Through tears the matron views her long-lost mate, And all their various tales of woe relate. To go is danger-but 'tis death to stay, Beneath the moon's wan beams they take their way; END OF PART FOURTH. 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 cor rupting 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. THE HIGHLANDERS: PART V. 'Tis wonderful, "That an invisible instinct should frame them SHAKESPEARE. THE vanquish'd PRINCE, for safety forc'd to fly, Amidst those mountains shunn'd each searching eye; Could warp to treachery the generous tribe: *Royalty in the original. None here fair loyalty or honour sold, When CHARLES an outlaw shrunk in wilds unknown See! wealth and pow'r combine their force in vain : But far from courts, and their delusive arts, How blest the PRINCE who rules o'er honest hearts! Unblasted he by treachery's poisonous breath, And safely smiling 'midst the snares of death. Oh! say, what gentle heart, what pitying muse, Can the sad tribute of a tear refuse, To that brave YOUTH, who in life's early bloom Could mildest worth and gentlest graces save, Let traitors ashes sleep in sculptur'd urns, The muse whose trembling hands entwine the wreath, Like sun-beams on a cypress wet with dew: *See note No. 28. E |