Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

sound man in a moment.'

some

He turned to a corner in which hung a small mirror, and hastily took from his purse dry lint, to apply to the slight wound he had received. As he unloosed the leathern jacket from his neck and shoulders, the manly and muscular form which they displayed, was not more remarkable than the fairness of his skin, where it had not as in hands and face, been exposed to the effects of rough weather, and of his laborious trade. He hastily applied some lint to stop the bleeding, and a little water having removed all other marks of the fray, he buttoned his doublet anew, and turned again to the table where Catharine, still pale and trembling, was, however, recovered from her fainting fit.

"Would you but grant me your forgiveness for having offended you in the very first hour of my return? The lad was foolish to provoke me, and yet I was more foolish to be provoked by such as he. Your father blames me not, Catharine, and cannot you forgive me?'

"I have no power to forgive,' answered Catharine, 'what I have no title to resent. If my father chooses to have his house made the scene of night brawls, I must witness them-I cannot help myself. Perhaps it was wrong in me to faint and interrupt, it may be, the farther progress of a fair fray. My apology is, that cannot bear the sight of blood.'

"And is this the manner,' said her father, ' in which you receive my friend after his long absence? My friend, did I say? nay, my son. He escapes being murdered by a fellow whom I will tomorrow clear this house of, and you treat him as if he had done wrong in dashing from him the snake which was about to sting him!'

"It is not my part, father,' returned the Maid of Perth, to decide who had the right or wrong in the present brawl; nor did I see what happened distinctly enough, to say which was assailant, or which defender. But sure our friend, Master Henry, will not deny that he lives in a perfect atmosphere of strife, blood, and quarrels. He hears of no swordsman but he envies his reputation, and must needs put his valour to the proof. He sees no brawl but he must strike into the midst of it. Has he friends, he fights with them for love and honour-has he enemies, he fights with them for hatred and revenge. And those men who are neither his friends nor foes, he fights with them because they are on this or that side of a river. His days are days of battle, and doubtless he acts them over again in his dreams.'

66 6 Daughter,' said Simon · མ་་་

tongue wags too freely. Quarrels and fights are men's business, not women's and it is not maidenly to think or speak of them.'

[ocr errors]

"But if they are so rudely enacted in our presence,' said Catharine, it is a little hard to expect us to think or speak of anything else. I will grant you, my

father, that this valiant burgess of Perth is one of the best-hearted men that draws breath within its walls-that he would walk a hundred yards out of the way, rather than step upon a worm-that he would be as loath, in wantonness, to kill a spider, as if he were a kinsman to King Robert, of happy memory-that in the last quarrel before his departure he fought with four butchers, to prevent their killing a poor mastiff that had misbehaved in the bull-ring, and narrowly escaped the fate of the cur that he was protecting. I will grant you also, that the poor never pass the house of the wealthy armourer but they are relieved with food and alms. But what avails all this, when his sword makes as many starving orphans and mourning widows as his purse relieves?"

The glover defends his valourous son by adoption from the gentle upbraidings of his daughter, and entreats her to forgive him, and to speak some words of comfort to him..

6

The armourer, indeed, while he heard the lips that were dearest to him paint his character in such unfavourable colours, had laid his head down on the table, upon his folded arms, in an attitude of the deepest dejection, or almost despair. 'I would to Heaven, my dearest father,' answered Catharine, that it were in my power to speak comfort to Henry, without betraying the sacred cause of the truths I have just told you. And I may -nay, I must have such a commission,' she continued, with something that the earnestness with which she spoke, and the extreme beauty of her features, caused for the moment to resemble inspiration. The truth of Heaven,' she said, in a solemn tone, 6 was never committed to a tongue, however feeble, but it gave a right to that tongue to announce mercy, while it declared judgment.Arise, Henry-rise up, noble-minded, good and generous, though widely mistaken man-Thy faults are those of this cruel and remorseless age-thy virtues all thine own.'"

While she thus spoke, she laid her hand upon the Smith's arm, and extricating it from under his head by a force which, however gentle, he could not resist, she compelled him to raise towards her his manly face, and the eyes into which lations, mingled with other

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

Weep not,' she said, or rather weep on but weep as those who have hope. Abjure the sins of pride and anger, which most easily beset thee-fling from thee the accursed weapons, to the fatal and murderous use of which thou art so easily tempted.'

[ocr errors]

Catharine inveighs in vain against his indomitable propensity to the use of the arms, it is his profession to forge, but the lion of his temper is nevertheless somewhat tamed, under her gentle chastisement. The father, however, is angry with her for her pains, and dismisses her to her chamber with these words :

"Happy is the man who, like my worthy son, has means of obtaining his living otherwise than by the point of the sword which he makes. Preach peace to him as much as thou wilt-I will never be he will say thee nay; but as for bidding the first armourer in Scotland forego the forging of swords, curtel-axes, and harness, it is enough to drive patience itself mad-Out of my sight!-and next morning I prithee remember, that shouldst thou have the luck to see Henry the Smith, which is more than thy usage of him has deserved, you see a man who has not his match in Scotland at the use of broad-sword and battle-axe, and who can work for five hundred merks a year without breaking a holiday.'

[ocr errors]

Here the glover and Gow set down to their glass, and Simon schools his adopted son, and bids him not to take her talk too much to heart; and telling him he has seen him bold enough with other wenches, wonders why he should be so still and tongue-tied with her. Harry replies beautifully.

"Because she is something different from other maidens, father Glover-because she is not only more beautiful, but wiser, higher, holier, and seems to me as if she were made of better clay than we that approach her. I can hold my head high enough with the rest of the lasses round the May-pole, but somehow, when I approach Catharine, I feel myself an earthly, coarse, ferocious creature, scarce worthy to look on her, much less to contradict the precepts which she expounds to me.' "You are an imprudent merchant, Harry Smith,' replied Simon; and rate too high the goods you wish to purchase. Catharine is a good girl, and my daughter; but if you make her a conceited ape by your bashfulness and your flattery, neither you nor I will see our wishes accomplishe

"I often fear it, my good father,' said the smith; for I feel how little I am deserving of Catharine.'

"Feel a thread's end!' said the Glover, feel for me, friend Smith, for Catharine and me. Think how the poor thing is beset from morning to night, and by what sort of persons, even though windows be down and doors shut. We were accosted to-day by one too powerful to be named,ay, and he showed his displeasure openly, because I would not permit him to gallant my daughter in the church itself, when the priest was saying mass. There are others scarce less reasonable. I sometimes wish that Catha rine were some degrees less fair, that she might not catch that dangerous sort of admiration, or somewhat less holy; that she might sit down like an honest woman, contented with stout Henry Smith, who could protect his wife against every sprig of chivalry in the Court of Scotland.'

"And if I did not,' said Henry, thrusting out a hand and arm which might have belonged to a giant for bone and muscle, I would I may never bring hammer upon anvil again. Aye, an it were come but that length, my fair Catharine should see that there is no harm in a man having the trick of defence.'

Here a long conversation ensues, during which some fine traits of the character of Harry Gow are developed with much dramatic spirit, and the glover and his favourite part thus pleasantly :—

And

"Let us finish our flask, then,' said the old glover; for I reckon the Dominican tower is tolling midnight. hark thee, son Henry; be at the latticewindow on our east gable by the very peep of dawn, and make me aware that thou art come by whistling the Smith's call gently. I will contrive that Catharine shall look out at the window, and thus thou wilt have all the privileges of being a gallant Valentine through the rest of the year; which if thou canst not use to thine own advantage, I shall be led to think, that for all thou be'st covered with the lion's hide, Nature has left on thee the long ears of the ass.'

[ocr errors]

"Amen, father,' said the armourer; a hearty good night to you, and God's blessing on your roof-tree, and those whom it covers. You shall hear the Smith's call sound by cock-crowing; 1 warrant I put Sir Chanticleer to shame.'

"So saying, he took his leave, and, though completely undaunted, moved through the deserted streets like one upon his guard, to his own dwelling, which was situated in the Mill Wynd, at the western end of Perth."

[To be Continued.]

LOVE LOOKS.

The sun looks sweetly from the skies,
When Spring's first lay is sung:-
And fair the moon peeps from the clouds,
The varied woods among.
Each twinkling star that spots the sky,
Vith lustre bright is shining;-
But fairer far, in youth's fond eye,
The look that love is smiling!

The morning's break look joy around
The noontide blaze looks bright ;-
The gentle eve looks rest and peace-
And hope the still twilight ;-
But youthful hearts have eyes, to see
Far sweeter looks descending
From beauty's eyes, where constancy,
With fervent love is blending!

Oh! might I choose a perfect fair,

Who charming e'er would prove,
She should have smiles that win the heart
And eyes that whisper love!
Affections sigh has magic charms,
To banish every sorrow;

But love's fond look the fancy warms
From real delight to borrow!

Oh! beauty may be full and fair,
Yet hold not on the heart!
And sparkling eyes may shed their light,
And yet no love impart !

For some look scorn, and some look pride,
And some are careless roving

Oh those are best, that softly glide
And tell you they are loving!

Gently they steal into the heart,
And revel in the soul,

And make each thought to bend beneath
Their fairy-like controul;
Fresh'uing each hope, and painting all
The future bright and cheery,
Charming away, with potent thrall,
Each fear and prospect dreary !

Love's kindest words have not the pow'r
Like these to fill the mind!
Love's kindest words may hide deceit
As from the tongue they wind!
But love-looks beam, like seraphs' smiles,
All truth and ardent feeling !-

Oh! long be mine to feel their wiles
Each wound of sorrow healing!

R. JARMAN.

THE INFANT'S REST.

'Enter thou into thy Rest.'

Poets describe their halcyon dreams, Sailors desire the haven nearest, Beauty exults in nature's beams;But the Infant's Rest' is dearest.

There is a sleep of death,-a flight 'O'ertakes the swiftest and the surest; But in the calm of sinless light

The Infant's Rest' is purest.

The camp is placed for a warrior's rest,
The fort is safest, strongest :-
The tomb lies o'er the monarch's breast,
Yet the Infant's Rest' is longest.

[blocks in formation]

"Mortals be gladsome while ye have the power,

And laugh and seize the glittering lapse of joy ; In time the bell will toll

That warns ye to your graves.”

Let not the gamester, the horseracer, the court dissembler, rail. Why should the nobleman, who delights in his preserves; or the duellist who is amused with the fatality of his pistols; or, the citizen, who is wrapped in the mantle of gain, lay the hand of power on other classes to deprive them of pleasure?

"They bespeak a day of jubilee."

A Whitsuntide passes through the metropolis, as a sojourner rides through a city in Turkey, without particular remark, or observation; but whose stay would be obnoxious and call in aid the civic authorities

"Severe as vengeance can inflict."

If the suburbs of Paddington, Stepney and the excursions by water and land to Greenwich are excepted; the Country, in England, Ireland and Scotland, is the scene of Whitsun merriment and agreeable association.

"Trembling yet happy, confident yet meek,"

Here, like a field flower, it is indigenous-here it flourishes most in the soil of the heart and is kept alive by the undying attachment of the spirit.

"Fairest and foremost of the train that wait,

On man's most dignified and happiest state."

A city is not the element for a Wake, unless that which is imposed by the custom of the sons and daughters of Erin. A city is not provided with tranquil places in which Folly might wear her bells uninjured. In the country, the greens, cottages, inns, churches and commons, farms, and provisions are treasured from Christmas Yule to the approaching revels, consecrated by past mirth, and antici

pated for present entering into its effusive and lush reality

"The tender argument of kindred blood."

The cares of life are here absorbed in the joy mantling over them, and relief is given to the heart which pulses through the current of the body and the mind. On Whitsunday, many a well loving and rustic couple are married, because it is the anniversary of their grandsires wedding, christening, or birth-day, or the most lucky day of the year. Because a feast of no ordinary description is given, a preparation of no simple fare made-a time that, whoever comes, he might enter and welcome. Where friends from other villages are here and relations from all distances, if practicable, make an effort to unite in the bands of duty and affection. When the old meet and talk over the events of sixty years to their earliest days -when the young meet and begin a course of love, which, poets say, ❝never runs smooth.' - when the middle-aged bring their families together, and cousins congratulate cousins for the first time→→→ when farming men and women have leave to see their old dames and young nieces, and when good eating and drinking, smiling, laughing, smoking, chatting and anecdoting, bring parties together after church service, and the hours down to the last embers of midnight. Then on the Whit-monday, as the sun shines over the face of the village,-what preparation is made! The bells intimate sweetly the motive, and each breast feels a sense of relaxing from past toil, before the beginning of the mowing the grass, the hayharvest, the barley-break and the corn harvest. Neither the harvest, nor the hunting moon is thought of, it is the sun of humanity, which emanates from the deity, that inspires, diffuses, and engages the charms of rural and hearty feeling. The smithy is shut, the grindstone still, the fork, the scythe and rake, are not yet wanted. Toil rests on the plough. Labour sits with an unfurrowed forehead. Plenty is profuse with the gifts of the earth, and holds the horn to the reception of the most successful gatherers. Ease in luxury, what the pampered nabob does not feel, is here inheriting every freehold of health, and the caterers for amusement assemble with indorsements on the collections of nine pins, lucky bags, booths, stalls, raree shows, snuff-boxes, camera obscuras, singlestick, ringing the bull and foot-races. Here the cask is spigotted at the low door with a bush hung over it, and pipes, cakes, and banquets are in requisition. What hopes

are here raised by the clamorous catchpennies who are dependant on their success at revels for the rest of the year. And, when the day is drawn, like a lottery ticket out of time's wheel, as the evening gives a blank to twilight, what hustling and party-making-stir, is in doors with music and dancing in the new clothes: The old rooms are shook like the subjects of agues and night is impressed in the cure. A week thus devoted to Whitsun sports and pleasures, like any other feeling, cloys; the ensuing week is spent in the

routine of business with renewed assi

duity, peace crowns the happy complaints, initiates the dissatisfied and anxieties are once more predominant over the lighter gaieties of the heart. Like the showers which fall amid the clustres of flowers, while the winds blow them apart, so the villagers are separated by the relative associations in the warfare of existence, and they relieve or languish, as disease, or perfect health acts upon them.

[merged small][ocr errors]

By returning, however, into other parts of the country, it will be found that the Whitsun-week is differently spent ; partly, like that of the Members of the Society of Friends,' for business; and partly, for pleasure.

[ocr errors]

This is the appointed time for Maypoles where they have stood amid the puritanical environs of opinions. And also, for stated Fairs,' at which cattle, wares, and barter, exchange owners, and servants exchange masters and mistresses.

Clubs and Benefit Societies also hold their annual meetings. With bands of music, flags, and favours, they parade the boundaries, and in pairs enter the parish church. Here the gaiety and beauty of the adjacent neighbourhoods assemble. Whatever nonchalance the courtezans of civic pomp might feel unfavourably to this congregation, as it is but once a year, there a freshness, fulness, and agreeable sensation felt by the recipients and observers of it. The flags waving over the gallery, the martial music joining in the anthem and jubilate,' the curling of ribands from hats and breasts, the ladies' happy expressions, and the appropriate discourse of the preacher, conspire to make impressions not soon forgotten, and create unisons not easily broken. Is this also vanity? Because the grave opens and the bell tolls. Because the worm hideth, and the spade cutteth down the grass as an emblem of the shortness of life in its glory, and the certainty of its dissolution

[ocr errors]

Are these seasons of communication to be spent without cheerfulness? The demure aspect of monastic discipline savours of bigotry, and induces superstition. Is. shade and gloom to be ever before mortals? Are they not to feel the sunbeam, nor enjoy the mild atmosphere of rational pleasure? Nature permits, Virtue approves, and Wisdom joins in recreations, which have the well-being of society at heart.

Benefit Societies professedly heal the sick, relieve the distressed, give decent burial to the dead, and console the widow and the fatherless. About this time, societies of sawyers, glass-blowers, freemasons, brass-founders, fire-offices, with many others, literary, scientific, antiquarian, botanic, musical, and discursive, keep their anniversaries, by good fellowship in cities, corporations, and towns. (But the Master Chimney-Sweepers take precedence of season, May-Day' being their tutelary patroness.) The

Guild' is another recreative feature in country history. The choosing Mayors, Bailiffs, and Shrieves give occupation to many; and in Popish countries, carnival, masquerade, impost, pleasure, persecution, and chicanery, are in full display, whether for the good of society, or not, let the choice of opinion decide. Where freedom is not abridged, liberty is not abused, and perfect unanimity is cultivated; may the fruits of pleasure increase, the trees of knowledge be supported, and the harvest of sensibility abundantly reaped !

P

slumbers broke,

Green plane trees rising on a fertile plain,
Gave them repose, from watching toil of pain!
They rested there, till on the lovely sky,
The sun blazed forth, a world of majesty !
When one that watched, their fresh'ning
And bade them rise, to ward a deadly stroke,
Each warrior starting, grasps his shining brand
And marks the coming of a Turkish band.
A fountain sprang amid the shady bowers,
And trickled through the verdure, decked with
flowers,
The Turks spurred on to shun the rising heat,
And shelter seek within the cool retreat;
Its verge attained, they loose their panting

steeds,

To crop the verdure of the smiling meads.
Ten youthful warriors Kloden's word obeyed,
Three turbans more the hostile party made;
Greece! Greece and liberty! the Grecians cry;
Tumultuous "Allas!' mingle in the sky,
Rage swelled each heart, each arm was nerved
to pierce,

Defence forgotten-short the fight and fierce.
Destruction revelled: soon lay scattered round
The warriors all, but Kloden and Phalound-
Then flashed his scymetar; its aim too true;
The Turk his jav'lín hurled: it harmless flew,
From Kloden's side a crimson current stole ;
The hostile chief in arrogance of soul,
With haughty brow, unguarded, onward prest,
And Kloden pierced his victory swollen breast;
The Turk, without a groan, in suffering pride,
Set his firm teeth, and sinking nobly died.
The startled steeds, scared with the din of war,
Faint with his wounds, the warrior's faltering
Dart wildly o'er the turf to fields afar.-

breath,

Mcurned for his comrades, stiffening into

death,

To aid the grisly dying from his breast
A portrait drew and kissed, then sank to rest.
No mourner there, but the loud tempest moans
Where grassy shrouds spread o'er their moul-
Triumphant arches tell a victor's fame,
dering bones,
When dying valor dies without a name!

C. P. C.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

sprang ;

From Isle to Isle fair Freedom's signal rang;
The pitying world poured heroes like a tide,
To raise the Greek, and quell Koranic pride.
From Konigsberg, to stay the waster's hand,
Young Kloden flew to Grecia's groaning land;
Each dangerous mission eager sought to gain;
The outguard's peril, and the herald's pain.-
His chieftain marked the hero with delight;
His never-failing ardour in the fight.-
The lordly moslems powerless curses poured
As strewed the field, his devastating sword,
And when a matter of momentous kind,
Required the conduct of a dauntless mind,
And faith unbending; him his chieftain named,
To lead a secret band through scenes untam'd,
Twice had the young moon lent her tremu-

[ocr errors]

lous ray:

The youthful warriors trod their cautious way,
And stole from hiding woods in shades of
night,

To fly with darkness from the morning's light,
As on the second morn dim streaks of red,

Marked the broad east, like Pluto's mouldering

bed;

THE SPECTRE SHIP:
(Continued from Page 292.)

sails were once more unfurled, the wind
Bryce no sooner got on board, than the
and tide being both favourable, By the
within sight of the blue Craig of Ailsa.
evening of the second day, they were
Bryce, whose faith in the augury of the
weird wife was founded on the broad basis
of superstition, took the helm in his own
hand, and bore down for the Craig. The
clouds of night began to rest on the bosom
of the ocean, and nothing was heard but
the rippling of its surface on the bow of
the bark, as she glided on her way
through the silent tide. The moon now
burst through a large mass of black
clouds, illuminating all around with a
bright silvery light. Bryce, whose mind
was wound up to the highest point at
this crisis, as he knew that he was close
upon the Craig, discovered a vessel edg-
ing away from under his lee-bow, not two

« AnteriorContinua »