère, Tressan, but especially the Abbé de la Rue, that the courts of our Anglo-Norman kings, rather than those of the French monarchs, produced the birth of Romance literature. Marie, soon after mentioned, compiled from Armorican originals, and translated into Norman-French, or romance language, the twelve curious Lays, of which Mr Ellis has given us a précis in the Appendix to his Introduction. The story of Blondel, the famous and faithful minstrel of Richard I., needs no commentary. Note 5. Stanza i. The cloth-yard arrows flew like hail. This is no poetical exaggeration. In some of the counties of England, distinguished for archery, shafts of this extraordinary length were actually used. Thus, at the battle of Blackheath, between the troops of Henry VII. and the Cornish insurgents, in 1496, the bridge of Dartford was defended by a picked band of archers from the rebel army, «whose arrows,» says Hollinshed, << were in length a full cloth-yard.» The Scottish, according to Ascham, had a proverb, that every English archer carried under his belt twenty-four Scots, in allusion to his bundle of unerring shafts. Note 6. Stanza ii. To pass, to wheel, the croupe to gain, << The most useful air, as the Frenchmen term it, is territerr; the courbettes, cabrioles, or un pas et un sault, being fitter for horses of parade and triumph than for soldiers: yet I cannot deny but a demivolte with courbettes, so that they be not too high, may be useful in a fight or meslee, for, as Labroue hath it, in his Book of Horsemanship, Monsieur de Montmorency having a horse that was excellent in performing the demivolte, did, with his sword, strike down two adversaries from their horses in a tourney, where divers of the prime gallants of France did meet; for, taking his time, when the horse was in the height of his courbette, and discharging a blow then, his sword fell with such weight and force upon the two cavaliers, one after another, that he struck them from their horses to the ground.Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Life, p. 48. Note 7. Stanza ii. Ile saw the hardy burghers there The Scottish burgesses were, like yeomen, appointed to be armed with bows and sheaves, sword, buckler, 100l. their armour to be of white or bright harness. They wore white hats, i. e. bright steel caps without crest or visor. By an act of James IV. their weaponshawings are appointed to be held four times a-year, under the aldermen or bailiffs. Note 8. Stanza iii. On foot the yeoman too. Bows and quivers were in vain recommended to the peasantry of Scotland, by repeated statutes: spears and axes seem universally to have been used instead of them. Their defensive armour was the plate-jack, hauberk, or brigantine: and their missile weapons cross-bows and culverins. All wore swords of excellent temper, according to Patten, and a voluminous handkerchief round their neck, « not for cold, but for cutting.» The mace also was much used in the Scottish army. The old poem, on the battle of Flodden, men In all transactions, of great or petty importance, and among whomsoever taking place, it would seem, that a present of wine was an uniform and indispensable preliminary. It was not to Sir John Falstaff alone that such an introductory preface was necessary, however well judged and acceptable on the part of Mr Brook; for Sir Ralph Sadler, while on embassy to Scotland, in 1539-40, mentions with complacency, « the same night came Rothesay (the herald so called) to me again, and brought me wine from the king, both white and red.» Clifford's Edition, p. 39. Note 10. Stanza ix. his iron belt, That bound his breast in penance pain, Few readers need to be reminded of this belt, to the His weight of which James added certain ounces every year that he lived. Pitscottie founds his belief, that James was not slain in the battle of Flodden, because the English never had this token of the iron-belt to show to any Scotsman. The person and character of James are delineated according to our best historians. romantic disposition, which led him highly to relish gaiety, approaching to license, was, at the same time, tinged with enthusiastic devotion. These propensitics sometimes formed a strange contrast. He was wont, during his fits of devotion, to assume the dress, and conform to the rules, of the order of Franciscans ; and when he had thus done penance for some time in Stirling, to plunge again into the tide of pleasure. Probably, too, with no unusual inconsistency, he sometimes laughed at the superstitious observances to which he at other times subjected himself. There is a very |