blood-stained a persecutor as Dalyell. He had, it must be remarked,
served royalty upon principle in its worst days, and seen a monarch
beheaded by a small party of his rebellious subjects, and a great part
of the community, including himself, deprived of their property, and
obliged to fly for their lives to foreign lands; and all this was on
account of _one particular way_ of viewing politics and religion. When
the usual authorities of the land regained their ascendancy, Dalyell
must naturally have been disposed to justify and support very severe
measures, in order to prevent the _recurrence_ of such a period as the
Civil War and the Usurpation. Thus all his cruelties are resolved into
an abstract principle, to the relief of his personal character, which
otherwise, we do not doubt, might be very good. How often do we see,
even in modern times, actions justified upon general views, which would
be shuddered at if they stood upon their naked merits, and were to be
performed upon the sole responsibility of the individual!"
Such was the chequered military career of the first colonel of the old
Scots Greys, certainly one of the most remarkable men of a time replete
with bloodshed and cruelty.
The persecuted and the persecutor--the fiery Cavalier and the stern
Covenanter--are alike in their quiet graves, and the grass of nearly
two hundred years has grown and withered over them. Their strife is
becoming, indeed, a tale of the times of old; yet few Scotsmen can look
back without emotions of sorrow and compassion to those dark days of
religious madness and political misrule when, with all their bravery,
their forefathers perpetrated such deeds as made "the angels weep."
But, happily for us, time and the grave mellow the memory of all things.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 31: Chambers' _Eminent Scotsmen_.]
[Footnote 32: Alexander Gordon, of Auchintoul, major-general in the
service of the czar, wrote a life of Peter I., which was published
at Aberdeen in 1755. "On the 30th November, this year," says this
work, "died also General Patrick Gordon, much regretted by the czar
and the whole nation. His majesty visited him five times during his
illness--was present at the moment he expired, and shut his eyes
with his own hands. He was buried also in great state. He was son to
John Gordon, Esq., of Achlenchries in the county of Aberdeen, whose
grandfather was a son of the family of Haddo, now Earls of Aberdeen."
This officer entered the Russian service in the reign of Alexis; and
Alexander Gordon joined it in 1693. Both served at the capture of Azof;
the younger was at the battle of Narva, and was long a prisoner in
the hands of the Swedes. In his old age, he returned to Scotland, and
closed his days in peace in his native place.]
[Footnote 33: This must be the Russian computation of time.]
[Footnote 34: Raised for Charles II. in 1650, and disbanded after
Worcester.]
[Footnote 35: War-office communicated.]
[Footnote 36: The Royal Horse Guards of Scotland were raised at
Edinburgh in 1702. The Duke of Argyle, who came over in 1688, was their
first colonel. Lord Polwarth's Horse (now the 7th Hussars) then the
only Scottish regiment of Light Dragoons, were embodied in 1689.]
[Footnote 37: In a muster-roll of Captain Murray's Scottish company, at
this time, I find "_Corporall_ Sir David Livingstone."]
[Footnote 38: See Crichton's _Memoirs of Blackadder_.]
* * * * * *
BY JAMES GRANT.
_Price 2s. each, Fancy Boards._
The Romance of War.
The Aide-de-Camp.
The Scottish Cavaliers.
Bothwell.
Jane Seton; or, The King's Advocate.
Philip Rollo.
The Black Watch.
Mary of Lorraine.
Oliver Ellis; or, The Fusiliers.
Lucy Arden; or, Hollywood Hall.
Frank Hilton; or, The Queen's Own.
The Yellow Frigate.
Harry Ogilvie; or, The Black Dragoons.
Arthur Blane.
Laura Everingham; or, The Highlanders of Glenora.
The Captain of the Guard.
Letty Hyde's Lovers.
The Cavaliers of Fortune.
Second to None.
The Constable of France.
The Phantom Regiment.
The Girl he Married.
First Love and Last Love.
Dick Rodney.
The White Cockade.
The King's Own Borderers.
Lady Wedderburn's Wish.
Only an Ensign.
Jack Manly.
The Adventures of Rob Roy.
The Queen's Cadet.
Under the Red Dragon.
Shall I Win Her?
Fairer than a Fairy.
The Secret Dispatch.
One of the Six Hundred.
Morley Ashton.
Did She Love Him?
The Ross-shire Buffs.
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS,
THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE.