ations
of private sentinels. Nothing but your loyalty, and that of a few of my
subjects in Britain, who are forced from their allegiance by the Prince
of Orange, and who, I know, will be ready on all occasions to serve me
and my distressed family, could make me willing to live. The sense of
what all of you have done and undergone for your loyalty hath made so
deep an impression upon my heart, that, if it ever please God to restore
me, it is impossible I can be forgetful of your services and sufferings.
Neither can there be any posts in the armies of my dominions but what
you have just pretensions to. As for my son, your Prince, he is of your
own blood, a child capable of any impression, and, as his education will
be from you, it is not supposable that he can forget your merits. At
your own desires you are now going a long march far distant from me.
Fear God and love one another. Write your wants particularly to me, and
depend upon it always to find me your parent and King." The scene bore a
strong resemblance to one which many years afterwards occurred at
Fontainebleau. The company listened to his words with deep emotion,
gathered round him, as if half repentant of their own desire to go, and
so parted, for ever on this earth, the dethroned monarch and his exiled
subjects.

The number of this company of officers was about one hundred and twenty:
their destination was Perpignan in Rousillon, close upon the frontier of
Spain, where they were to join the army under the command of the
Mareschal de Noailles. Their power of endurance, though often most
severely tested in an unwholesome climate, seems to have been no less
remarkable than their gallantry, which upon many occasions called forth
the warm acknowledgment of the French commanders. "_Le gentilhomme_,"
said one of the generals, in acknowledgment of their readiness at a
peculiarly critical moment, "_est toujours gentilhomme, et se montre
toujours tel dans besoin et dans le danger_"--a eulogy as applicable to
them as it was in later days to La Tour d'Auvergne, styled the first
grenadier of France. At Perpignan they were joined by two other
Scottish companies, and the three seem to have continued to serve
together for several campaigns.

As a proof of the estimation in which they were held, I shall merely
extract a short account of the taking of Rosas in Catalonia, before
referring to the exploit which forms the subject of the following
ballad. "On the 27th of May, the