'The gin'ral!—the gin'ral !—where's the gin'ral!' 'He's gone on by another road. So much for the opposition line and the new turnpike!' said the coachman, as he tossed off a glass of New England. He has lost a speech!' said the lawyer. 'He has lost a coat!' said the tailor. He has lost a dinner!' said the landlord. It was a gloomy night at the Bald Eagle. A few boon companions sat late over their bottle, drank hard, and tried to be merry; but it would not do. Good humour flagged, the jokes were bad, the laughter forced, and one after another slunk away to bed, full of bad liquor, and reeling with the fumes of brandy and beer. SONG. THE gloamin star was blinkin' in the sky sae blue, Where nae ane o' the warl' to listen was near, It was na o' the gowd that makes the miser fain, Our seat was 'mang the wild flowers that bordered the stream, For the cares o' the warl' had a' vanished like a dream, But the loveliest o' a' were the pure and simple lips Oh! fairest grows the floweret unaided by art, The sun may cease to rise when the mornin' star is set, Who tald me the tale that is sweetest to hear. H. S. R. 391 BALLAD OF CRESENTIUS. I LOOK'D upon his brow,-no sign He stood as proud by that death-shrine He had a power; in his eye There was a quenchless energy, A spirit that could dare The deadliest form that Death could take, He stood, the fetters on his hand, And had that grasp been on the brand, With freer pride than it waved now; The rack, the chain, the axe, the wheel, I saw him once before; he rode And tens of thousands throng'd the road, His helm, his breastplate, were of gold, Of many a soldier's deed; The sun shone on his sparkling mail, But now he stood chained and alone, The plume, the helm, the charger gone; He bent beneath the headsman's stroke A wild shout from the numbers broke It was a people's loud acclaim, MISE LANDON. THE LOVE-SICK MAID. A TALE OF THE OLD GORBALS. THE old barony of Gorbals, which now forms an important suburb of Glasgow, was in former times celebrated for its manufactory of swords, harquebusses, and other implements of war. People who could not command the real Ferraras were accustomed to uphold the blades of the Gorbals, as being little inferior to them in temper and delicacy of edge; and its harquebusses or hand-guns were on all hands admitted to equal those of Ghent, Milan, or Paris. Dim shadows of this ancient renown may be traced down even to the present day. Families still exist who through a long line of ancestry have figured as gunsmiths, cutlers, or turners; and it is a remarkable fact, that, till within these few years, the only individuals in the west of Scotland who manufactured guns, were to be found in this old barony. During the wars between England and Scotland, few places were busier or merrier than the Gorbals, or Gorbells, as it was then called -a name perhaps derived in some way from corbells, a term used in fortification and architecture. But at no time had it ever presented such an appearance of business and bustle, as when the Regent Murray, in the year 1568, was lying at Glasgow with his forces, and news arrived of the escape of Queen Mary from Lochleven Castle. Night and day the smithy's furnace belched forth its sparkling smoke, and the cutler's wheel found no pause to its gyrations. The Laird of Elphinston was at that period Baron of the Gorbals, and formed one of the confederated lords who had compelled Mary to renounce her crown, and nominated Murray to the regency during the minority of her infant son. His castle or rather tower (which the modern Goths of the Gorbals first converted into a police office and afterwards abandoned and dismantled) was situated in the heart of the village, and as it had a chapel attached to it, and numerous buildings belonging to the ecclesiastics, he was able to accommodate a large proportion of the Regent's followers. It was here, on the 12th of May, 1568, that the Regent's army rendezvoused, and from this place it issued, to meet and give battle to the Queen's forces, who were, with their unfortunate lady, on their way to Dumbarton castle. The Queen's road from Hamilton to that stronghold passed through the village of Langside, a place not two miles south from the Gorbals, and there Murray pitched his camp, with the resolution of disputing * This place is still distinguished by the name of the Chapel Close, and, (thanks to our Irish friends,) contains, we believe, as many Catholics at this day as ever it did before the Reformation. |