d to follow to recover his charge, but she reached her horse,
and rode off like the wind. When she reached a place of safety and
examined the contents of the bag, what was her joy to find that the
warrant was there. It was speedily destroyed; and during the time that
elapsed before the news of the loss could be sent to London and another
one made out, the friends of Sir John succeeded in obtaining his pardon.
"Cochrane's bonny Grizzy" lived to a good old age; and "Grizzy's clump"
on the north road near the little village of Buckton keeps green the
memory of her daring exploit.
"Bonny Grizzy" was a Scottish maid, though her gallant if lawless deed
was performed on Northumbrian soil; but there is one Northumbrian maiden
whose fame will live as long as the sea-waves beat on the wild
north-east coast, and as long as men's hearts thrill to a tale of
courage and high resolve. Grace Darling's name still awakens in every
bosom a response to all that is compassionate, courageous, and
unselfish; and the thoughts of all north-country folk bold that
admiration for the gentle girl which has been voiced as no other could
voice it, in the magical words of Swinburne--
"Take, O star of all our seas, from not an alien hand,
Homage paid of song bowed down before thy glory's face,
Thou the living light of all our lovely stormy strand,
Thou the brave north-country's very glory of glories, Grace."
The story of her gallantry has been many times re-told, but never grows
wearisome. The memory of that stormy voyage of the _Forfarshire_, which
ended in disaster on the Harcar rocks in the Farne group, remains in
men's minds as the dark and tragic setting which throws into bright
relief the gallant action of the father and daughter who dared almost
certain death to rescue their fellow-creatures in peril. It was in
September, 1838, that the ill-fated vessel left Hull for Dundee; but a
leak in the boilers caused the fires to be nearly extinguished in the
storm the vessel encountered. It reached St. Abb's Head by the aid of
the sails, but then drifted southward, driven by the storm, and struck
in the early morning, in a dense fog, on the Harcar rocks. Nine of the
people on board managed to escape in a small boat, which was driven in a
miraculous manner through the only safe outlet between the rocks. They
were picked up by a passing boat and taken to Shields. Meanwhile a heavy
sea had crashed down upon the _Forfarshire_, and broken it in h
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