s's _Observations on Scottish
Songs_. The romance has taken strong hold upon the hearts of the
Scotch race, through a simple melody which has held the interest of
the people for nearly three centuries. This ballad was written by the
young lover himself on board the ship that was bearing him back to
Scotland. The first verse is as follows:

"Since all thy vows, false maid,
Are blown to air,
And my poor heart betrayed
To sad despair,
Into some wilderness,
My grief I will express,
And thy hard-heartedness,
O cruel fair!"

As fearless as the Scotch heroine Lady Towie in the defence of her
castle was the Irish heroine Lettice, Baroness of Ophaly, in the
famous defence of the castle of Geashill in Queen's County. The one
lived in the sixteenth, the other belonged to the seventeenth century.
The Baroness Ophaly was of the famous house of Geraldine, heir in
general to the house of Kildare, and inherited the barony of Geashill.
She married Sir Robert Digby, and after his death returned to Ireland.
She was a model mistress to her household and her tenantry. Although a
woman of brilliant attainments, she was yet content to live in a quiet
way, performing the congenial duties of administrator of the affairs
of her household, and being held in affectionate regard by all those
dependent upon her. In 1641, however, the quiet current of her daily
life was broken in its flow; civil war devastated the land. The rebels
thought to find in the defenceless situation of the widowed lady, with
her brood of young children, an opportunity for plunder and ravage
with little prospect of serious resistance. A motley throng appeared
before the castle and demanded possession. They then presented to her
a written order as follows: "We, his Majesty's loyal subjects, at the
present employed in his Highnesses service, for the sacking of your
castle; you are therefore to deliver unto us the free possession of
your said castle, promising faithfully that your ladyship, together
with the rest within your said castle _resiant_, shall have reasonable
composition; otherwise, upon the non-yielding of the castle, we
do assure you that we shall burn the whole town, kill all the
Protestants, and spare neither woman nor child, upon taking the castle
by compulsion. Consider, madam, of this our offer; impute not the
blame of your folly unto us. Think not that here we brag. Your
ladyship, upon submission, shall have safe convoy to secure you