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sary part of a Highlander's equipment. In charging
regular troops, they received the thrust of the bayonet
in this buckler, twisted it aside, and used the broad-
sword against the encumbered soldier. In the civil
war of 1745, most of the front-rank of the clans were
thus armed; and Captain Grose informs us, that, in
1747, the privates of the 42d regiment, then in Flan-
ders, were for the most part permitted to carry targets.
Military Antiquities, vol. I, p. 164.
A person thus
armed had a considerable advantage in private fray.
Among verses between Swift and Sheridan, lately pub-
lished by Dr Barrett, there is an account of such an en-
counter, in which the circumstances, and consequently
the relative superiority of the combatants, are precisely
the reverse of those in the text:

A Highlander once fought a Frenchman at Margate,
The weapons, a rapier, a back-sword, and target;
Brisk Monsieur advanced as fast as he could,
But all his fine pushes were caught in the wood,
And Sawny, with back-sword, did slash him and nick him,
While t' other, enraged that he could not once prick him,
Cried, Sirrah, you rascal, you son of a whore,

swered he,« to forget thy dagger at home. We are here | leather, and studded with brass or iron, was a necesto fight, and not to settle punctilios of arms.»> In a smilar duel, however, a younger brother of the house of Aubanye, in Angoulesme, behaved more generously on the like occasion, and at once threw away his dagger, when his enemy challenged it as an undue advantage. But at this time hardly any thing can be conceived more horridly brutal and savage, than the mode in which private quarrels were conducted in France. Those who were most jealous of the point of honour, and acquired the title of Ruffinés, did not scruple to take every advantage of strength, numbers, surprise, and arms, to accomplish their revenge. The Sieur de Braatome, to whose discourse on duels I am obliged for these particulars, gives the following account of the death and principles of his friend, the Baron de Vitaux: Jay oui conter à un tireur d'armes, qui apprit à Millaud à en tirer, lequel s'appelloit Seigneur le Jacques Ferron, de la ville d'Ast, qui avoit esté à moy, il fut depuis tué à Sainct-Basille en Gascogne, lors que Monsieur da Mayne l'assiégea, lui servant d'ingénieur; et de malheur, je l'avois adressé audit Baron quelques trois mois auparavant, pour l'exercer à tirer, bien qu'il en sçeust prou; mais il n'en fit conte: et le laissant, Millaud s'en servit, et le rendit fort adroit. Ce Seigneur Jacques done me raconta, qu'il s'estoit monté sur un noyer, assez loing, pour en voir le combat, et qu'il ne vist jamais homme y aller plus bravement, ny plus résolument, By de grace plus assurée ny déterminée. Il commença I de marcher de cinquante pas vers son ennemy, relevant souvent ses moustaches en haut d'une main; et estant à Vingt pas de son ennemy, (non plustost) il mit la main a l'espée qu'il tenoit en la main, non qu'il l'eust tiré en-soned by them, is said to have been the first who brought core; mais en marchant, il fit voller le fourreau en l'air, I en le secouant, ce qui est le beau de cela, et qui monstroit bien une grace de combat bien assieurée et froide, et nullement téméraire, comme il y en a qui tirent leurs espées de cinq cents pas de l'ennemy, voire de mille, comme j'en ay veu aucuns. Ainsi mourut ce brave Baron, le paragon de France, qu'on nommoit tel, à bien venger ses quereles, par grandes et déterminées résolutions. Il n'estoit pas seulement estimé en France, mais en Italie, Espaigne, Allemaigne, en Boulogne et Angle-sword and buckler are disused.» In The Two Angry

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terre;

Me will fight you, be gar! if you 'll come from your door..

Note 7. Stanza xv.

For, train'd abroad his arms to wield,
Fitz-James's blade was sword and shield.

The use of defensive armour, and particularly of the buckler or target, was general in Queen Elizabeth's time, although that of the single rapier seems to have been occasionally practised much earlier. Rowland Yorke, however, who betrayed the fort of Zutphen to the Spaniards, for which good service he was afterwards poi

the rapier-fight into general use. Fuller, speaking of the Swashbucklers, or bullies of Queen Elizabeth's time, says, « West Smithfield was fornlerly called Ruffians Hall, where such men usually met, casually or otherwise, to try masteries with sword and buckler. More were frightened than hurt, more hurt than killed therewith, it being accounted unmanly to strike beneath the knee. But since that desperate traitor Rowland Yorke first introduced thrusting with rapiers,

et desiroient fort les estrangers, venant en France, Women of Abingdon, a comedy, printed in 1599, we le voir; car je l'ay veu, tant sa renommé volloit. I have a pathetic complaint:-« Sword and buckler fight estait fort petit de corps, mais fort grand de courage.begins to grow out of use. Ses ennemies disoient qu'il ne tuoit pas bien ses gens, que par advantages et supercheries. Certes, je tiens des grands capitaines, et mesmes d'Italiens, qui sont estez d'autres fois les premiers vengeurs du monde, in ogni indo, disoient-ils, qui ont tenu cette maxime, qu'une supercherie ne se devoit payer que par semblable monDoye, et n'y alloit point là de deshonneur.»-OEuvres de Brantome. Paris, 1787-8. Tome VIII, p. 90-92. It may be necessary to inform the reader, that this paraon of France was the most foul assassin of his time, and had committed many desperate murders, chiefly by the assistance of his hired banditti; from which it may be conceived how little the point of honour of the period deserved its name. I have chosen to give the heroes, who are indeed of an earlier period, a stronger uncture of the spirit of chivalry.

I am sorry for it; I shall never see good manhood again. If it be once gone, this poking fight of rapier and dagger will come up; then a tall man, and a good sword and buckler man,

Note 6. Stanza xv.

Ill fared it then with Roderick Dhu,
That on the field his targe he threw.

A round target of light wood, covered with strong

will be spitted like a cat or rabbit.»> But the rapier had upon the Continent long superseded, in private duel, the use of sword and shield. The masters of the noble science of defence were chiefly Italians. They made great mystery of their art and mode of instruction, never suffered any person to be present but the scholar who was to be taught, and even examined closets, beds, and other places of possible concealment. Their lessons often gave the most treacherous advantages; for the challenger, having the right to chuse his weapons, frequently selected some strange, unusual

and inconvenient kind of arms, the use of which he practised under these instructors, and thus killed at his ease his antagonist, to whom it was presented for the first time on the field of battle. See BRANTOME'S

See Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. II, p. 61.

Discourse on Duels, and the work on the same subject, | its having been the scene of a courtly amusement al« si gentement écrit,» by the venerable Dr Paris de Puteo. The Highlanders continued to use broadsword and target until disarmed after the affair of 1745-6.

Note 8. Stanza xvi.

Like mountain-cat who guards her young,
Full at Fitz-James's throat he sprung.

Juded to by Sir David Lindsay, who says of the pasttimes in which the young king was engaged,

Some harl'd him to the Hurly-hacket;

which consisted in sliding, in some sort of chair it may be supposed, from top to bottom of a smooth bank. The boys of Edinburgh, about twenty years ago, used

I have not ventured to render this duel so savagely to play at the hurly-hacket on the Calton-hill, using

for their seat a horse's skull.

Note 10. Stanza xx.

The burghers hold their sports to-day,

desperate as that of the celebrated Sir Ewan of Lochiel, chief of the clan Cameron, called, from his sable complexion, Ewan Dhu. He was the last man in Scotland who maintained the royal cause during the great civil war, and his constant incursions rendered him a very Every burgh of Scotland, of the least note, but more unpleasant neighbour to the republican garrison at Inespecially the considerable towns, had their solemn verlochy, now Fort William. The governor of the fort detached a party of three hundred men to lay waste play, or festival, when feats of archery were exhibited, and prizes distributed to those who excelled in wrestling, Lochiel's possessions, and cut down his trees; but, in a sudden and desperate attack, made upon them by the hurling the bar, and the other gymnastic exercises of the period. Stirling, a usual place of royal residence, chieftain, with very inferior numbers, they were alwas not likely to be deficient in pomp upon such occa most all cut to pieces. The skirmish is detailed in a sions, especially since James V. was very partial to them, curious memoir of Sir Ewan's life, printed in the Ap-lis ready participation in these popular amusements pendix of Pennant's Scottish Tour.

<«< In this engagement, Lochiel himself had several wonderful escapes. In the retreat of the English, one of the strongest and bravest of the officers retired behind a bush, when he observed Lochiel pursuing, and seeing him unaccompanied with any, he leaped out, and thought him his prey. They met one another with equal fury. The combat was long and doubtful: the English gentleman had by far the advantage in strength and size; but Lochiel exceeding him in nimbleness and agility, in the end tript the sword out of his hand: they closed, and wrestled, till both fell to the ground, in each other's arms. The English officer got above Lochiel, and presed him hard, but stretching forth his neck, by attempting to disengage himself, Lochiel, who by this time had his hands at liberty, with his left hand seized him by the collar, and jumping at his extended throat, he bit it with his teeth quite through, and kept such a hold of his grasp, that he brought away his mouthful: this, he said, was the sweetest bit he ever had in his lifetime.»-Vol. I, p. 375.

Note 9. Stanza xx.

-Ye towers! within whose circuit dread
A Douglas by his sovereign bled,

And thou, O sad and fatal mound!
That oft hast heard the death-axe sound.

was one cause of his acquiring the title of King of the Commons, or Rex Plebeiorum, as Lesley has latinized it. The usual prize to the best shooter was a silver arIOW. Such a one is preserved at Selkirk and at Peebles. At Dumfries, a silver gun was substituted, and the con tention transferred to fire-arms. The ceremony, as there performed, is the subject of an excellent Scottish poem, by Mr John Mayne, entitled the Siller Gun, 1808, which surpasses the efforts of Fergusson, and comes

near those of Burns.

Of James's attachment to archery, Pitscottie, the faithful, though rude recorder of the manners of that period, has given us evidence:

of

<«<In this year there came an ambassador out of England, named Lord William Howard, with a bishop with him, with many other gentlemen, to the number of threescore horse, which were all the able men and waled (picked) men for all kind of games and pastimes, shooting, louping, running, wrestling, and casting the stone, but they were well 'sayed (essayed or tried ere they past out of Scotland, and that by their own provocation; but ever they tint; till at last, the Queen of Scotland, the king's mother, favoured the English-¦ men, because she was the King of England's sister: and therefore she took an enterprise of archery upon the English-men's hands, contrary her son the king, and

Stirling was often polluted with noble blood. It is any six in Scotland that he would wale, either gentle thus apostrophized by J. Johuston:

-Discordia tristis

Heu quoties procerum sanguine tinxit humum!
Hoc uno infelix, et felix cætera, nusquam
Lætior aut cæli frons geniusve soli.

his two sons,

The fate of William, eighth Earl of Douglas, whom James II. stabbed in Stirling Castle with his own hand, and while under his royal safe-conduct, is familiar to all who read Scottish history. Murdack Duke of Albany, Duncan Earl of Lennox, his father-in-law, and Walter and Alexander Stuart, were executed at Stirling, in 1425. They were beheaded upon an eminence without the castle walls, but making part of the same bill, from whence they could behold their strong castle of Doune, and their extensive possessions. This heading hill,» as it was sometimes termed, bears commonly the less terrible name of Hurly-hacket, from

men or yeomen, that the English-men should shoot against them, either at pricks, revers, or buts, as the Scots pleased.

<«< The king hearing this of his mother, was content, and gart her pawn a hundred crowns, and a ton of wine, upon the English-men's hands; and he incontinent laid down as much for the Scottish-men. The field and ground was chosen in St Andrews, and three landed men and three yeomen chosen to shoot against the English-men, to wit, David Wemyss of that ilk David Arnot of that ilk, and Mr John Wedderburn, vicar of Dundee; the yeomen, John Thomson, in Leith, Steven Taburner, with a piper, called Alexander Bailie they shot very near, and warred (worsted) the English men of the enterprise, and wan the hundred crows and the tun of wine, which made the king very merry that his men wan the victory.»-P. 147.

Note 11. Stanza xxii.

Robin Hood.

proud, and that they had too high a conceit of themselves, joined with a contempt and despising of all The exhibition of this renowned outlaw and his band others. Wherefore, being wearied of that life, and was a favourite frolic at such festivals as we are de-remembering the king's favour of old towards him, he scribing. This sporting, in which kings did not disdain determined to try the king's mercifulness and clemency. to be actors, was prohibited in Scotland upon the Re- So he comes into Scotland, and, taking occasion of the formation, by a statute of the 6th Parliament of Queen king's hunting in the park at Stirling, he casts himself Mary, c. 61. A. D. 1555, which ordered, under heavy to be in his way, as he was coming home to the castle. penalties, that « na manner of person be chosen Robert So soon as the king saw him afar off, ere he came flade, nor Little John, Abbot of Unreason, Queen of near, he guessed it was he, and said to one of his May, nor otherwise. » But 1561, the rascal multi-courtiers, yonder is my Gray-Steill, Archibald of Kilstude a says John Knox, << were stirred up to make a pindie, if he be alive. The other answered, that it Robin Hude, whilk enormity was of mony years left could not be he, and that he durst not come into the and damned by statute and act of Parliament; yet king's presence. The king approaching, he fell upon uld they not be forbidden.» Accordingly they raised his knees and craved pardon, and promised from avery serious tumult, and at length made prisoners thenceforward to abstain from meddling in public afthe magistrates who endeavoured to suppress it, and fairs, and to lead a quiet and private life. The king would not release them till they extorted a formal went by, without giving him any answer, and trotted a promise that no one should be punished for his share good round pace up the hill. Kilspindie followed, and, of the disturbance. It would seem, from the com- though he wore on him a secret, or shirt of mail, for plaints of the General Assembly of the Kirk, that these his particular enemies, was as soon at the castle-gate as profane festivities were continued down to 1592. Bold the king. There he sat him down upon a stone withRobin was, to say the least, equally successful in main- out, and entreated some of the king's servants for a ning his ground against the reformed clergy of Eng- cup of drink, being weary and thirsty; but they, fearland: for the simple and evangelical Latimer coming the king's displeasure, durst give him none. plains of coming to a country church, where the people the king was set at his dinner, he asked what he had refused to hear him, because it was Robin Hood's day; done, what he had said, and whither he had gone? and his mitre and rochet were fain to give way to the I was told him that he had desired a cup of village pastime. Much curious information on this drink, and had gotten none. The king reproved them subject may be found in the Preliminary Dissertation very sharply for their discourtesy, and told them, that to the late Mr Ritson's edition of the songs respecting if he had not taken an oath that no Douglas should this memorable outlaw. The game of Robin Hood ever serve him, he would have received him into his was usually acted in May; and he was associated with service, for he had seen him some time a man of great the morrice-dancers, on whom so much illustration ability. Then he sent him word to go to Leith, and has been bestowed by the commentators on Shakspeare. expect his further pleasure. Then some kinsman of A very lively picture of these festivities, containing a David Falconer, the canonier that was slain at Tantallon, great deal of curious information on the subject of the began to quarrel with Archibald about the matter, private life and amusements of our ancestors, was wherewith the king shewed himself not well pleased thrown by the late ingenious Mr Strutt, into his rowhen he heard of it. Then he commanded him to go mance entitled Queen-Hoo-Hall published, after to France for a certain space, till he heard further death, in 1808. from him. And so he did, and died shortly after. This gave occasion to the king of England (Henry VIII.), to blame his nephew, alleging the old saying, That a king's face should give grace. For this Archibald (whatsoever were Angus's or Sir George's fault) had not been principal actor of any thing, nor no counsellor nor but only a follower of his friends, and that

13.

Note 12. Stanza xxii.

Indifferent as to archer wight,

The monarch gave the arrow bright.

his

The Douglas of the poem is an imaginary person, a apposed uncle of the Earl of Angus. But the king's behaviour during an unexpected interview with the Lard of Kilspindie, one of the banished Douglasses,

under circumstances similar to those in the text, is imitated from a real story told by Hume of Godscroft. I would have availed myself more fully of the simple and affecting circumstances of the old history, had they not been already woven into a pathetic ballad by my friend Mr Finlay.

His (the king's) implacability (towards the family of Douglas) did also appear in his carriage towards Archibald of Kilspindie, whom he, when he was child, joved singularly well for his ability of body, and was Wont to call him his Gray-Steill. 3 Archibald being banished into England, could not well comport with the humour of that nation, which he thought to be too

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stirrer up,

When

noways cruelly disposed.»>-HUME of Godscroft, II, 107.

Note 13. Stanza xxiii.

Prize of the wrestling match, the king

To Douglas gave a golden ring.

The usual prize of a wrestling was a ram and a ring, but the animal would have embarrassed my story. Thus in the Cokes Tale of Gamelyn, ascribed to Chaucer:

There happed to be there beside
Tryed a wrestling;

And therefore there was y-setten
A ram and als a ring.

Again the Litil Geste of Robin Hood:

By a bridge was a wrestling,
And there taryed was be,
And there was all the best yemen
Of all the west country.

A full fayre game there was set up,
A white Lull up y-pight,

A great courser with saddle and brydle,
With gold burnished full bryght;
A payre of gloves, a red golde ring,
A pipe of wyne, good fay;
What man bereth him best I wis,
The prise shall bear away.

RITSON's Robin Hood, vol. I.

CANTO V.

Note 1. Stanza iii.

These drew not for their fields the sword,
Like tenants of a feudal lord,
Nor own'd the patriarchal claim

Of chieftain in their leader's name;
Adventurers they.-

The Scottish armies consisted chiefly of the nobility and barons, with their vassals, who held lands under them, for military service by themselves and their tenants. The patriarchal influence exercised by the heads of clans in the Highlands and Borders was of a different nature, and sometimes at variance with feudal principles. It flowed from the Patria Potestas exercised by the chieftain, as representing the original father of the whole name, and was often obeyed in contradiction to the feudal superior. James V. seems first to have introduced, in addition to the militia furnished from these sources, the service of a small number of mercenaries, who formed a body-guard, called the Foot-Band. The satirical poet, Sir David Lindsay (or the person who wrote the prologue to his play of the Three Estaites»), has introduced Finlay of the Foot-Band, who, after much swaggering .upon the stage, is at length put to flight by the fool, who terrifies him by means of a sheep's skull upon a pole. I have rather chosen to give them the harsh features of the mercenary soldiers of the period, than of this Scottish Thraso. These partook of the character of the Adventurous Companions of Froissart, or the Condottieri of Italy.

One of the best and liveliest traits of such manners is the last will of a leader, called Geoffroy Tete Noir, who having been slightly wounded in a skirmish, his intemperance brought on a mortal disease. When he found himself dying, he summoned to his bed-side the adventurers whom he commanded, and thus addressed

them:

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-I wyll give them accordynge to my conscyence. Wyll ye all be content to fulfil my testament; howe say ye?-Sir, quod they, we be ryghte well contente to fulfyl your commaundement. Thane first, quod he, I Iwyll and give to the chapell of Saynt George, here in this castell, for the reparacions thereof, a thousande and five hundrede frankes: and I give to my lover, who hath truly served me, two thousand and five hundrede frankes: and also I give to Aleyne Roux, your new cap'tayne, four thousande frankes: also to the varlettes of my chambre I gyve fyve hundrede frankes. To mine offycers I give a thousande and five hundrede frankes. The rest I gyve and bequeth as I shall show Ye be upon a thyrtie companyons all of one sorte: ye ought to be brethrene, and all of one alyaunce, without debate, ryotte, ye shall fynde in yonder cheste. I wylle that ye departe or stryffe among you. All this that I have showed you all the residue equally and truelly bitwene you thyrtie. And if ye be nat thus contente, but that the devylle wyll set debate bitwene you, than beholde yonder is a strong axe, breke up the coffer, and gette it who can

you.

To these words every one ansuered and said, Sir, and dere maister, we are and shall be all of one accorde. Sir, we have so much loved and doated you, that we will breke no coffer, nor breke no poynt of that ye have ordayned and commanded.»>-Lord BERNERS

Froissart.

Note 2. Stanza vi.

Thou now hast glee-maiden and harp!
Get thee an ape, and trudge the land,

The leader of a juggler band.

The jongleurs, or jugglers, as we learn from the elaborate work of the late Mr Strutt, on the sports and pastimes of the people of England, used to call in the aid of various assistants, to render these performances as captivating as possible. The glee-maiden was a necessary attendant. Her duty was tumbling and dancing; and therefore the Anglo-Saxon version of Saint Mark's Gospel states Herodias to have vaulted or tambled before King Herod. In Scotland, these poor creatures seem, even at a late period, to have been bondswomen to their masters, as appears from a case reported by Fountainhall. « Reid the mountebank pursues Scot of Harden and his lady, for stealing a away from him a little girl, called the tumbling-lassie, that danced upon his stage; and he claimed damages, and produced a contract, whereby he bought her from her mother for 3ol. Scots. But we have no slaves in Scotland, and mothers cannot sell their bairnes; and physicians

Fayre sirs, quod Geffray, I knowe well ye have alwayes served and honoured me as men ought to serve their soveraygne and capitayne, and I shal be the glad-attested, the employment of tumbling would kill her, der if ye will agre to have to your capitayne one that is and her joints were now grown stiff, and she declined descended of my blode. Behold here Aleyne Roux, my to return; though she was at least a 'prentice, and so cosyn, and Peter his brother, who are men of armes could not run away from her master: yet some cited and of my blode. I require you to make Aleyne your Moses's law, that if a servant shelter himself with thee, capitayne, and to swere to him faythe, obeysaunce, against his master's cruelty, thou shalt surely not delove, and loyalte, here in my presence, and also to his liver him up. The lords, renitente cancellario, assoilbrother: howe be it, I will that Aleyne have the sove-zied Harden, on the 27th of January (1687).»—Fotsrayne charge. Sir, quod they, we are well content, for ye hauve right well chosen. There all the companyons made theym servyant to Aleyne Roux and to Peter his brother. When all that was done, then Geffraye spake agayne, and sayd: Nowe, sirs, ye have obeyed to my pleasure, I canne you great thanke; wherefore, sirs, I wyll ye have parte of that ye have holpen to conquere. say unto you, that in yonder chest that ye se stande yonder, therein is to the sum of xxx thousande frankes,

TAINHALL'S Decisions, vol. I, p. 439.1

'Though less to my purpose, I cannot help noticing a circumstance, respecting another of this Mr Reid's attendants, which co curred during James II.'s zeal for catholic proselytism, and is told -January 17th, 1687. by Fountainhall with dry Scottish irony. Reid the mountebank is received into the popish church, and one of his blackamores was persuaded to accept of baptism from the popish priests, and to turn christian papist; which was a great trophy: he was called James, after the king and chancellor, and the apostle James.-Ibid. p. 440.

The facetious qualities of the ape soon rendered him an acceptable addition to the strolling band of the jongleur. Ben Jonson, in his splenetic introduction to the comedy of a Bartholomew Fair,» is at pains to inform the audience that he has ne'er a sword and buckler man in his Fair, nor a juggler, with a welleducated ape, to come over the chaine for the King of England, and back again for the prince, and sit still on his haunches for the pope and the King of Spaine.»

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Note 3. Stanza xiv.

That stirring air that peals on high,

O'er Dermid's race our victory.—

Strike it!

There are several instances, at least in tradition, of persons so much attached to particular tunes, as to require to hear them on their death-bed. Such an

A

«In this roughly-wooded island, the country people secreted their wives and children, and their most valuable effects, from the rapacity of Cromwell's soldiers, during their inroad into this country, in the time of the republic. These invaders, not venturing to ascend by the ladders, along the side of the lake, took a more circuitous road, through the heart of the Trosachs, the most frequented path at that time, which penetrates the wilderness about half-way between Binean and the lake, by a tract called Yea-chilleach, or the Old Wife's Bog.

« In one of the defiles of this by-road, the men of the country at that time hung upon the rear of the invading enemy, and shot one of Cromwell's men, whose grave marks the scene of action, and gives name to that 2 pass. In revenge of this insult the soldiers

anecdote is mentioned by the late Mr Riddel of Glen-resolved to plunder the island, to violate the women, ddel, in his collection of Border tunes, respecting an and put the children to death. With this brutal inair called the «Dandling of the Bairns,» for which a tention, one of the party, more expert than the rest, rertain Gallovidian laird is said to have evinced this swam towards the island, to fetch the boat to his strong mark of partiality. It is popularly told of a comrades, which had carried the women to their asyfamous freebooter, that he composed the tune known lum, and lay moored in one of the creeks. His comby the name of Macpherson's Rant while under sen- panions stood on the shore of the main-land, in full tence of death, and played it at the gallows-tree. Some view of all that was to pass, waiting anxiously for his spirited words have been adapted to it by Burns. return with the boat. But just as the swimmer had similar story is recounted of a Welch bard, who comgot to the nearest point of the island, and was laying posed and played on his death-bed the air called Dafyddy hold of a black rock, to get on shore, a heroine, who Garregg Wen. stood on the very point where he meant to land, hastily snatching a dagger from below her apron, with one stroke severed his head from the body. His party seeing this disaster, and relinquishing all future hope of revenge or conquest, made the best of their way out of their perilous situation This amazon's great-grandson lives at Bridge of Turk, who, besides others, attests the anecdote. »>-Sketch of the Scenery near Callender. Stirling, 1806, p. 20. I have only to add to this account that the heroine's name was Helen Stuart.

'alosi que

But the most curious example is given by Brantome, of a maid of honour at the court of France, entitled, Mademoiselle de Limucil. « Durant sa maladie, dont elle trespassa, jamais elle ne cessa, ains causa tousjours; car elle estoit 'forte grande parleuse, brocardeuse, et tres-bien et fort à propos, et très-belle avec cela. Quand Theure de sa fin fut venue, elle fit venir à soy son valet, les filles de la cour en ont chacune un), qui sappeloit Julien, et scavoit très-bien jouer du violon. Julien, luy dit elle, prenez vostre violon, et sonnez moy tousjours jusques à ce que me voyez morte (car je my en vais) la défaite des Suisses, et le mieux que vous pourrez, et quand vous serez sur le mot, 'Tout est perde, sonnez le par quatre ou cing fois, le plus piteusement que vous pourrez,' ce qui fit l'autre, et elle-mesme buy aidoit de la voix, et quand ce vint ‘tout est perdu,' elle le reitera par deux fois; et se tournant de l'autre costé du chevet, elle dit à ses compagnes: "Tout est perdu à ce coup, et à bon escient;' et ainsi décéda. Voila une morte joyeuse et plaisante. Je tiens ce conte de deux de ses compagnes, dignes de fois, qui virent jouer ce mystere.»-OEuvres de Brantome, III. 507.

The tune to which this fair lady chose to make her ful exit was composed on the defeat of the Swiss at Marignano. The burden is quoted by Panurge, in Rabelais, and consists of these words, imitating the Jargon of the Swiss, which is a mixture of French and German:

Tout est velore,
La Tintelore,

Tout est velore bi Got!

Note 4. Stanza xv.

Battle of Beal' an Duine.

A skirmish actually took place at a pass thus called in the Trosachs, and closed with the remarkable incident mentioned in the text. It was greatly posterior a date to the reign of James V.

Note 5. Stanza xxvi.

And Snowdoun's knight is Scotland's king.

This discovery will probably remind the reader of the beautiful Arabian tale of Il Bondocani. Yet the

incident is not borrowed from that elegant story, but
from Scottish tradition.
treating, was a monarch whose good and benevolent
James V., of whom we are
intentions often rendered his romantic freaks venial, if
interests of the lower and most oppressed class of his
not respectable, since, from his anxious attention to the
subjects, he was, as we have seen, popularly termed the
King of the Commons. For the purpose of seeing that
the less justifiable motive of gallantry, he used to tra-
justice was regularly administered, and frequently from
verse the vicinage of his several palaces in various dis-
Gaberlunzie Man,» and « We'll gae nae mair a roving,»
guises. The two excellent comic songs, entitled << The
are said to have been founded upon the success of his
amorous adventures when travelling in the disguise of
a beggar. The latter is perhaps the best comic ballad
in any language.

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Another adventure, which had nearly cost James his life, is said to have taken place at the village of Cramond, near Edinburgh, where he had rendered his addresses acceptable to a pretty girl of the lower rank.

tioned in the text.
That at the eastern extremity of Loch Katrine, so often men-

Beallach an duine.

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