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the emperor was convinced that he was no impostor, and the consideration of the pains he had already suffered induced him to pardon the criminal.

Don Diego Osarius, a noble Spaniard, being in love with a young lady of the court, obtained of her a private meeting, within a grove in the king's gardens, which was a capital crime. Nor did they long enjoy the pleasure they ran such dangers in procuring; they were discovered by the unfortunate barking of a little dog: the nobleman was seized, committed to prison, and condemned to die. After hearing his sentence, he became, in one and the same night, in appearance, both young and old, his hair having turned of that silver grey that decorates the heads of the aged. The gaoler repaired early in the morning to the palace, and related this action, as a prodigy, to the king, who was pleased to pardon the prisoner, saying, he had been sufficiently punished for his fault.

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Mr. Gauze, of Paisley, who was of our company, a well read paukie carl, that kens more than he lets on, seeing the frame of our reflections, began, in a far

off way, to cast about his cantrips, with the which I leave the courteous reader to guess what he did, by the rehearsal of the following story; in the telling of which, it is not to be described what he effected, not only by his awsome look and voice, but the aids and helps he got from the scene of night, and

the solemn waters through which our vessel was ettling her weary way towards the Renfrew ferry; for by this time we had left Dumbarton castle far behind, and had passed Dunotter, that ancient ruin, of which I have never been able to get any further account, than that it is supposed to have been bigget by the Picts, and, doubtless, has had the curse of God pronounced against its owners, since they are all utterly perished from off the face of the earth. However, to return to Mr. Gauze.—

King Charles and the Witches.

"Once on a time," said he, "when the funny king Charles was in great straits and jeopardy of fortune, as he was sitting in the midst of his courtiers and counsellors after supper, in his palace, heavy and worn out in spirit, he declared, on his honour as a prince, that he felt himself so oppressed and weighed down, he would grant to any one of them the first reasonable petition he might have occasion to present, who would lighten his fancy that night. Whereupon, all the courtiers and counsellors began to strive with one another to divert his vert his majesty, every every one telling something that was to be more comical than the tales which had gone before, But their endeavours were all in vain; the more tribulation they put themselves to in order to make the king laugh, and grow again jocose, the more they saddened his royal spirit, till he said, in the words of SolomonVanity of vanities, all is vanity.'

"But it happened, that there was that night in the presence, a learned discreet doctor of di

vinity, from the west country, on some concern of the kirk which required a canny handling to bring to a proper issue; and he, seeing the weak and feckless striving of the lords and gentlemen, said May it please your majesty, I would do the part of a loyal subject in this matter; but the stories I have to tell are not so wonderful as those which your majesty has graciously endeavoured to endure.' The words of which address, so drew the king's attention, that he desired the doctor (Halket, I believe was his name) to tell him one of his tales.

"I doubt, most dread monarch," replied the doctor," that what I have to tell will obtain little credit here; but as your majesty is well known to be, in the words of the prayer-book, a most religious sovereign, perhaps it may be blessed on your majesty's frame of mind, with a salutary impression and effect. What I have to say, is of an adventure that befel myself, when I was a lad, before going to the college of Glasgow.

"Your majesty has, belike, heard that there are certain mystical women in the world called witches. In the shire of Renfrew, we have had, both in time past and at present, no small trouble with their pranks; and it is as thoroughly believed among the country folks as the gospel, that the witches are in the practice of gallanting over field and flood, after sun-set, in the shape of cats and mawkins, to dance the La Volta, with a certain potentate, that I shall not offend your majesty by naming.

"I should here explain, that

the witches, when they take the shape of hares, charm away the power of powder and lead; so that, unless the gun be loaded with silver, it will not go off; or, if it does go off, it will not kill, especially in the hands of a young sportsman-and that the best antidote to their charm, is for the sportsman, when he is an experienced hand, to put a pair of silver sleeve-buttons into his fowling-piece. When he does this, and fires with effect, it is said, and the fact is often well attested, the hare will never be seen again. But, beyond the next hedge, some dubious carlin will, in all human probability, be found riddled in the hips, saying her prayers backwards. What I have to tell is an undoubted proof of this, for it happened to myself, in the presence of the late Logan of that ilk, a man of singular piety, and one of the best shots in the shire of Ayr.

"Being staying with him, we one day went out to shoot. It was in the afternoon. We started nothing, and we staid late, not easily content, as your majesty may well think, with such profitless sport. But I trow we have both had cause to remember long that afternoon; for in the gloaming, as we were coursing with our dejected dogs, the which were as disappointed as ourselves, we started, as we thought, a hare out of a whin bush. It ran before us, in every gesture, lith and limb, just like a hare, and the dogs pursued it as if it had been nothing less natural. We followed, never doubting that it was a hare.

"A fine har'st evening had set in, and the new moon, the sickle of time, betokened, in the west

ern heavens, that nature was binding up the sheaves of our days; but, nevertheless, we followed our game, never suspecting that it was any thing else than but a poor terrified mawkin. Logan took a vizy, and fired, but his gun flashed in the pan. I, likewise, presented, and, in the same moment, my hand was smitten with the cramp, or something no canny; but neither of us, for all that, entertained any doubt of the hare being what it appeared-a hare.

"Well, sir, please your majesty, Logan primed again, and I, having beated the life into my fingers, followed the game, and fired, but missed. This set Logan foremost, and he, shortly after, also fired. He might as well have whistled: what we had at first thought a hare continued to scamper on unhurt.

"By this time I had loaded again, and again, after running on some twenty paces in the track of the beast, confident I had a hare in view. I fired a second time. It was of no avail. Logan having in the meanwhile loaded, came up to me.

"In the pursuit, we had followed the hare, as we thought it was, to the walls of an old abbey. It had been a sanctified place in the times of popery, but it had been burnt down when Glencairn, at the reformation, herrit the monks' nests throughout Conyngham. Many a sad story was told of that place. It would credule the royal blood in your majesty's sacred veins, were I to relate what is told and believed concerning the deeds done by the popish friars in that ruinous monastery. One day when a farmer, whom I knew, was

pulling down a piece of the wall to help to mend a dike, he found the skeleton of a human hand built in with the stones. What more he discovered he never would reveal, but from that day he was an altered man. However, to return from this digression, please your majesty, the moon and twilight shone bright on the abbey walls, and we saw the hare as we thought, as perfect as possible, cowering along the bottom of the wall. I would have fired, but Logan stopped me. He was a worthy pious man.

"Lend me your sleeve buttons," said he. They were Bristol stones set in silver. The manner in which he spoke was very solemn. It made the flesh crawl on my bones, and my hair to rise. I said nothing, but took the buttons from my shirtsleeves, keeping my eye steadfast on the hare, as we both thought it was. He did the same. The buttons out of my right sleeve he put into his gun. "Put the others in yours, said he. I did so. "In the name of the Lord," cried he, "take aim." We presented together: we both fired in the same moment, and ran to the spot where we thought a hare had been. "And what the devil was it?" cried the king. "Please your majesty," replied the doctor, "It was just a fine fat hare."

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During the time of this recital, one Mrs. M'Freat, a decent carlin of Oban, was particularly attentive; but at the end, when we were all laughing at king Charles's disappointment, she said, with a very serious countenance, that we were no doubt free to guff awa as we pleased;

but for her part, she had reason to know and ken that there was many a thing in this world that required an explanation; and then she proceeded and told us how, one morning in the last summer-but I will relate what she said, at full length, in her own words.

The Wraith.

"A fine morning it was," said she," the lift clear, and the air brisk, every thing without young and fresh, and quickened, as it were, with the sense of a living power. My youngest dochter, a bairn o' ten years and three months, but a thougthful lassie for her time o' life, could na rest in her bed; she was eirie and unco, and fain and fu,' under the constraint and pushing on of an invisible hand,-in short, she could na be mastered, and we were obligated to let her run her race; so up she rose out of her bed, and putting on her clothes, went out to the kail-yard to play hersel, and by hersel; she had na been there long, when back she came, crying that she had seen a bonny wee white lambie in the eye of the morning, but that when she went to touch him, he vanished awa.-There was something like daftness in this, and I canna tell the effect it had on me, that was her mother. I thought the poor bairn was sairly gane by herself.-Then she went out again, and back she came, wi' a face o' terrification, pale and wan, her een standing in her head, and her looks raised, and no canny.

"What's the matter, Flora, my dear," quo' I.

"O, I hae seen death," quo' she. "And what was he like,

my sweet lamb?" I said, scarcely kennan what I said, for a power was upon my spirit, and I trembled at every limb.

"He's just like Jamie Campbell Lorn," quo' the ghastly lassie, "only he has no flesh on his legs, and his belly's a' banes, just like a creel,—and he looked at me wi' holes in his head, where he should have een." "Gude guide us," said both the gudeman and me, "the bairn's surely seen a wraith, or got a waff o'the second sight. And what did he say to you Flora?"

"He said nothing," quo' she, "but walked before me, looking round at me. O he was a dreadful like thing!"

"When we heard this, we said no more, but thought wi, seriousness that it couldna but betoken

something; and the gudeman put it down in his book, wi' day and date, and think what was the outcome. About a week after, we heard frae Greenock that poor Jamie, on the same day, and at the same hour, fell frae a scaffold in Scott's yard, on the dry dock, and was killed dead on the spot."

To this nobody made reply, but all sat silent, and I canna say I was comfortable; for, in the meantime, while Mrs. M'Freat was speaking, I saw before us a tall white figure, standing high on the deck-higher than the sons of men; and the lights at the Broomielaw, to which we were now drawing near, shone dimly through the apparition. O, but I was glad when the vessel stoppit, for I kent na what to mak o' the spectacle, till, lo and behold, it was nothing but a fizzing fume of the boiler. There ne'er, however, was any thing

seen liker to a true ghost, in a winding sheet, than it was; so I was exceedingly rejoiced when I found myself once more safely on the dry land, and treading the ground o' Glasgow. Mrs. M'Lecket, when I reached the house, was wearying and wondering what could have detained me, and had a bit o' nice supper waiting my partaking. Thus ended my second voyage; the which, however, although more abundant in personalities of adventure towards myself, was not, upon the whole, as pleasant as the first; so that my thirst of travelling to see foreign sights was, in a manner, cooled; and for the remainder of the season, I comforted myself dousely in the Saltmarket.

ENGLISH BRAVERY.

Captain Greenville, in the Revenge, in 1591, was so unfortunate as to be pent up between the island of Flores and the Spanish fleet. In this desperate situation he resolutely attempted to break through; and, notwithstanding he had ninety sick men on board, maintained a gallant fight with the best of the Spanish ships, for fifteen hours together.

During this engagement he was laid a-board at one and the same time by the St. Philip, a ship of 1,500, tons and 78 guns, and by four more of the largest ships in that fleet, filled, some with 200, others with 500, and others with 800 soldiers, besides seamen, who several times boarded him, but were as often repulsed and driven over-board. He never had less than two large galleons by his side, which were, from time to time, relieved by

fresh ships, men, and ammunition. So that, between three in the afternoon and day-light next morning, this single ship maintained a close fight with fifteen of the stoutest vessels in the Spanish fleet, sunk some of them, particularly one of the great galleons, and the admiral of the hulks, and obliged all of them to sheer off.

This brave officer, though wounded in the beginning of the close fight, about three in the afternoon, kept the upper deck till an hour before midnight; when receiving a wound in his body by a musket-ball, he went down to have it dressed; and there, while he was under the surgeon's hands, he received another shot in his head the surgeon was also killed.

By this time, his bravest men being killed, his ship much disabled, the mast split, the deck covered with dead and wounded, and his powder spent to the very last barrel, he would have persuaded the officers to sink the ship with all in her; and though he could not bring them into this mind, they resolved to die in their own defence, rather than submit to dishonourable conditions; and, in their wretched state, obliged the Spaniards to grant them their liberties. At which time this wreck had six feet water in the hold, three shot under water poorly stopped, all her masts carried by the board, her tackle quite ruined, her upper works and the whole vessel laid almost even with the water: having been engaged, not only with the fifteen ships that boarded her, but in reality, by turns, with the whole fleet of fifty-three ships; and had received, upon a

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