Now, good my Licge, and brother sage, What think ye of mine elfin page ?' Row on the noble King replied, "We'll learn the truth whate'er betide; Yet sure the beadsman and the child Could ne'er have waked that beacon wild!' XIV. With that the boats approach'd the land, The attack and capture of the fortress is also admirable for the energy and briefness with which it is described. It will be remembered that Douglas was to give the signal upon his reaching the copse-covered path, between the party that attended the execution of the dumb page, and the castle. What glances o'er the green-wood shade?-The spear that marks the ambuscade! Now, noble chief! I leave thee loose; Upon them, Ronald!' said the Bruce. XXIX. The Bruce, the Bruce!' to well-known cry His native rocks and woods reply. The Bruce, the Bruce!' in that dread word The knell of hundred deaths was heard. The astonish'd Southern gazed at first, Where the wild tempest was to burst, That waked in that presaging name. Before, behind, around it came! Half-arm'd, surprised, on every side Hemm'd in, hew'd down, they bled and died. Deep in the ring the Bruce engaged, And tierce Clan-Colla's broadsword raged! Full soon the few who fought were sped, Nor better was their lot who fled, And met, 'mid terror's wild career, The Douglas's redoubted spear! Two hundred yeomen on that morn the prince, with that customary recklessness which "oft made good, Even by its daring, venture rude, Where prudence might have fail'd," has march'd to the assault before the ap pointed signal; "Upon the bridge his strength he threw, And struck the iron chain in two By which its planks arose; The warder next his axe's edge Loud came the cry, The Bruce, the Bruce Fresh combatants pour in; And ward on ward they win. And fearful was the din; The startling horses plunged and flung, Nor sunk the fearful cry, Till not a foeman was there found פין When the king hath "won his father's hall," himself and his friends take a short repast. The Bruce, while the wine is circling, gives the pledge, "FAIR SCOTLAND'S RIGHTS RESTORED," "And he whose lip shall touch the wine, The dream and death of Allan struck us, both in conception and execution, as one of the sweetest passages in the poem. When his turn of watching arrives, the poor page soon begins to feel the approach of sleep. "Again he rous'd him-on the lake The battle is given with Mr. Scott's usual felicity in scenes of this nature. Indeed, the animation and truly martial spirit with which the whole is narrated, bring the varying incidents of the combat full before our eyes, and cannot fail to inspire in the reader a corresponding glow. While the numerous and gay host of the enemy are preparing for the attack, the Bruce orders mass to be performed, and when the Scottish army supplicate on their knees the assistance and protection of heaven in the coming conflict, the English monarch interprets their devotional attitude into a signal of submission. When his mistake is corrected by De Argentine, he directs the archers under Gloucester to begin the fight! XXII. "Earl Gilbert waved his truncheon high, Just as the Northern ranks arose, Signal for England's archery To halt and bend their bows. Then stepp'd each yeoman forth a pace, Glanced at the intervening space, And raised his left hand high; Forth whistling came the gray-goose wing, Nor mountain targe of tongh bull-hide, Then, Mount, ye galants free!' And loud shouts Edward Bruce,'Forth Marshal, on the peasant foe! We'll tame the terrors of their bow, And cut the bow-string loose !- Then spurs were dash'd in chargers' flanks. Awhile, with stubborn hardihood, The broken bows of Bannock's shore The King with scorn beheld their flight. Are these,' he said, our yeomen wight? To rightward of the wild affray, That form'd a ghastly snare. Down! down! in headlong overthrow, Wild floundering on the field! red, Too strong in courage and in might And Oxford's famed De Vere. Bottetourt and Sanzavere, Ross, Montague, and Mauley, came, The bills with spears and axes met, Firmly they kept their ground; The groans of those who fell And in the battle-yell. The noble and the slave, From various cause the same wild road, XXVII. The tug of strife to flag begins, Sinks, Argentine, thy battle-word, Bruce with the pilot's wary eye, Is firm as Ailsa-rock: At once the spears were forward thrown, The foe is fainting fast! Each strike for parent, child and wife, The battle cannot last! Edith, stationed on the hill with the camp-followers, hears the cry of the rallying host, and the notes of their trumpets, 'twixt triumph and lament;" and fearful of the event, passionately calls upon them to join their countrymen in the field. 66 "That rallying force, combined anew, To hem the isles-men round; The multitude that watch'd afar, A frenzy fired the throng.- To us, as to our lords, are given The vengeance for our nation's wrongs; The choice, 'twixt death or freedom, warms To each canto are prefixed introductory verses. Of these the best are those opening the first, fourth, and fifth cantos. Those of the second are passable; of the third we may say the same-while those of the sixth are decidedly very inferior. We quote those of the fourth canto-a lofty tribute of admiration to the stupendous and solitary scenery of Scotland. "Stranger! if e'er thine ardent step hath traced The northern realms of ancient Caledon, Where the proud Queen of Wilderness hath placed, By lake and cataract, her lonely throne; Sublime but sad delight thy soul hath known, Gazing on pathless glen and mountain high, Listing where from the cliffs the torrents thrown Mingle their echoes with the eagle's cry, And with the sounding lake, and with the moan. ing sky. zontal propulsion, and perpendicular exertion. f. When the paddle has arrived at this To this I may add, that the injurious tendency of the present system of propulsion, is, in effect, still further increased beyond the proportion already explained. Suppose a vessel of a certain capacity, having an engine capable of giving it a motion of eight miles per hour, if none of its power were wasted. But as threefourths of the power are wasted, an engine of four times the power, and more than four times the weight, must immediately be substituted-four times the quantity, and weight, of fuel will also be required. The boat must now be enlarged and strengthened to carry the additional burthen, and to sustain the prodigious action of a four-fold engine. Again the engine and fuel must be increased to propel the enlarged boat; and the boat further enlarged and made stronger still, to carry the doubly enlarged engine: proceeding thus, it is true, the engine's power gains at each remove on the boat's size, but does not overtake it until both are inordinately magnified. The engine being then, probably, of not less than six times the power of that originally provided and the boat enlarged one half. Yet, notwithstanding these extravagant incumbrances, steam-boats must be profitable, or they would not be continued. But since these mechanical imperfections are inseparable from the present system, they prove indisputably the existence of some egregious error in the application of the power of the primum mobile. If we pause for a moment to inquire into the laws of statics, by which floating bodies are sustained quiescently in water, we shall find: 1st. The water exerts a perpendicular pressure upward beneath the whole area of the vessel, having a constant tendency to raise it—a tendency as constantly resisted by the gravity (or weight) of the vessel, and therefore it does not rise. 2d. The water exerts a lateral pressure in every direction, against the sides of the vessel towards the centre, and has a tendency to move it in every direction-but as a body can only move, or be moved, in one direction, at one time, the opposite pressures, or tendencies to action, of the water, counteract and destroy each other; therefore, no motion takes place in any direction. If external force be applied to the vessel by sails, water-wheels, towing, &c. in any one direction, it has the immediate effect of relieving the water pressing in the same direction, from the resistance of the water pressing in an opposite direction, and that pressure, thus released, becomes active, and the vessel moves; hence it is that the shape of a ship's after-part is considered all-important by nautical men, in order that the pressure of the water may be received in the most advantageous manner. Now it has already been shown that external force cannot be applied by the operation of water-wheels, as heretofore, without an immense sacrifice of power. But it must be obvious that if power can be employed to remove the pressure of the water in any one direction, an equal pressure in a contrary direction will be released, and becoming active, will move the vessel with the same advantage as external power applied in the most favourable manner. Fortunately for mankind, nature has ordained that power can very easily be so applied, without any other waste than that of the friction of mechanism employed in the operation. How did the lucid intellect of WATT improve the mechanical effect of steam? not by adding to its power, but by removing a pre-existing natural resistance, obstructing its natural action. The following simple experiment, within the compass of every one, exemplifies the principle of the discovery elucidated in my last communication, in a pleasing and conclusive manner:-Provide a small model of a boat with a projecting tube inserted at the head, beneath the water line, with a valve at its inward extremity -keep the valve closed by a thread applied to a small lever, so adjusted as to open the valve when the thread is severed-put the boat in water-divide the thread with a lighted taper, to avoid the possibility of accidental impulse from contact-the valve now opens, and the boat moves forward spontaneously its whole length, with accelerated velocity, thrusting the tube before it through the water. Why, if my principle be false, does not the water flow backward through the tube, and the boat remain stationary?-The boat is at length filled, and the water received by the tube being met by the internal opposite end of the boat, motion is impeded, and ceases of course-but were it convenient (it is not in this model) to bail the admitted water, the boat a |