SIR PATRICK SPENCE.

XXXVII. SIR PATRICK SPENCE.

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"In what age the hero of this ballad lived, or when this fatal expedition happened, that proved so destructive to the Scots nobles, I have not been able to discover; yet am of opinion that their catastrophe is not altogether without foundation in history, though it has escaped my own researches. In the infancy of navigation, such as used the northern seas were very liable to shipwreck in the wintry months: hence a law was enacted in the reign of James III. (a law which was frequently repeated afterwards),That there be na schip frauched out of the realm with any staple gudes, fra the feast of Simons day and Jude, unto the feast of the purification of our Lady, called Candelmess.' PERCY'S Reliques.

THE king sits in Dumferling toune'
Drinking the blude-reid wine:

O quhar will I get guid sailor

To sail this schip of mine?

Up and spak an eldern knicht,
Sat at the king's richt kne:
Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailor
That sails upon the se.

The king has written a braid letter,
And signd it wi' his hand;
And sent it to Sir Patrick Spence,
Was walking on the sand.

The first line that Sir Patrick red,
A loud lauch lauched he;

The next line that Sir Patrick red,
The teir blinded his ee.

O quha is this has don this deid,
This ill deid don to me;

To send me out this time o' the zeir
To sail upon the se?

Mak haste, mak haste, my mirry men all,
Our guid schip sails the morne-

O say na sae, my master deir,

For I feir a deadlie storme.

Late, late yestreen I saw the new moone.
Wi' the auld moone in hir arme;
And I feir, I feir, my deir master,
That we will com to harme.

O our Scots nobles wer richt laith.

To weet their cork-heild schoone;
Bot lang owre a' the play wer playd,
Their hats they swam aboone.

O lang, lang may their ladies sit
Wi' their fans into their hand,
Or eir they se Sir Patrick Spence,
Cum sailing to the land.

O lang, lang may the ladies stand,
Wi' their gold kems in their hair,
Waiting for their ain deir lords,
For they'll se thame na mair.

Have owre, have owre to Aberdour,3
It's fiftie fadom deip;

And there lies guid Sir Patrick Spence
Wi' the Scots lords at his feit.

ANONYMOUS.

2. A braid letter, i.e. open or patent; in opposition to close rolls.

1. "Dunfermline boasts of great anti- | sister Elizabeth, afterwards Queen of quity. A tower or fort built here by Bohemia, from whom her present Majesty Malcolm Caenmore, in the 11th century, is descended; and Charles II. paid a visit gave origin to the burgh. The same king to this ancient seat of royalty in 1650."— McCulloch's Geog. Dictionary. also founded a spacious Benedictine monastery, which ultimately became one of the most wealthy and important institutions of the kind in Scotland, and ordained that its precincts should form the burying-place of the Scottish kings. His own remains and those of his consort, Queen Margaret, were interred there, as also those of eight others of the royal line, including Robert Bruce. Dunfermline continued to be a favourite royal residence, as long as the Scottish dynasty existed. Charles I. was born here, as also his

3. In some copies of this ancient ballad, Aberdeen is found instead of Aberdour, which latter is a village in Fifeshire, on the north side of the Frith of Forth.

4. I have printed this poem as it stands in Percy's Reliques, and it will be found an excellent exercise to make the pupil turn it into the modern English of the present day.

XXXVIII. THE BATTLE OF KILLIECRANKIE.

"HE (Lochiel) knew with how much difficulty Dundee had been able to keep together, during a few days, an army composed of several clans; and he knew that what Dundee had effected with difficulty, Cannon would not be able to effect at all. The life on which so much Lochiel depended must not be sacrificed to a barbarous prejudice. therefore abjured Dundee not to run into any unnecessary danger. "Your lordship's business,' he said, 'is to overlook everything, and to issue your commands. Our business is to execute those commands bravely and promptly.' Dundee answered with calm magnanimity, that there was much weight in what his friend Sir Ewan had urged, but that no general could effect anything great without possessing the confidence of his men. 'I must establish my character for courage. Your people expect to see their leaders in the thickest of the battle; and to day they shall see me there. I promise you, on my honour, that in future fights I will take more care of myself.'

* * * At

the beginning of the action he (Dundee) had taken his place in front of his little band of cavalry. He bade them follow him, and rode forward. But it seemed to be decreed that, on that day, the Lowland Scotch should in both armies appear to disadvantage. The horse hesitated. Dundee turned round, stood up in his stirrups, and, waving

:

THE BATTLE OF KILLIECRANKIE.

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his hat, invited them to come on. As he lifted his arm, his cuirass rose, and exposed the lower part of his left side. A musket ball struck him his horse sprang forward and plunged into a cloud of smoke and dust which hid from both armies the fall of the victorious general. A person named Johnstone was near him and caught him as he sank down from the saddle. How goes the day?' said Dundee. 'Well for King James, answered Johnstone; but I am sorry for your lordship.' If it is well for him,' answered the dying man, 'it matters the less for me.' He never spoke again; but when half an hour later, Lord Dunfermline and some other friends came to the spot, they thought that they could still discern some faint remains of life. The body, wrapped in two plaids, was carried to the castle of Blair.”— Macaulay's History of England.

I.

ON the heights of Killiecrankie
Yester-morn our army lay:
Slowly rose the mist in columns
From the river's broken way ;1
Hoarsely roared the swollen torrent,
And the pass was wrapped in gloom,
When the clansmen rose together
From their lair amidst the broom.
Then we belted on our tartans,

And our bonnets down we drew,2
And we felt our broadswords' edges,
And we proved them to be true;
And we prayed the prayer of soldiers,
And we cried the gathering-cry,
And we clasped the hands of kinsmen,
And we swore to do or die!

'Then our leader rode before us

On his war-horse black as night-
Well the Cameronian rebels

Knew that charger in the fight!
And a cry of exultation

From the bearded warriors rose ;
For we loved the house of Claver'se,
And we thought of good Montrose.
But he raised his hand for silence-
"Soldiers! I have sworn a vow:
Ere the evening star shall glisten

On Schehallion's lofty brow,3
Either we shall rest in triumph,
Or another of the Grames
Shall have died in battle-harness
For his country and King James!

Think upon the Royal Martyr

Think of what his race endureThink on him whom butchers murdered On the field of Magus Muir: By his sacred blood I charge ye, By the ruined hearth and shrineBy the blighted hopes of Scotland, By your injuries and mineStrike this day as if the anvil Lay beneath your blows the while, Be they Covenanting traitors, Or the brood of false Argyle! Strike! and drive the trembling rebels Backwards o'er the stormy Forth; Let them tell their pale Convention How they fared within the North. Let them tell that Highland honour Is not to be bought nor sold, That we scorn their prince's anger, As we loathe his foreign gold. Strike! and when the fight is over, If you look in vain for me, Where the dead are lying thickest Search for him that was Dundee !"

5

II.

Loudly then the hills re-echoed
With our answer to his call,
But a deeper echo sounded
In the bosoms of us all.

For the lands of wide Breadalbane,
Not a man who heard him speak
Would that day have left the battle.
Burning eye and flushing cheek
Told the clansmen's fierce emotion,
And they harder drew their breath;
For their souls were strong within them,
Stronger than the grasp of death.
Soon we heard a challenge-trumpet
Sounding in the pass below,
And the distant tramp of horses,
And the voices of the foe:

THE BATTLE OF KILLIECRANKIE.

Down we crouched amid the bracken,"
Till the Lowland ranks drew near,
Panting like the hounds in summer,
When they scent the stately deer.
From the dark defile emerging,

Next we saw the squadrons come,
Leslie's foot and Leven's troopers
Marching to the tuck of drum;
Through the scattered wood of birches,
O'er the broken ground and heath,
Wound the long battalion slowly,

Till they gained the field beneath;
Then we bounded from our covert.—
Judge how looked the Saxons then,
When they saw the rugged mountain
Start to life with armed men!
Like a tempest down the ridges
Swept the hurricane of steel;
Rose the slogan of Macdonald-
Flashed the broadsword of Lochiel!
Vainly sped the withering volley3
'Mongst the foremost of our band--
On we poured until we met them,
Foot to foot and hand to hand.
Horse and man went down like drift-wood
When the floods are black at Yule,'
And their carcases are whirling

In the Garry's deepest pool:

Horse and man went down before us-
Living foe there tarried none

On the field of Killiecrankie,

When that stubborn fight was done!

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AYTOUN'S Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers.

1. The meaning of the "river's broken way," and what river?

2. Why did they draw down their bonnets?

3. Schehallion is a mountain in Perthshire, 3,550 feet high.

4. "The Archbishop of St. Andrews, after more than one hairbreadth escape, was waylaid and barbarously murdered by an armed gang of fanatics on Magus Muir (Anglice Heath), and his daughter was wounded and maltreated while in

terceding for the old man's life."Aytoun.

5. What prince? and why his foreign gold?

6. Bracken is the name for a species of fern.

7. Slogan was the war-cry or gathering word of the clan of the Macdonalds.

8. Withering volley of what?

9. Yule is the common Scottish name for Christmas. It was formerly used also in England.