Like our fathers, on thy shield,
  When a host of English foemen
    Camped upon a Scottish field;
  I had mourned thee hadst thou perished
    With the foremost of his name,
  When the valiant and the noble
    Died around the dauntless Graeme. 
  But I will not wrong thee, husband! 
    With my unavailing cries,
  Whilst thy cold and mangled body,
    Stricken by the traitor, lies;
  Whilst he counts the gold and glory
    That this hideous night has won,
  And his heart is big with triumph
    At the murder he has done. 
  Other eyes than mine shall glisten,
    Other hearts be rent in twain,
  Ere the heathbells on thy hillock
    Wither in the autumn rain. 
  Then I’ll seek thee where thou sleepest,
    And I’ll veil my weary head,
  Praying for a place beside thee,
    Dearer than my bridal-bed: 
  And I’ll give thee tears, my husband,
    If the tears remain to me,
  When the widows of the foemen
    Cry the coronach for thee.

THE ISLAND OF THE SCOTS

In consequence of a capitulation with Government, the regular troops who had served under Lord Dundee were transhipped to France, and, immediately upon their landing, the officers and others had their rank confirmed according to the tenor of the commissions and characters which they bore in Scotland.  They were distributed throughout the different garrisons in the north of France, and, though nominally in the service of King James, derived their whole means of subsistence from the bounty of the French monarch.  So long as it appeared probable that another descent was meditated, those gentlemen, who were almost without exception men of considerable family, assented to this arrangement, but the destruction of the French fleet under Admiral Tourville, off La Hogue, led to a material change in their views.  After that naval engagement it became obvious that the cause of the fugitive King was in the mean time desperate, and the Scottish officers, with no less gallantry than honour, volunteered a sacrifice which, so far as I know, has hardly been equalled.

The old and interesting pamphlet written by one of the corps,[2] from which I have extracted most of the following details, but which is seldom perused except by the antiquary, states that, “The Scottish officers, considering that, by the loss of the French Fleet, King James’s restoration would be retarded for some time, and that they were burdensome to the King of France, being entertained in garrisons on whole pay, without doing duty, when he had almost all Europe in confederacy against him, therefore humbly entreated King James to have them reduced into a company of private sentinels, and choose officers amongst themselves to command them, assuring his majesty that they would serve in the meanest circumstances, and undergo the greatest hardships and fatigues that reason could imagine, or misfortunes inflict, until it pleased