Another worthy of the same school, and nearly the same views of the military character, is Sir James Turner, a soldier of fortune, who rose to considerable rank in the reign of Charles II., had a command in Galloway and Dumfries-shire, for the suppression of conventicles, and was made prisoner by the insurgent Covenanters in that rising which was followed by the battle of Pentland. Sir James is a person even of superior pretensions to Lieutenant-Colonel Monro, having written a Military Treatise on the Pike-Exercise, called "Pallas Armata." Moreover, he was educated at Glasgow College, though he escaped to become an Ensign in the German wars, instead of taking his degree of Master of Arts at that learned seminary.

In latter times, he was author of several discourses on historical and literary subjects, from which the Bannatyne Club have extracted and printed such passages as concern his Life and Times, under the title of "Sir James Turner's Memoirs." From this curious book I extract the following passage, as an example of how Captain Dalgety might have recorded such an incident had he kept a journal, or, to give it a more just character, it is such as the genius of De Foe would have devised, to give the minute and distinguishing features of truth to a fictitious narrative :

"Heere I will set doun ane accident befell me; for thogh it was not a very strange one, yet it was a very od one in all its parts, My tuo brigads lay in a village within halfe a mile of Applebie; my own quarter was in a gentleman's house, who was a Ritmaster, and at that time with Sir Marmaduke; his wife keepd her chamber readie to be brought to bed. The castle being over, and Lambert farre enough, I resolved to goe to bed everie night, haveing had fatigue enough before. The first night I sleepd well enough; and riseing nixt morning, I misd one linnen stockine, one half silke one, and one boothose, the accoustrement under a boote for one leg; neither could they be found for any search. Being provided of more 5 2d VOL. II.

of the same kind, I made myselfe reddie, and rode to the head-quarters. At my returne, I could heare no news of my stockins. That night I went to bed, and nixt morn¬ ing found myselfe just so used; missing the three stockins for one leg onlie, the other three being left intire as they were the day before. A narrower search then the first was made, bot without successe. I had yet in reserve one paire of whole stockings, and a paire of boothose, greater then the former. These I put on my legs. The third morning I found the same usage, the stockins for one leg onlie left me. It was time for me then, and my servants too, to imagine it must be rats that had shared my stockins so inequallie with me; and this the mistress of the house knew well enough, but wold not tell it me The roome, which was a low parlour, being well searched with candles, the top of my great boothose was found at a hole, in which they had drawne all the rest, I went abroad and orderd the boards to be raised, to see how the rats had disposed of my moveables. The mistress

sent a servant of her oune to be present at this action, which she knew concernd her. One board being bot a litle opend, a litle boy of mine thrust in his hand, and fetchd with him foure and tuentie old peeces of gold, and one angell. The servant of the house affirmed it appertaind to his mistres. The boy bringing the gold to me, I went immediatlie to the gentlewomans chamber, and told her, it was probable Lambert haveing quarterd in that house, as indeed he had, some of his servants might have hid that gold; and if so, it was lawfullie mine; bot if she could make it appeare it belongd to her, I sould immediatlie give it her. The poor gentlewoman told me with many teares, that her husband being none of the frugallest men, (and indeed he was a spendthrift) she had hid that gold without his knowledge, to make use of it as she had occasion, especiallie when she lay in; and conjured me, as I lovd the King, (for whom her husband and she had sufferd much) not to detaine her gold. She said, if there was either more or lesse then foure and tuentie whole peeces, and two halfe ones, it sould be none o

hers, and that they were put by her in a red velvet purse. After I had given her assuréance of her gold, a new search is made, the other angell is found, the velvet purse all gnawd in bits, as my stockins were, and the gold instantlie restord to the gentlewoman. I have often heard that the eating or gnawing of cloths by rats is ominous, and portends some mischance to fall on these to whom the cloths belong. I thank God I was never addicted to such divinations, or heeded them. It is true, that more misfortunes then one fell on me shortlie after; bot I ain sure I could have better forseene them myselfe then rats or any such vermine, and yet did it not. I have heard indeed many fine stories told of rats, how they abandon houses and ships, when the first are to be burnt, and the second dround. Naturalists say they are very sagacious creatures, and I beleeve they are so; bot I shall never be of the opinion they can forsee future contingencies, which I suppose the divell himselfe can neither forknow nor fortell; these being things which the Almightie hath keepd hidden in the bosome of his divine prescience. And whither the great God hath preordained or predestinated these things, which to us are contingent, to fall out by ane uncontrollable and unavoidable necessitie, is a question not yet decided.”*

In quoting these ancient authorities, I must not forget the more modern sketch of a Scottish soldier of the old fashion, by a master-hand, in the character of Lesmahagow, since the existence of that doughty Captain alone must deprive the present author of all claim to absolute originality. Still Dalgetty, as the production of his own fancy, has been so far a favourite with its parent, that he has fallen into the error of assigning to the Captain too prominent a part in the story. This is the opinion of a critic who encamps on the highest pinnacles of literature; and the author is so far fortunate in having incurred his censure, that it gives his modesty a decent apology for quoting the praise, which it would have ill-befitted him to

* Sir James Turner's Memoirs, Bannatyne edition, p. 59.

bring forward in an unmingled state.

The passage occurs in the Edinburgh Review, No. 55, containing a criticisin on Ivanhoe :

"There is too much, perhaps, of Dalgetty,—or, rather, he engrosses too great a proportion of the work,-for, in himself, we think he is uniformly entertaining;—and the author has nowhere shown more affinity to that matchless spirit who could bring out his Falstaffs and his Pistols, in act after act, and play after play, and exercise them every time with scenes of unbounded loquacity, without either exhausting their humour, or varying a note from its characteristic tone, than in his large and reiterated specimens of the eloquence of the redoubted Ritt-master. The general idea of the character is familiar to our comic dramatists after the Restoration-and may be said in some measure to be compounded of Captain Fluellen and Bobadil;-but the ludicrous combination of the soldado with the Divinity student of Mareschal-College, is entirely original; and the mixture of talent, selfishness, courage, coarseness, and conceit, was never so happily exemplified. Numerous as his speeches are, there is not one that is not characteristic-and, to our taste, divertingly ludicrous."

APPENDIX. NO I.

THE scarcity of my late friend's poem may be an excuse for adding the spirited conclusion of Clan Alpin's WOW. The Clan Gregor has met in the ancient church of Balquidder. The head of Drummond-Ernoch is placed on the altar, covered for a time with the banner of the ribe. The Chief of the tribe advances to the altar :

"And pausing, on the banner gazed;
Then cried in scorn his finger raised

'This was the boon of Scotland's king ;'
And, with a quick and angry fling,
Tossing the pageant screen away,
'The dead man's head before him lay.
Unmoved he scann'd the visage o'er,
The clotted locks were dark with gore,
The features with convulsion grim,
The eyes contorted, sunk, and dim.
But unappall'd, in angry mood,
With lowering brow, unmoved he stood.
Upon the head his bared right hand
He laid, the other grasp'd his brand:
Then kneeling, cried, 'To Heaven I swear
This deed of death I own, and share ;
As truly, fully mine, as though

This my right hand had dealt the blow:
Come then, our foemen, one, come all;
If to revenge this caitiff's fall

One blade is bared, one bow is drawn,
Mine everlasting peace 1 pawn,

To claim from them, or claim from him,

In retribution, limb for limb.

In sudden fray, or open strife,

This steel shall render life for life.'

"He ceased; and at his beckoning nod,
The clansmen to the altar trod;
And not a whisper breathed around,
And nought was heard of mortal sound,
Save from the clanking arms they bore,
That rattled on the marble floor;
And each as he approach'd in haste,
Upon the scalp his right hand placed;
With livid lip, and gather'd brow,

Each uttered in his turn, the vow.

Fierce Malcolm watch'd the passing scene,

And search'd them through with glances keen Then dash'd a tear-drop from his eye; Unbid it came he knew not why. Exulting high, he towering stood: 'Kinsmen,' he cried, of Alpin's blood, And worthy of Clan Alpin's name, Unstain'd by cowardice and shame, E'en do, spare nocht, in time of ill Shall be Clau Alpin's legend still ! » 5* 2d

VOL. II.