• Deep in yon secret glen, within whose shades, • Whose privacy no hostile step invades,

• Where your lost steers avoid the wint❜ry blast, They rest conceal'd, till this dread hour be past : My sons, with blood deform'd, and faint with wounds, Last night came from Culloden's fatal bounds, And shelter in a neighbouring cave, while I • Th' approach of danger here attend to spy.' NOW FARQUHAR's glowing cheek and heaving breast The strong emotions of his soul confest: "Come, father, haste to quit this scene of woe, "First to the cave to seek the warriors go; "Then let us fly to MORAIG's secret glen,

"And shun the blood-stain'd haunts of impious men ; "Thro' dark Glenmurky's woods I know a way,

Impervious to the searching eye of day :

Through that lone path your secret steps I'll guide, "Where plenty dwells on Maeshie's grassy side.

"Beneath my father's roof my only love
"Shall to the aged pair a daughter prove:
"Their ancient home, tho' destin'd thus to leave,
"Let not my gentle MORAIG's kindred grieve:
"Endear❜d by ties of sympathy divine,
"Henceforth be gentle MORAIG's kindred mine."
The wounded warriors, and the sorrowing sage
Now sought the darling comforts of their age;

Through tears the matron views her long-lost mate, And all their various tales of woe relate.

Το go is danger-but 'tis death to stay,

Beneath the moon's wan beams they take their way;
With Heaven their trust, and FARQUHAR for their guide,
They reach the winding Maeshie s peaceful side;
There cheer'd by welcome, sooth'd by grateful love,
They built their humble dwelling in the grove.

END OF PART FOURTH.

THE HIGHLANDERS:

PART V.

ARGUMENT.

Loyalty, Fidelity, and inflexible perseverance of the Highlanders, as exercised towards the unhappy Adventurer, Prince Charles Edward, in 1746. His Wanderings and Escapes. Episode of Captain M'Kenzie. Of the Banditti in the Cave of Glenmoriston. Cruelty of the licenc'd Soldiery. Patient sufferance of the inhabitants. Wanderings of the Chevalier through Morar and Arisaig, among the Western Isles. Soliloquy. Attempt to land on Raasay. Narrow escape from a Frigate off South Uist. Concealment in a Cavern there. Episode of Flora Macdonald: She conveys the Adventurer in disguise to Sky: She is carried Prisoner to England: Her Conversation with the Sovereign: Dismissal, and return to Sky. Marriage, and Emigration. Reflections on the Character of the Highlanders, as it appears in this Narrative. On the corrupting influence which Wealth, Luxury, Extensive Commerce, and False Refinement, produce in Society, aided by that species of Learning which exhausts itself in exploring what is for ever concealed, and building systems that fall of themselves, before they are finished. The importance and necessity, in a country thus enervated by luxury, thus lost in frivolous pursuits and vain speculations,—to cherish, in whatever remote obscurity they exist, a hardy manly Race, inur'd to Suffering, fearless of Danger, and careless of Poverty, to invigorate Society by their Spirit, to defend it by their Courage, and to adorn it with those Virtues that bloom in the shade, but are ready to wither away in the sun-shine of Prosperity.

"That an invisible instinct should frame them

"To Loyalty unlearn'd; Honour untaught;
"Civility not seen from other; Valour,

"That wildly grows in them, but yields a crop
"As if it had been sow'd!"

SHAKESPEARE.

THE

HE vanquish'd PRINCE, for safety forc'd to fly, Amidst those mountains shunn'd each searching eye; No threat of terror, or no splendid bribe,

Could warp to treachery the generous tribe:
For pleas'd with little, and in hardships try'd,
Their wants were all by simple means supplied;
Exertion bold, and feeling strong combin'd,
Here nurse the noble independent mind.

* Royalty in the original.

And in whose deep recess to soothe repose,
A weeping rill, with tinkling murmur flows :
Returning from the chace or prosp'rous spoil,
'Twas here they hid the fruits of all their toil;
Yet aw'd by jealous fear, no stranger guest,
E'er view'd their secret haunt, or shar'd their feast.
On every side the deathful ambush lay,
When fate propitious led the PRINCE that way;
His guide,—a native of the mountains near,
Who often with those Outlaws chac'd the deer,
And knew their minds, by avarice unstain'd,
The price of treachery and blood disdain'd,-
Now forc'd o'er trackless mountains to explore,
The way by which his Lord should gain the shore;
Once more adventures thro' the snares of death,
And trusts his precious charge to savage hunters faith.
Oh faith unstain'd! and truth beyond compare !
With him the produce of the chace they share,
With furry spoils they deck'd their cave around,
With wholesome cups their liberal board they crown'd,
The hostile camp thro' danger's paths they sought,
And to their Royal Guest unwonted dainties brought *:
For him the sanguine paths of death they tread,
And scorn the mighty price that buys the Wand'rer's head.
One brother daily ranges thro' the woods,
Or snares the finny tenants of the floods;
*See note No. 29.