Comets raign'd above the city,
Preachers prison'd without pity;
Some knut up for wearing gunes :
Wine was drunken out in tunes.
Next with blasphenie and rude speeches,
New coin'd scurvies vex the leidges:
Ladies heckl'd, and Lords horn'd,
Some for lending money scorn'd:
Men fin'a for preventing murders;
Princes owning Bishops' orders;
Curats swearing by their gowns;
Old French taylours ruling towns.
Self-Defenders termed Rebels,
Proclamations, grievous libels:
Majors turning hang-men's mates;
Sentries watching Bishops' gates.
Gentlemen of good account
Might not think it an affront
To sit with lousie rogues together,
Yea stand and serve their foot-men's brother.
New-made Earls, and some that
Are judged, nihil significat,
With a pack of Redshank Squires,
Eating up the Western Shires-
Clergie's acts and Canon Law,
Put on cartes for horse to draw;
Cables, towes, ligure chists,
Manackles for thumbs and fists- *
Cords for wreaking people's throats,
Germans for contriving plots;
Durks to stop in musquets end,
Pray, what may all this portend ?"

He afterwards proceeds to describe this famous Host' with very considerable force and humour; and lashes the savage Highlanders, and their more detestable employers, with much wellmerited and well-directed satire; though it must be allowed that the style of this and his other mock poems' too frequently descends to the low scurrility and vulgar doggerel so freely indulged in by the writers of that age. The following passages will serve to convey some idea of his powers of observation and characteristic description:

"Some might have judg'd they were the

creatures

Call'd Selfies, whose customes and features Paracelsus doeth discry

In his Occult Philosophy,

Or Fumes, or Brownies, if ye will,
Or Satyres, come from Atlas Hill;
Or that the three-tongu'd Tyke was sleeping,
Who hath the Stygian door a-keeping:
Their head, their neck, their leggs and
thighs,

Are influenced by the skies;
Without a clout to interrupt them,
They need not strip them when they whip
them;

Nor loose their doublet when they're hang'd.
But those who were their chief commanders,
As such who bore the pirnie standarts;

Who led the van and drove the rear,
Were right well mounted of their gear;
With brogues, trues, and pirnie plaides,
And good blew bonnets on their heads;
Which on the one side had a flipe,
Adorn'd with a tobacco-pipe.
With durk, and snap-work, and snuff-mill,
A bagg which they with onions fill,
And as their strick observers say,
A tupe-horn fill'd with usquebay.
A slasht-out coat beneath her plaides,
A targe of timber, nails and hides;
With a long two-handed sword,
As good's the countrey can affoord-
Had they not need of bulk and bones,
Who fights with all these arms at once?
It's marvellous how in such weather
O'er hill and hop they came together:
How in such stormes they came so farr;
The reason is, they're smear'd with tar;
Which doth defend them heel and neck,
Just as it doth their sheep protect➡
Nought like religion they retain,
Of moral honestie they're clean.
In nothing they're accounted sharp,
Except in bag-pipe and in harpe.
For a misobliging word,

She'll durk her neighbour o'er the boord,
And then she'll flee like fire from flint,
She'll scarcely ward the second dint:
If any ask her of her thrift,
Foresooth her Nainsell lives by thift.".

He then details (and illustrates with a few anecdotes, much in the manner of the prose article on the same subject, inserted in the First Number of our Miscellany) the intolerable op pression and wanton mischief inflicted upon the defenceless inhabitants, by these redshank squires.

66

They're charg'd to march into the Wat; How they behaved when come there, How neither friend nor foe did spare, What plunder they away did bear, Ye partly afterwards shall hear; How each rank was by them abused, What beastly shamles tricks they used For truly they more cruel carrie

"

Than even Frenchmen under Marie,
Yea, they more savage far than those were
Who with Kollkittoch and Montrose were,
And sixtie times they're worse than they
Whom Turner led in Galloway.
They durk our tenants, shames our wives-

They sell our tongs for locks of snuff:
They take our cultors and our soaks,
And from our doors they pull the locks:
They break our pleughs ev'n when they'
working,

We dare not hinder them for durking':
My Lords, they so harasse and wrong us,
There's scarce a pair of shoes among us;
And for blew-bonnets they leave non
That they can get their clauts upon;
If any dare refuse to give them,
They durk them, strips them, and so leave

them.

Assert we serve a Parricide

Or an Incendiarie;

But we will murder, sham, and trick,
Of such to make us free;

We'll burn alive, and quarter quick

So Hey Boyes up go we.

The Parliament, those poor sham sots,
We'll make them well content
To give supplies to cut their throats;

And when they do consent,

We'll kick these villans on the breech,

No more of them will we,
But Britain better manners teach-
For Hey Boyes up go we.

But if they chance to temporize,
And foster fond suspicions,

And tell King James of their franchise,
Their charter and conditions,
He'll pupon them and their Laws→→→→
They're blind that cannot see
The longest Sword decides the Cause-
Thus Hey Boyes up go we.
The sins of the Long Parliament
He'll visite them upon,
Their other crimes and heinous faults,
Which since are come and gone.
Of Westminster and Oxford too
The damned memorie;

He hath an Irish job to dc--
So Hey Boyes up go we.
And, that he may facilitat

His work, he'll work a while
By Toleration-lull asleep

The rogues, and them beguile;
Some subtile potions he'll compose
Of grace and clemencie,
To blunt all those who him oppose
So Hey Boyes up go we."

This is in our author's best manner: but he is also capable of a more lofty and dignified strain, though his temperament perhaps, and probably still more the circumstances in which he was placed, habitually inclined him to "crack the satiric thong." The following stanzas well become the intrepid warrior who fought and died for the cause of Religion and of Liberty: they form part of a short poem, entitled, "Some few Lines composed by him for divertisement from melancholie thoughts, when travelling abroad. To the tune of Fancy free."

"Through razing rage of cursed kings,
Whom vitious souls admire ;
Through unjust sentences which springs
From avarice or ire;

Or some such like infernall cause,

Whence guiltless people quake Before his face, whose sword, whose laws, Should their oppressors shake; Through firie fevers, wasting wounds, Through melancholious want,

Through sad disastures which abounds
To such as long and pant-*
Through calumnies, through frauds and
slights,

That moveth mortals' mind, Through slandering tongues of brutish wights,

To baser wayes inclined:
They must adventure who intends
In Vertue's camp to warr,
Abhorring mean penurious ends
That brave exploits do marr.

If, when travers'd by all such fates,
Honour and Vertue be
Both proof against enchanting baits,
And frowning destiny,-

A soul may have a sure solace,
When stormed on every side,
And look proud tyrants in the face
With scorn to be dismay'd." &c.

Upon the whole, though William Cleland, compared with the great English poets of the preceding age,→ with Dryden, or even with his more direct prototype, the author of Hudibras, sinks into a rude and unskilful versifier; yet his poetical talents were unquestionably superior to any that the Tory party could then oppose to them; and if his genius be estimated (as it ought to be) rather from what it promised than performed, and with due consideration of the lamentable state of poetry at that time in Scotland, and of all the peculiar disadvantages under which Cleland wrote,-the reader, we think, will be inclined to assign him a very honourable niche in our national Temple of Fame, not only as a Scots Worthy,' but like

wise as a Scottish Poet.

THE EXACT NARRATIVE OF THE CON FLICT AT DUNKELD, BETWIXT THE EARL OF ANGUS'S REGIMENT AND THE REBELS.

Collected from several Officers of that Re giment, who were Actors in, or Eye-wit nesses to, all that's here Narrated, in rtference to these Actions.

THE said regiment being then betwixt seven and eight hundred men, arrived at Dunkeld Saturndays night, the 17 of August, 1689, under the command of Lieute nant-Collonel William Cleland, a brave and singularly well accomplished gentleman, within 28 years of age. Immediatly they found themselves obliged to ly at their arms, as being in the midst of their enemies.Sunday at nine in the morning, they began some retrenchments within the Marquess of Athol's yard-dykcs; the old breaches where of they made up with loose stones, and scaffolded the dykes about. In the after

noon, about three hundred men appear'd upon the hills on the north-side of the town, who sent one with a white cloth upon the top of a halbert, with an open unsubscribed paper, in the fashion of a letter, directed to the commanding officer, wherein was written, We the gentlemen assembled, being informed that ye intend to burn the town, desire to know whether ye come for peace or zear, and do certifie you, that if ye burn any one house, we will destroy you.

The Lieutenant-Collonel returned answer in writ, to this purpose, We are faithful subjects to King William and Queen Mary, and enemies to their enemies; and if you send those threats, shall make any hostile appearance, we will burn all that belongs to you, and otherwise chastise you as you de

serve.

But in the mean time he caused solemnly proclaim in the mercat-place his majesties indemnity, in the hearing of him who brought the foresaid paper.

Munday morning two troops of horse, and three of dragoons, arrived at Dunkeld, under the command of the Lord Cardross, who viewed the fields all round, and took six prisoners, but saw no body of men, they being retired to the woods.

Munday night they had intelligence of a great gathering by the Firey Cross; and Tuesday morning many people appeared upon the tops of the hills, and they were said to be in the woods and hills about Dunkeld more than 1000 men. About eight of the clock, the horse, foot, and dragoons, made ready to March out, but a detatch'd party was sent before of fourty fusiliers, and fifteen halbertiers, under the command of Captain George Monro, and thirty horse with Sir James Agnew, and twenty dragoons with the Lord Cardross his own cornet; after them followed Ensign Lockhart with thirty halbertiers; the halberts were excellent weapons against the Highlanders swords and targets, in case they should rush upon the shot with their accustomed fury. They marched also at a competent distance before the body; one hundred fusiliers more under the command of Captain John Campbel and Captain Robert Hume, two brave young gentlemen; and upon the first fire with the enemy, captain Borthwick, Captain Haries, with 200 musquetiers and pikes, were like wise commanded to advance towards them. The Lieutenant-Collonel having proposed by that method to get advantage of the enemy in their way of loose and furious fighting. The body followed, having left only an hundred and fifty foot within the dykes. The first detatched party, after they had marched about two miles, found before them in a glen, betwixt two and three hundred of the rebels, who fired at a great distance, and shot Cornet Livingston in the leg. The horse retired, and Captain Monro took up their ground, and advanced, fireing upon the rebels to so good purpose, that they began to reel and break, but rallied on the face of the next hill, from whence they were

again beat. About that time the LieutenantCollonel came up, and ordered Captain Monro to send a serjeant with six men to a house on the side of a wood, where he espyed some of the enemies; upon the serjeants approach to the place, about twenty of the rebels appeared against him, but he was quickly seconded by the captain, who beat them over the hill, and cleared the ground of as many as appeared without the woods; and upon a command sent to him, brought off his men in order. Thereafter all the horse, foot, and dragoons, retired to the And that night the horse and dragoons marched to Perth; the Lord Cardross, who commanded them, having received two peremptory orders for that effect. The second was sent to him upon his answer to the first; by which answer he told they were engaged with the enemy, and it was neces sary he should stay.

town.

In that action three of Captain Monro's party were wounded, one of which died of his wounds. William Sandilands a cadee, nephew to the Lord Torphichen, and a very young youth, being of that party, discharged his fusie upon the enemy eleven times. The prisoners taken the next day, told that the rebels lost about thirty men in that action.

After the horse and dragoons were march ed, some of the officers and souldiers of the Earl of Angus's regiment proposed, that they might also march, seeing they were in an open useless place, ill provided of all things, and in the midst of enemies, growing still to greater numbers (the vanguard of Canons army having appeared before they came off the field.) The brave Lieute nant-Collonel, and the rest of the gentlemenofficers amongst them, used all arguments of honour to perswade them to keep their post. And for their encouragement, and to assure them they would never leave them, they ordered to draw out all their horses, to be shot dead. The souldiers then told them, they needed not that pledge for their houour, which they never doubted. And seeing they found their stay necessar, they would run all hazards with them.

Wednesday, with the mornings light, the rebels appeared, standing in order, covering all the hills about (for Canons army joyned the Athole men in the night before, and they were repute in all above 5000 men). Their baggage marched alongst the hills towards the west, and the way that leads into Athole, consisting of a train of many more than 1000 horses. Before seven in the morning, their cannon advanced down to the face of a little hill, closs upon the town, and 100 men all armed with back, breast, and head-piece, marched straight to enter the town, and a battalion of other foot closs with them. Two troops of horse marched about the town, and posted on the south-west part of it, betwixt the foord of the river and the church; and other two troops posted in the north-east side of the town,

near the Cross, who in the time of the conAlict shewed much eagerness to encourage and push on the foot.

The Lieutenant-Collonel had before possest some out-posts with small parties, to whom he pointed out every step for their retreat. Captain William Hay and Ensign Lockhart were posted on a little hill, and the ensign was ordered with 28 men to advance to a stone-dyke at the foot of it; they were attack'd by the rebels, who were in armour, and the foresaid other battalion. And after they had entertained them briskly with their fire, for a pretty space, the rebels forc'd the dyke, and oblig'd them to retire, firing from one little dyke to another, and at length to betake themselves to the house and yard-dykes. In which retreat Captain Hay had his leg broken, and the whole party came off without any more hurt.

A lieutenant was posted at the east end of the town with 18 men, who had three advanced sentinels ordered, upon the rebels close approach, to fire and retire, which accordingly they did; and the lieutenant, after burning of some houses, brought in his party. Lieutenant Stuart was plac'd in a baricado at the Cross, with 20 men, who, seeing the other lieutenant retire, brought his men from that ground, and was killed in the retreat, there being a multitude of the rebels upon them.

Lieutenant Forrester and Ensign Campbell were at the west end of the town within some little dykes, with 24 men, who fired sharply upon the enemies horse, until great numbers of foot attack'd their dykes, and forc'd them to the church, where were two lieutenants and about one hundred men.

All the out-posts being forc'd, the rebels advanced most boldly upon the yard-dykes all round, even upon those parts which stood within less than fourty paces from the river, where they crowded in multitudes, without regard to the shot liberally pour'd in their faces; and struck with their swords at the souldiers upon the dyk, who with ther pikes and halberts returned their blows with interest. Others in great numbers possest the town houses, out of which they fired within the dyks, as they did from the hills about; and by two shots at once, one through the head and another through the liver, the brave Lieutenant-Collonel was killed while he was visiting and exhorting the officers and souldiers at their several posts. He attempted to get into the house, that the souldiers might not be discouraged at the sight of his dead body, but fell by the way. And immediately thereafter, Major Hender son received several wounds, which altogether disabled him, and whereof he died four days after. Captain Caldwal was shot in the breast, and is not like to recover. Captain Borthwick was shot through the arm going with succours to the church. And Captain Steil got a wound in the shoulder, which he caused pance, and returned again to his post.

The Lieutenent-Collonel being dead, and the major disabled about an hour after the action began (which was before seven in the morning), the command fell to Captain Monro, who left his own post to Lieutenant Stuart of Livingstoun. And finding the souldiers galled in several places by the enemies shot from the houses, he sent out small parties of pike-men, with burning fag. gots upon the points of their pikes, who fired the houses; and where they found keys in the doors, lock't them and burnt all within, which raised a hideous noise from these wretches in the fire. There were sixtcen of them burnt in one house, and the whole houses were burnt down except three, wherein some of the regiment were advantageously posted. But all the inhabitants of the town who were not with the enemy, or fled to the fields, were received by the souldiers into the church, and sheltered there.

Notwithstanding all the gallant resistance which these furious rebels met with, they continued their assaults uncessantly until past eleven of the clock,-in all which time there was continual thundering of shot from both sides, with flames and smoak, and hideous cries, filling the air. And which was very remarkable, though the houses were burnt all round, yet the sinoak of them, and all the shot from both sides, was carryed every where outward from the dyks upon the assailants as if a wind had blown every way from the center within.

At length, the rebels wearied with so many fruitless and expensive assaults, and finding no abatement of the courage or diligence of their adversaries, who treated them with continual shot from all their posts, they gave over, and fell back, and run to the hills in great confusion. Whereupon they within beat their drums, and flourished their colours, and hollowed after them, with all expressions of contempt and provocations to return. Their commanders assay'd to bring them back to a fresh assault, as some prisoners related, but could not prevail; for they answered them, they could fight against men, but it was not fit to fight any more against devils.

The rebels being quite gone, they within began to consider where their greatest danger appeared in time of the conflict; and surrendring these places more secure, they brought out the seats of the church, with which they made pretty good defences, especially they fortified these places of the dyk which were made up with loose stones, a poor defence against such desperate assailiants. They also cut down some trees on a little hill where the enemy gall'd them under covert. Their powder was almost spent, and their bullets had been spent long before, which they supplyed by the diligence of a good number of men, who were imployed all the time of the action in cutting lead off the house, and melting the same in little furrows in the ground, and cutting the pieces into sluggs to serve for