"I looked and beheld the deep green sea, and amid the waters was a lonely isle. There I saw a fair woman and her only daughter-and the maiden sang of dool and sorrow, and the woman nursed a fair-haired child, and thought on her husband and a far foreign land. And as she looked to the sea for her husband there came a bonnie ship, with her pennons spread, and her white sails bent, and she cast anchor by the lonesome isle. And I looked and saw evil men go ashore, and carry away the woman's fair-haired daughter, and the mother wept and wailed -followed them with intercessions and prayers-but she asked pity from unpitying men, and they sailed away and left her sorrowing. And I looked again, and I saw the ship with her crew of evil doers-and they waxed merry with wine, and went sweeping along with gladness and joy of heart. And I saw a silver mist arise, and it spread and darkened; and amid the mist I heard voices more awful than the voices of men, crying, Woe, woe, to the workers of wickedness-and then I heard a din like the shock of armed men, and a sound arose like the groans of the dying-and the mist melted away and there lay on the decks the bodies of many mariners, pierced with shot and with sword; and I saw the woman with her fair-haired daughter standing exulting, and singing a loud song of deliverance. Concluding his prophesy, he sank down again on his seat, hid his face in the folds of his mantle, and groaned and shud dered in the mental agony which ever precedes and follows the disclosures of a Seer.

1

"On returning to our companions we found the wine-cup in rapid march, the brandy goblet making its rounds, while a keg of choice Hol lands followed, and completed in a little space the triumph of liquor over the understanding. One sang a long maritime battle-ballad, in a.. loud equal tone of voice, which rivalled, in hoarseness and melody, the clamour of a storm in the shrouds. An other shouted out the names of all the naval heroes of plunder and piracy with whom his calling had made him familiar; and toasted them all in quick succession, distinguish ing each by some rude descriptive

epithet taken from the story of their lives. A third hallooed, with a goblet in one hand and the remains of a tarry hat in the other, the names and dwelling-places of a long succession of mistresses, who had triumphed over his heart at home and abroad; but his chief favourite was Bell Sheal, daughter to the Skipper of Courach. A fourth gave a history of the famous sea-fight between the Rover and the Rainbow-dipped his fingers without scruple in his own or his comrades' liquor, to draw a chart of the coast where the battle hap→ pened; and imagining himself at last in the hottest of the action, started on his feet, and shouted out, Board, ye babes of darkness, board!? and overturned the naval ballad-singer in the fury of his enthusiasm. In the midst of this scene of brawl and drunkenness, Borthwick sat and enjoyed in their turns the varied characters which his crew exhibited. He sang with the songster, toasted pirates and drabs with Splicer and Spankem, threw a passing descriptive word or two into the narrative of the sea-fight of the Rover and the Rainbow, and shouted and swore with all, till the whole isle remurmured with the din. my gallant soul,' exclaimed a sailor from Carrickfergus to the boatswain, you have a bright sketch of swear ing, and you damn most delightfully.'

Ah,

"It was about two o'clock on a summer morning, when the captain, the boatswain, and their companions, returned on board the ship-some we hauled up the side-they all got aboard with difficulty, and reeled to rest. I was desired to keep watch on deck, and an old experienced sailor was my companion. By de grees the brawling and deep swearing subsided; and all that could be heard was the plash of the seal on the shore, the low chafing of the surge against the prow of the ship, and the frequent sob and sigh from the unhappy island maid, whose sorrow knew no sleep. My comrade and I paced the deck with our cut lasses drawn; but the dewy air was cold: we placed them in their sheaths, and with folded arms, and eyes which now wandered seaward, then shoreward, and finally were turned upon each other in sharp and suspicious scrutiny, we maintained our silent

watch. We had not moved in this way long till we heard the captive girl, low and scarce audible at first, interceding with Heaven for protection; her prayer was interrupted by sobs, and other expressions of misery, and her voice, though sweet, was inexpressibly mournful. "I wish,' said my comrade, that the lassie would have the sense to be silent she'll waken Captain Cutawa, and he'll waken in drink-and wakening in drink he'll waken angry, and when he's angry out comes his cutlass, and right and left, from stem to stern, strikes he as if a thousand fiends were boarding his ship-and wha kens but ye may get a slap or sae with his cutlass, just by way of a mark of special regard-a friendly token, belike, just to show how high you stand in a gallant man's regard?' These are tokens we must sometimes take from our enemies,' I observed but a cut from a friend's cutlass is long in healing, and I should be tempted to snap my pistol in his face if he struck hard. I like your spirit, my lad,' said the old pirate, measuring his steps in confidence, side by side with me; and were my feet on the heather-top in stead of shaven deal, I would burn powder under the best man's nose in the mainland who bestowed such dubious benediction on me. But conscience! ye see, lad, the land has ae law, and the waves have another; and ye'll never rise to command till ye have learned to obey. And it's just no sae bad as ye imagine to get a small wipe from the captain's hanger-it is a mark of respect, though something of a queer ane, and which a hot-headed chield would be apt to misunderstand.If he strikes ance he never strikes again, and ye are ever after the captain's marked man-to bouse and carouse, to plot and to board, and to share in the glory and the spoil, and be ever at his right hand. I bear a gentle token of his affection myself won on the coast of Surinam; I could go to the spot yet where I received it-and it mended, as ye see, in a month,' displaying, as he spoke, the rough ridge of a large flesh-wound, and ever since we have been sworn brothers-amang the billows I mean; for I think, if we were fairly ashore, I would let the law of the land take

its course, and ask him to take his stance with the marking-irons, among the morning dew.'

影

"I could not help smiling at this singular speech; and ventured to inquire, what he thought concerning those deeds of outrage the plundering of a peaceable coast, and carrying away children to dispose of among the plantations. He seemed surprised at my speech. I vow,' said he, by the might of a nine-inch cable, that thou art the greatest simpleton that ever hore pistols. I will make this knotty matter as straight to thee as a handspike; and 1 cannot but say, that I had some of these qualms myself, the first voyage I made with the old half Highland, half Dutch captain-what's his name, who was gibbeted off the Paps of Jura?-old Jansen Vandergelt but he weighed down my scruples with some pieces of Spanish gold, and I became a quiet seaman, and a sworn servant of the ship, ever after. That's but a small answer to a large question, though many would think it good enough, but I will make it plain. Here's the good ship Rover, a free-trader with an English pennon floating-she wants a hand, and a hand wants employment; sae down comes a seaman to the quay, the gowd is offered, the bargain is struck, and ye are a bounden servant to the bonnie ship till she hath made her voyage. Now what is it to you, I would wish to learn, whether she carry sugar-candy or slaves-the law bound ye, and ye cannot loose yourself; else a loose plank, or the yard arm, or, what is worse than all, a West India dungeon, would be your instant fee and reward, the moment ye were taken. are, maybe, somewhat devout, and afraid of doing a thing which may be heinous, and apt to bring ye into trouble in another state and be it sae-scruples should be satisfied.— Ah, my lad, there's nothing sooner soothed than a scruple of that kind→→→→ if ye happen to have a tenderish heart and a soft eye ye'll find these much more in your way. There was Captain Kipper; he aye consulted his chaplain before he ventured on an expedition; and while he had one party ashore marauding and reaving, he had another gang on board praying and singing anthems-and sae he

But ye

balanced matters atween a peevish conscience and a love of gain. I have answered ye now, I trow.' And he regarded me with triumph in his eye, and we continued our pacing and watching.

"My companion laid his hand on my arm to stay me, and he stood looking shoreward, with his lips apart and his matted locks raised from his ear-like one who sought to catch a flitting sound from a distant place. It is but the moving of the seals among the waters after all, I be lieve; said he, and yet I thought I heard something like the shrill twang of a woman's tongue-it's a sound can never be mistaken, and rings in one's ear like hammered steel. But I'll warrant it's that foolish woman's screams, that have left their echo in my lug;—I should like now to have a bit of a brush with our cutlasses and cannon, to get rid of such an unsonsie clamour.' I expressed some suspicion, that much wrong was offered to individual feeling, in thus tearing their victims violently from their native place, and the society of their relatives. He rubbed his chin, which was black and ripe for the razor; shrugged up his trowsers, and answered: Wrong! why ye see there seems to be small wrong in't-every body does with the poor and the helpless as they like one turns a fisher town into a furrowed field, and burns the sheds above the people's heads by way of ejectment, and away they sail to rot on a foreign shore:-another, more merciful, turns his farmers' sous into fusileers, and hounds them away abroad with fife and drum, to be shot and stabbed for sevenpence a day and a new sark once in the year. Now ye see these brown and barren isles, where the crow cannot find a worm-where nought green will grow where all the music ye can hear is the sough of the storm and the clang of the sea-mew-yet to these, and to their wretched shealings, the inhabitants cling like the weed to the rock, and the heather to the hill. I winna say, we are their benefactors, seeing we work for our own gain-but if they winna forsake these unfruitful places, they ought to be thankful and resigned when they get people wise enough to judge for them, and carry them with

a scraigh and a scream to a land of milk and honey. There was wee Duncan Davison-away from his mother's knee we bore him, and muckle she pled, and sore she screamed, and took on as sadly as that daft dame did this blessed night. But mark the upshot, man-Davie's lord of half an island-has slaves to fan him and to cool his feet-a handsome quean or twa to wait on him, and dance and sing, and what notand had he not fortunately fallen in with us, he would have been nought better than a long-legged islander, with a pennyless pouch, a naked knee-his dinner swimming in seven fathoms of sea-brine, and he mending his net to take it: so ye see, my lad, there's muckle gude redounds from this traffic.' And having concluded his justification, he renewed his watching, and seemed disinclined to engage further in conversation.

"It was now drawing towards the morning dawn-the moon sank on the western wave-the stars began to fade, and that faint flush of silvery light, which precedes the sun, began to shoot upwards from the dark-brown summit of an eastern hill. The air was sharp and cold; and those chill breezes, which usher in the dawn, carried so much moisture with them as rendered rapid motion needful to keep up animal heat. My comrade, accustomed much to the balmy and warm evenings of a milder climate, shrunk from my side, and sheltering himself within a mass of cable which lay on deck, coiled himself up within the folds like a snake, and desired me to look sharply out on sea and shore; and soon the murmur of profound sleep told me, that watching was over with him.

"As I paced to and fro I heard a sound of oars dipping gently in the water, on the shaded side of the isle-I heard once or twice a faint low whistle, resembling a sea-bird's scream, and I thought I could distinguish too the tone of a female voice-probably the same which had disturbed my companion. We were anchored under the shelter of a headland rock, distant from land a short pistol shot. All at once twelve or fifteen boats came past the headland

four rowers were in each, and nets and mantles lay in the bottom,

I imagined they were a fishing party, and stood on the ship's side surveying them as they came swiftly onwards. When they were opposite us, a figure rose from the bottom of the rearward boat, drew a bow, and at the moment I heard the shaft sing, I felt it strike deep into my thigh. I cried aloud with the pain; and as I leaned against the rail, I saw eight or ten armed men start up from the bottom of each boat, and shouting out, Macleod! Macleod!' they made for the vessel side. Our captain and men were instantly in motion, and with pistol and cutlass crowded the deck, and endea voured to repel the attack which commenced on all sides at once. I never before or after beheld an attack so fiercely made. The islanders, inured to arms, and accustomed to the dangers of sea and rock, forced their way once or twice upon deck, but were instantly repulsed, and for a while I imagined the pirates would prevail. The islanders lashed several of their boats together, and six men abreast sought to scale the side -shots and stabs were eagerly given from above and from below; and the mariners, armed with long boarding pikes, fought desperately and well.

"As I lay wounded and bleeding, and looking on this fierce contest, I beheld the mother of the maiden we had carried away, with a pistol in her girdle, and a spear in her hand. She flew to her kinsmen, who had that moment recoiled from the attack; and, stamping her foot, exclaimed, Are ye men, and dread the spear and the pistol of wretches such as these?I have suffered wrongs might make heroes of ordinary men -yet you are less than men-if yon were women, you would follow me but alone I will go, and eternal shame befal you!'--and with gleaming eyes, and streaming hair, and a cry of indescribable agony, she flew to the ship, and in a moment mount ed the deck. The mariners seemed overawed by her presence and by her wrongs, and recoiled a step or two: I never beheld a figure so grandly heroic. Her dilated and flashing eyes, her form, which appeared to expand as she confronted her enemies, and her voice, losing at once its soft and maternal tones, and resound

ing like the trumpet call, as she exclaimed, Wretches, I am her mother,'-seemed to wither their hearts and chain their hands.

"At the sound of her voice Borthwick flew from the other side of the ship, where he had with difficulty repelled another attack, and muttering a deep imprecation, rushed towards her with his cutlass waving about his head, till it whistled like the falcon's wing. I hope an act of virtue will redeem the sin I unwillingly committed in keeping company with those wretches:-another moment-and before her kinsmen, who now ascended the deck on all sides, could have come to her assistance, her head had been cleft:-just as the blade was in its fatal descent, a ball from my pistol arrested his career for ever, and stretched him lifeless on the deck at her feet. I could not help uttering a shout of joy, and giving an ineffectual tug at the arrow, which stood fixed in my thigh, turned my face from them, and said,

Now I die contented.' The contest was soon over; the pirates were cut down on all sides. The Highland wrath was kindled, and nothing but blood could appease it. As they walked among the slain, one of them observed me, and drawing his sword, surveyed me for the death-stroke. The mother and her daughter came at that instant from below-the former interposed with a scream, and said, as she laid her arms softly about me, Harm him not, harm him not,-this sweet and blessed boy has saved my life this morn-he has been borne away from a mother's bosom, and can feel for a mother's wrongs. But bless thee, my child, thou art sore wounded-the arrow of the avenger is in thy flesh here, kinsmen, hold his hands and his feet, till I withdraw the weapon and redeem him from death.' Having cut away the cloth, she touched the weapon with a gentle and a skilful hand, and, after a sharp pang or two, removed it from the wound. she said, Flora, my daughter, lay thy young lips to this deep wound, and suck forth the venom of the rusty dart, which hath harmed thy deliverer. And the maiden knelt down, applied two soft red lips to the wound, and then bound it up, and I felt greatly relieved.

'Here,'