instructions to warrant the committing of the slaughter: That the slaughter was a barbarous murder. This report was duly laid before the Parliament, and on the question being put to the House if the execution of the Glencoe men in February, 1692, in the manner represented, was a murder or not, it was carried in the affirmative. Other resolutions were subsequently passed, and on the 10th of July an address upon the subject was voted to the King, which contained, amongst other things, the following passage:-" We humbly beg that, considering that the Master of Stair's excess, in his letters against the Glencoe men, has been the original cause of this unhappy business, and hath given occasion in a great measure to so extraordinary an execution by the warm directions he gives about doing it by surprise, and considering the high station and trust he is in, and that he is absent, we do therefore beg that your Majesty will give such orders about him for vindication of your Government as you in your royal wisdom shall think fit. And, likewise, considering that the actors have barbarously killed men under trust, we humbly desire your Majesty would be pleased to send the actors home, and to give orders to your advocate to prosecute them according to law." To this follows an appeal to the royal consideration on behalf of the Glencoe men who had escaped the slaughter, and were reduced to great distress by the depredations committed upon them. It seems there never was any prosecution against any of the parties implicated in the transaction; on the contrary, by the advice of some employed about the King, several of the parties were preferred, and the whole matter hushed up, and by the influence of some persons the report above quoted was suppressed in King William's time, though his Majesty's honour required that all the facts should be published. NAPOLEON AND THE BRITISH SAILOR I LOVE contemplating-apart From all his homicidal glory, The traits that soften to our heart Napoleon's story! 'Twas when his banners at Boulogne They suffer'd him-I know not how, His eye, methinks, pursued the flight 1 This anecdote has been published in several public journals, both French and British. My belief in its authenticity was confirmed by an Englishman long resident at Boulogne, lately telling me, that he remembered the circumstance to have been generally talked of in the place. 350 NAPOLEON AND THE BRITISH SAILOR. A stormy midnight watch, he thought, Than this sojourn would have been dearer, If but the storm his vessel brought To England nearer. At last, when care had banish'd sleep, He saw one morning-dreaming-doating, An empty hogshead from the deep Come shoreward floating; He hid it in a cave, and wrought The live-long day laborious; lurking Until he launch'd a tiny boat By mighty working. Heaven help us! 'twas a thing beyond Perhaps ne'er ventured on a pond, For ploughing in the salt-sea field, It would have made the boldest shudder; Untarr'd, uncompass'd, and unkeel'd, No sail-no rudder. From neighb'ring woods he interlaced His sorry skiff with wattled willows; And thus equipp'd he would have pass'd The foaming billows NAPOLEON AND THE BRITISH SAILOR. 351 But Frenchmen caught him on the beach, With folded arms Napoleon stood, Serene alike in peace and danger; And, in his wonted attitude, Address'd the stranger : "Rash man, that would'st yon Channel pass "I have no sweetheart," said the lad; Great was the longing that I had "And so thou shalt," Napoleon said, He So brave a son." gave the tar a piece of gold, And, with a flag of truce, commanded He should be shipp'd to England Old, And safely landed. Our sailor oft could scantily shift BENLOMOND. HADST thou a genius on thy peak, Thy long duration makes our lives Temples and towers thou 'st seen begun, And, like their shadows in the sun, Thy steadfast summit, heaven-allied Looks down, a Mentor on the pride |