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 sol 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 advanlage of the proclamation. But Macdonald of Glenroe 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 gov-diers, who tore the rings off her fingers with their ernment; and the latter having furnished him with teeth. The slaughter now became general, and a letter to Sir Colin Campbell, sheriff of the county neither age nor infirmity was spared. Some woof Argyll, directed him to repair immediately to men, in defending their children, were killed; boys Inverary, to make his submission in a legal manner imploring mercy were shot dead by officers on before that magistrate. But the way to Inverary whose knees they hung. In one place nine perlay through almost impassable mountains, the sea- sons, as they sat enjoying themselves at table, were son was extremely rigorous, and the whole coun- butchered by the soldiers. In Inverriggon, Camptry was covered with a deep snow. So eager, bell's own quarters, nine men were first bound by however, was Macdonald to take the oaths before the soldiers, and then shot at intervals, one by one. the limited time should expire, that, though the Nearly forty persons were massacred by the troops; road lay within half a mile of his own house, he and several who fled to the mountains perished by stopped not to visit his family, and after various famine and the inclemency of the season. Those obstructions, arrived at Inverary. The time had who escaped owed their lives to a tempestuous elapsed, and the sheriff hesitated to receive his night. Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, who had resubmission; but Macdonald prevailed by his im-ceived the charge of the execution from Dalrymportunities, 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 negfecting 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 unfortu nate 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. Britan nica-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 GRÆME; 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 if his Life. 2 These lines were written in the Album, kept at the Sound of Ulva Inn in the month of August, 1814. 3 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 Prose Works, vol. xix. The late Robert Hamilton, Esq., Advocate, long Sheriff-Depute of Lanarkhaire, and afterwards one of the Principal Clerks of Session in Scot land-died in 1831. ↑ Afterwards Lord Kinneder. I The late Adam Duff, Esq., Sheriff-Depute of the county of Edinburgh. noble measure; and the dancing anapasts of the second, show that he could with equal facility have rivalled the gay graces of Cotton, Anstey, or Moore."-LOCKHART, Life, vol. iv. p. 372. &c. &c. &c. To moor his fishing-craft by Bressay's shore, TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, Proves each wild frolic that in wine has birth, And wakes the land with brawls and boisterous mirth. Lighthouse Yacht in the Sound of Lerwick, HEALTH to the chieftain from his clansman true! From her true minstrel, health to fair Buccleuch ! Health from the isles, where dewy Morning weaves Her chaplet with the tints that Twilight leaves; Where late the sun scarce vanish'd from the sight, And his bright pathway graced the short-lived night, Though darker now as autumn's shades extend, The north winds whistle and the mists ascend! Health from the land where eddying whirlwinds toss The storm-rock'd cradle of the Cape of Noss; Here, by each stormy peak and desert shore, A wretched pittance from the niggard main. Yet even these coasts a touch of envy gain From those whose land has known oppression's chain; For here the industrious Dutchman comes once moro A sadder sight on yon poor vessel's prow sprung. Not thus of old the Norsemen hither came, power; For ne'er for Grecia's vales, nor Latian land, Such were the sires of Zetlands simple race, And still the eye may faint resemblance trace In the blue eye, tall form, proportion fair, The limbs athletic, and the long light hair(Such was the mien, as Scald and Minstrel sings, Of fair-hair'd Harold, first of Norway's Kings); But their high deeds to scale these crags confined, Their only warfare is with waves and wind. Why should I talk of Mousa's castled coast! While down the cabin skylight lessening shine Such are the lays that Zetland Isles supply; Drench'd with the drizzly spray and dropping sky Weary and wet, a sea-sick minstrel I-W. ScOTT POSTSCRIPTUM. Kirkwall, Orkney, Aug. 13, 1814. In respect that your Grace has commission'd a Kraken, You will please be inform'd that they seldom are taken; It is January two years, the Zetland folks say, To see this huge marvel full fain would we go, But Wilson, the wind, and the current, said no. We have now got to Kirkwall, and needs I must stare When I think that in verse I have once call'd it fair; "Tis a base little borough, both dirty and meanThere is nothing to hear, and there's naught to b seen, Save a church, where, of old times, a prelate ha rangued, And a palace that's built by an earl that was hang'd. But, farewell to Kirkwall-aboard we are going, If your Grace thinks I'm writing the thing that is The anchor's a-peak, and the breezes are blowing: not, You may ask at a namesake of ours, Mr. Scott(He's not from our clan, though his merits de serve it, But springs, I'm inform'd, from the Scotts of Scot starvet);1 He question'd the folks who beheld it with eyes, more Those of eyesight more clear, or of fancy more high, Said it rose lik an island 'twixt ocean and sky— But all of the hulk had a steady opinion That 'twas sure a live subject of Neptune's do minion And I think, my Lord Duke, your Grace hardly would wish, To cumber your house, such a kettle of fish. The quintain was set, and the garlands were made, "Tis pity old customs should ever decay; And woe be to him that was horsed on a jade, For he carried no credit away, away. We met a concert of fiddle-de-dees; We set them a cockhorse, and made them play The winning of Bullen, and Upsey-frees, There was ne'er a lad in all the parish That would go to the plough that day; But on his fore-horse his wench he carries, And away to Tewin, away away! |