The builder claims the unenviable boon, To tenant dwelling, framed as slight and soon As wigwam wild, that shrouds the native frore On the bleak coast of frost-barr'd Labrador.' Approach, and through the unlatticed window peep Nay, shrink not back, the inmate is asleep; Rifle and fowling-piece beside him stand; none; And late-snatched spoils lie stow'd in hutch apart, To wait the associate higgler's evening cart. Look on his pallet foul, and mark his rest: Though, stupefied by toil, and drugg'd with gin, "Was that wild start of terror and despair, Those bursting eyeballs, and that wilder'd air, Signs of compunction for a murder'd hare? Do the locks bristle and the eyebrows arch, For grouse or partridge massacred in March ?"— No, scoffer, no! Attend, and mark with awe, There is no wicket in the gate of law! 1 Such is the law in the New Forest, Hampshire, tending greatly to increase the various settlements of thieves, smugglers, and deer-stealers, who infest it. In the forest courts presiding judge wears as a badge of office an antique stir He, that would e'er so lightly set ajar That ruffian, whom true men avoid and dread, Whom bruisers, poachers, smugglers, call Black Ned, Was Edward Mansell once;-the lightest heart, But he whose humors spurn law's awful yoke, Must herd with those by whom law's bonds are broke, The common dread of justice soon allies Their hope impunity, their fear the law; Wild howl'd the wind the forest glades along, And oft the owl renew'd her dismal song; Around the spot where erst he felt the wound, Red William's spectre walk'd his midnight round. When o'er the swamp he cast his blighting look, From the green marshes of the stagnant brook The bittern's sullen shout the sedges shook! The waning moon, with storm presaging gleam, Now gave and now withheld her doubtful beam; The old Oak stoop'd his arms, then flung them high, Bellowing and groaning to the troubled sky'Twas then, that, couch'd amid the brushwood sere, In Malwood-walk young Mansell watch'd the deer: The fattest buck received his deadly shotThe watchful keeper heard, and sought the spot rup, said to have been that of William Rufus. See Mr William Rose's spirited poem, entitled "The Red King." "To the bleak coast of savage Labrador."-FALCONER 2 A cant term for smuggled spirits. the kindest entertainment. Till the 13th of the month the troops lived in the utmost harmony and familiarity with the people; and on the very night of the massacre the officers passed the evening at cards in Macdonald's house. In the night, Lieutenant Lindsay, with a party of soldiers, called in a friendly manner at his door, and was instantly admitted. Macdonald, while in the act of rising to receive his guest, was shot dead through the back with two bullets. His wife had already dressed; but she was stripped naked by the soldiers, who tore the rings off her fingers with their teeth. The slaughter now became general, and neither age nor infirmity was spared. Some women, in defending their children, were killed; boys imploring mercy were shot dead by officers on whose knees they hung. In one place nine persons, as they sat enjoying themselves at table, were butchered by the soldiers. In Inverriggon, Campbell's own quarters, nine men were first bound by the soldiers, and then shot at intervals, one by one. Nearly forty persons were massacred by the troops; and several who fled to the mountains perished by famine and the inclemency of the season. Those who escaped owed their lives to a tempestuous night. Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, who had received the charge of the execution from Dalrym of King William III. in Scotland. In the August preceding, a proclamation had been issued, offering an indemnity to such insurgents as should take the oaths to the King and Queen, on or before the last day of December; and the chiefs of such tribes as had been in arms for James, soon after took advantage of the proclamation. But Macdonald of Glencoe was prevented by accident, rather than by design, from tendering his submission within the limited time. In the end of December he went to Colonel Hill, who commanded the garrison in Fort William, to take the oaths of allegiance to the government; and the latter having furnished him with a letter to Sir Colin Campbell, sheriff of the county of Argyll, directed him to repair immediately to Inverary, to make his submission in a legal manner before that magistrate. But the way to Inverary lay through almost impassable mountains, the season was extremely rigorous, and the whole country was covered with a deep snow. So eager, however, was Macdonald to take the oaths before the limited time should expire, that, though the road lay within half a mile of his own house, he stopped not to visit his family, and after various obstructions, arrived at Inverary. The time had elapsed, and the sheriff hesitated to receive his submission; but Macdonald prevailed by his importunities, and even tears, in inducing that func-ple, was on his march with four hundred men, to tionary to administer to him the oath of allegiance, and to certify the cause of his delay. At this time Sir John Dalrymple, afterwards Earl of Stair, being in attendance upon William as Secretary of State for Scotland, took advantage of Macdonald's neglecting to take the oath within the time prescribed, and procured from the king a warrant of military execution against that chief and his whole clan. This was done at the instigation of the Earl of Breadalbane, whose lands the Glencoe men had plundered, and whose treachery to government in negotiating with the Highland clans, Macdonald himself had exposed. The King was accordingly persuaded that Glencoe was the main obstacle to the pacification of the Highlands; and the fact of the unfortunate chief's submission having been concealed, the sanguinary orders for proceeding to military execution against his clan were in consequence obtained. The warrant was both signed and countersigned by the King's own hand, and the Secretary urged the officers who commanded in the Highlands to execute their orders with the utmost rigor. Campbell of Glenlyon, a captain in Argyle's regiment, and two subalterns, were ordered to repair to Glencoe on the first of February with a hundred and twenty men. Campbell, being uncle to young Macdonald's wife, was received by the father with all manner of friendship and hospitality. The men were lodged at free quarters in the houses of his tenants, and received guard all the passes from the valley of Glencoe; but he was obliged to stop by the severity of the weather, which proved the safety of the unfortunate clan. Next day he entered the valley, laid the houses in ashes, and carried away the cattle and spoil, which were divided among the officers and soldiers."-Article " BRITAIN;" Encyc. Britannica-New Edition. "O TELL me, Harper, wherefore flow Where none may list their melody? Screams chorus to thy minstrelsy?" “No, not to these, for they have rest,— Could screen from treach'rous cruelty. "Their flag was furl'd, and mute their drum, The very household dogs were dumb, Though anxious and timeless his life was expended, ADDRESSED TO RANALD MACDONALD, ESQ., OF STAFFA.' cended, To light the long darkness of doubt and despair; The storms he endured in our Britain's December, The perils his wisdom foresaw and o'ercame, In her glory's rich harvest shall Britain remember, And hallow the goblet that flows to his name. Nor forget His gray head, who, all dark in affliction, Though a tear stain the goblet that flows to his name. Yet again fill the wine-cup, and change the sad measure, The rites of our grief and our gratitude paid, To our Prince, to our Heroes, devote the bright treasure, The wisdom that plann'd, and the zeal that obey'd; Fill WELLINGTON's cup till it beam like his glory, Forget not our own brave DALHOUSIE and GRAME; 1814. STAFFA, Sprung from high Macdonald, Letter in Verse ON THE VOYAGE WITH THE COMMISSIONERS OF NORTHERN LIGHTS. "Or the letters which Scott wrote to his friends during those happy six weeks, I have recovered only one, and it is, thanks to the leisure of the yacht, in verse. The strong and easy heroics of A thousand years hence hearts shall bound at their the first section prove, I think, that Mr. Canning story, did not err when he told him that if he chose he And hallow the goblet that flows to their fame. might emulate even Dryden's command of that 1 "On the 30th of July, 1814, Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Erskine,+ and Mr. Duff, Commissioners, along with Mr. (now Sir) Walter Scott, and the writer, visited the Lighthouse; the Commissioners being then on one of their voyages of Inspection, noticed in the Introduction. They breakfasted in the Library, when Sir Walter, at the entreaty of the party, upon inscribing his name in the Album, added these interesting lines."-STEVENSON'S Account of the Bell-Rock Lighthouse, 1824. Scott's Diary of the Voyage is now published in the 4th volume of his Life. 2 These lines were written in the Album, kept at the Sound of Ulva Inn in the month of August, 1814. 9 Afterwards Sir Reginald Macdonald Stewart Seton of Staffa, Allanton, and Touch, Baronet. He died 16th April, 1838, in his 61st year. The reader will find a warm tribute to Staffa's character as a Highland landlord, in Scott's article on Sir John Carr's Caledonian Sketches.-Miscellaneous Prost Works, vol. xix. The late Robert Hamilton, Esq., Advocate, long Sheriff-Depute o Lanarkhsire, and afterwards one of the Principal Clerks of Session in Scotland-died in 1831. + Afterwards Lord Kinneder. I The late Adam Duff, Esq., Sheriff-Depute of the county of Edinburgh. |