s traced in sand!
Backwards--backwards let me wander
To the noble northern land:
Let me feel the breezes blowing
Fresh along the mountain-side;
Let me see the purple heather,
Let me hear the thundering tide,
Be it hoarse as Corrievreckan
Spouting when the storm is high--
Give me but one hour of Scotland--
Let me see it ere I die!
Oh, my heart is sick and heavy--
Southern gales are not for me;
Though the glens are white with winter,
Place me there, and set me free;
Give me back my trusty comrades--
Give me back my Highland maid--
Nowhere beats the heart so kindly
As beneath the tartan plaid!
Flora! when thou wert beside me,
In the wilds of far Kintail--
When the cavern gave us shelter
From the blinding sleet and hail--
When we lurked within the thicket,
And, beneath the waning moon,
Saw the sentry's bayonet glimmer,
Heard him chant his listless tune--
When the howling storm o'ertook us,
Drifting down the island's lee,
And our crazy bark was whirling
Like a nutshell on the sea--
When the nights were dark and dreary,
And amidst the fern we lay,
Faint and foodless, sore with travel,
Waiting for the streaks of day;
When thou wert an angel to me,
Watching my exhausted sleep--
Never didst thou hear me murmur--
Couldst thou see how now I weep!
Bitter tears and sobs of anguish,
Unavailing though they be:
Oh, the brave--the brave and noble--
That have died in vain for me!

NOTES TO

"CHARLES EDWARD AT VERSAILLES"

_Could I change this gilded bondage
Even for the dusky tower
Whence King James beheld his lady
Sitting in the castle bower_.--p. 168.

James I. of Scotland, one of the most accomplished kings that ever sate
upon a throne, is the person here indicated. His history is a very
strange and romantic one. He was son of Robert III., and immediate
younger brother of that unhappy Duke of Rothesay who was murdered at
Falkland. His father, apprehensive of the designs and treachery of
Albany, had determined to remove him, when a mere boy, for a season from
Scotland; and as France was then considered the best school for the
education of one so important from his high position, it was resolved to
send him thither, under the care of the Earl of Orkney, and Fleming of
Cumbernauld. He accordingly embarked at North Berwick, with little
escort--as there was a truce for