was in the very last stage of that disease. Yet he prepared himself to
accompany the body of the master whom he had so long and so faithfully
waited upon. The medical persons assured him he could not survive the
journey. It signified nothing, he said, whether he died in England or
Scotland; he was resolved to assist in rendering the last honours to the
kind master from whom he had been inseparable for so many years, even
if he should expire in the attempt. The poor invalid was permitted to
attend the Duke's body to Scotland; but when they reached Fleurs he
was totally exhausted, and obliged to keep his bed, in a sort of stupor
which announced speedy dissolution. On the morning of the day fixed for
removing the dead body of the Duke to the place of burial, the private
bell by which he was wont to summon his attendant to his study was rung
violently. This might easily happen in the confusion of such a scene,
although the people of the neighbourhood prefer believing that the bell
sounded of its own accord. Ring, however, it did; and Archie, roused
by the well-known summons, rose up in his bed, and faltered, in broken
accents, "Yes, my Lord Duke--yes--I will wait on your Grace instantly;"
and with these words on his lips he is said to have fallen back and
expired.

Note J, p. #.--Alarm of invasion.

The story of the false alarm at Fairport, and the consequences, are
taken from a real incident. Those who witnessed the state of Britain,
and of Scotland in particular, from the period that succeeded the war
which commenced in 1803 to the battle of Trafalgar, must recollect
those times with feelings which we can hardly hope to make the rising
generation comprehend. Almost every individual was enrolled either in
a military or civil capacity, for the purpose of contributing to resist
the long-suspended threats of invasion, which were echoed from every
quarter. Beacons were erected along the coast, and all through the
country, to give the signal for every one to repair to the post where
his peculiar duty called him, and men of every description fit to
serve held themselves in readiness on the shortest summons. During this
agitating period, and on the evening of the 2d February 1804, the person
who kept watch on the commanding station of Home Castle, being deceived
by some accidental fire in the county of Northumberland, which he took
for the corresponding signal-light in that county with which his
orders were to communicate, lig