The Yellow Frigate; or, The Three Sisters

"Now past the limit, which his course divides, When to the north the sun's bright chariot rides; We leave the winding bays, and swarthy shores, Where Senegal's black wave impetu...

"Horsed on a speckled steed, Biserta's king Traversed the extended line from wing to wing To close the loose array he gave command-- Ten thousand lances flamed in every band; An...

---------------- "Peace, Kent! Come not between the dragon and his wrath: I lov'd _her_ most, and thought to set my rest On her kind nursery.--Hence, and avoid my sight So be my...

"Shall I resign the sceptre of my sires, And give the haughty barons leave to reign? No! perish all before that fatal hour I will sustain the majesty of kings, And be a monarch...

"His little hardy infant son Sits crowing on his lusty neck; His wife--a fair and tender one-- Murmurs and weeps upon his cheek; The sail is set, she clears the shore, She feels...

"Quaint old town of toil and traffick, quaint old town of art and song, Mem'ries haunt thy painted gables, like the rooks that round them throng; Mem'ries of the middle ages, wh...

"Faintingly her head she bendeth, And on my dim and dewy eyes, A kiss her purple mouth bestoweth, Sweet repayment, while she sighs-- 'Ah, that fondling in thine arms, Thus may I...

"He ha' brass within and steel without, With beams on his top-castle strong; And eighteen pieces of ordnance, He carries on each side along. And he hath a pinnace dight, St. And...

"The morning e'e saw mirth and glee, In the hoary feudal tower; Of bauld Sir Alan Mortimer, The Lord o' Aberdour. But dool was there, and mickle care, When the moon began to gle...

The conversation at Loretto had been maintained in broken and unconnected sentences, or in low whispers; the hermit had retrimmed his lamp, removed the remains of the supper, an...

"Yest'reen I saw the new moon With the auld moon in her arm; And if we gang to sea, master, I fear we'll come to harm. They had na' sailed a league, a league, A league, but bare...

"I snuff up the smell of a corse from afar-- Whither goest thou, wild steed? Whither fliest, cavalier? Does the warrior seek for the pathway of war? Does the wild steed seek for...

The fatal Friday was a dark and lowering day; the sun had been hidden in fiery clouds, and torrents of rain had fallen, swelling all the mountain streams. The minds of Euphemia...

"Who ever approached me, but for some private object, or with some private passion to gratify? Hatred, ambition, and cupidity form round me a circle without issue, and as a vict...

At this time, when the sun had set enveloped in clouds--when the Forth was breaking in foam over the black scalp of the Beacon Rock, and while its billows boomed along the drear...

The Lords still remained at Leith, where they took all measures and precautions necessary to strengthen their power and increase their forces, in case the missing king should ap...

"Contempt on the minion who calls you disloyal! Though fierce to your foe, to your friends you are true; And the tribute most high to a head that is royal, Is love from a heart...

"How can I 'scape Antonia!--how evade A father's stern inflexible decree? Paint but the means, I ne'er shall be afraid To tread a path prescribed by love and thee." _Bridal of P...

But state-craft, mainly, was his pride and boast 'The golden medium' was his guiding star, Which means 'Move on until you're uppermost, And then things can't be hotter than they...

"Yon is the Tay rolled down from Highland hills, That rests his waves, after so rude a race, In the fair plains of Gowrie--further westward Proud Stirling rises--yonder to the e...

"Don Alfonso! Don Alfonso! Thou art heir unto this throne; None thy right would wish to question, None thy sovereignty disown. But the people sore suspect thee, That by thee thi...

"Were ye twentye shippes, and he but one, I swear by kirke, and bower, and hall, He wolde overcome them everye one, If once his beames they doe downefall. This is colde comfort,...

The insurgent lords had marched from Linlithgow to Leith, but had not as yet obtained possession of the capital or its fortress which the provost and governor maintained against...

"There was a ship at morning prime The Scottish shore forsook, And southward with a favouring gab Her rapid course she took: Her mast St. Andrew's banner bears, And heaven be no...

"A grey-haired knight set up his heid, And crackit richt crousely: 'Of Scotland's king I haud my house, He pays me meat and fee; And I will keep my guid auld house, While my hou...

A few pages back, we left the Duke of Rothesay, the Earl of Angus, and Lord Drummond seeking the presence of James III., all in a high state of excitement. They soon reached the...

"Oh, blythely shines the bonnie sun upon the Isle o' May, And blythely rolls the morning tide into St. Andrew's Bay; When haddocks leave the Firth of Forth and mussels leave the...

"By Chericul's dark wandering streams. Where cane-tufts shadow all the wild; Sweet visions haunt my waking dreams Of Scotland, loved while still a child; Of castled rocks stupen...

_Sir Penny_ owre all gets the gree, Both in burgh and citie, In castle and in tower; Withouten either spear or shield, He is the best by firth or field, And stalwartest in stowr...

"And, as they say, Lamentings heard i' the air; strange scream of death; And prophesying, with accents terrible, Of dire combustion and confused events, New hatched to the woful...

"All hands unmoor! proclaims a boisterous cry; All hands unmoor! the caverned rocks reply; Roused from repose, aloft the sailors swarm, And with their levers soon the windlass a...

Undaunted by the presence of so many enemies, Sir Andrew Wood and his two faithful followers ascended the great turnpike stair of Barton's house, and were ushered by pages, esqu...

However, neither the interference of St. Anne, nor the good wishes of the honest Lothian laird, availed Master William Wad in the matter in hand, for in five minutes after the i...

"But now we part, and it may be that years shall wing their flight Ere thou again wilt cheer my heart, or rise upon my sight; Then fare thee well! in other days, in years of aft...

In fulfilment of his boast made in the Tower of Bronghty Borthwick had fully examined "all the avenues" to the chamber of Lady Margaret Drummond, preparatory and previous to her...

"Kind cousin Gilford, if thou lack'st good counsel At race, at cockpit, or at gaming table, Or any freak by which men cheat themselves As well of life as of the means to live, C...

The hostile lines were drawing nearer and more near; the shouts of the wild clansmen of Galloway mingling with the slogans of the Merse-men, who shouted "A Home! a Home!" were b...

"'Tis your belief the world was made for man; Kings do but reason on the self-same plan. Maintaining yours, you cannot theirs condemn, Who think, or seem to think, man made for...

On a glorious morning of the first days of June, James III. began his march for Stirling, once the El Dorado of the Scottish nobles during his reign, as Linlithgow was in the ti...

"Sir John got on a bonny brown beast To Scotland for to ride--a; A brown buff coat upon his back, A short sword by his side--a; Alas! young man, we sucklings can Pull down the S...

"Lady, those hours for aye are gone. Our days of youth and joy are past; And each new year but rolls along To that which soon must be our last. Our early friendship--early joy,...

"I love! and love hath given me sweet thoughts, to God akin; And oped a living paradise, my heart of hearts within; Oh! from this Eden of my life, God keep the serpent, Sin." GE...

Oh weel may the boatie row, And better may she speed; And weel may the boatie row, That wins the bairns' bread. I cuist my net in Largo bay, And fishes I caught nine; There's th...

----They gazed upon each other, With swimming looks of speechless tenderness, Which mixed all feelings, child, friend, lover, brother, All that the best can mingle and express,...

The bell in the tower of St. Anthony's preceptory--a tower demolished by the English cannon in 1559--was just tolling eleven, when Hew Borthwick blew the copper horn which hung...

The king remained on board of the _Yellow Frigate_ for some days, during which the rumour that he had abdicated and retired to Holland, to avoid a new civil war, spread far and...

"Oh, wide is the sorrow in landwart and borough, And dark is the symbol on proud Falkland's wall! For James the true-hearted, our prince hath departed, The king of broad Scotlan...

"I would the wind that is sweeping now O'er the restless and weary wave; Were swaying the leaves of the cypress bough O'er the calm of my early grave." _Scottish Song._

Next day it became known among all the ports on both sides of the Forth, that Admiral Wood had won another victory--that his three favourite followers, Mathieson, Barton of Leit...

"I never liked the landsman life, the earth is aye the same Gie me the ocean for my dower, my vessel for my hame. When life's last sun gangs feebly doon, and death comes to the...

"St Abb, St. Helen, and St. Bey, All built kirks near unto the sea; St. Abb's upon the Nabs, and St. Helen's on the Lea, But St. Bey's upon Dunbar sands is nearest to sea!"--_Ol...

The hermit's eyes were filled by a cunning leer, as two ladies, each followed by a page and female attendant, all mounted, rode down the pathway to the chapel, and, whipping up...

"A sailor's life is a life of woe, He works now late, now early; Now up, now down, now to and fro, But then he takes it cheerly. And yet think not our fate is hard. Though storm...

The approaching vessels had been descried already from the ships of Howard, who fired a cannon to quicken his boat; and the moment it was on board and hoisted in, with its provi...

All unaware that he was singled out and tracked, James rode from that lost battle-field at a rapid trot, to reach the boats of Sir Andrew Wood; and every sound that rose from th...

It is recorded in history that James III. made a second effort to overcome the treason of Shaw, but in vain. The message delivered by Sir David Falconer and Lord Bothwell, comma...

The tidings of this victory, notwithstanding the slaughter by which it was gained, caused the greatest rejoicings over all Scotland, for her people were proud of their country,...

In no way satisfied by the result of their expedition, the two nobles and their followers galloped from Loretto, and re-passed the Bridge of Musselburgh just in time to avoid th...

What followed this happy interview with the leal and true-hearted James IV. may be gathered from the following conversation, which took place next day, in the Mauchline Tower, b...

"Sordid, mean, and miserly, he has made various compacts, he has made a compact with pride; a compact with avarice; a compact with knavery; a compact with ambition; a compact wi...

Sir Patrick Gray and Sir James Shaw, exasperated by the turn affairs had taken against them, and by finding, that instead of having their petty lairdships erected into lordships...

Under the Duke of Montrose, Lindesay his son, the Earls of Mar, Athole, and others, the main body of James's forces retired slowly through the Torwood, by the old Roman Way, sti...

"The boat rocks at the pier o' Leith, Fu' loud the wind blaws down the ferry, The ships ride at the Berwick Law, And I maun leave my bonnie Mary."--_Scottish Song_.

"I would give ten of my best horses, if by so doing I could find this stunted vagabond in the grey gaberdine!" said Hailes to Home, as they met in the Broad Wynd; "and so he has...

"Upon desolate Aros there is wailing and weeping, For the chief of her lords in the dark chamber sleeping; In the dark chamber sleepeth our curly-tressed warrior, In the day of...

Since the day when the English prisoners were presented to James IV. at Leith, Euphemia and her sister Sybilla had no opportunity of meeting, or even seeing Barton, or Falconer....

"What though our hands be weaker now Than they were wont to be, When boldly forth our fathers sailed, And conquered Normandie? We still may sing their deeds of fame, In thrillin...

"Then on my mind a shadow fell, And evil hopes grew rife; The damning thought stuck in my heart, And cut me like a knife,-- That she whom all my days I loved Should be another's...

This venerable royal residence was situated at the head of a narrow street opening off the great thoroughfare, then called St. Margaret's Close, though by mistake the civic auth...

"The moon was in the dark blue sky, And mirrored in the dark blue deep; The placid wave rolled noiseless by, The winds like babes had gone to sleep; While o'er the vessel's shad...

"For human bliss and woe in the frail thread Of human life are all so closely twined, That till the shears of Fate the texture shred, The close succession cannot be disjoined, N...