Many a crest that is famous in story. Mount and make ready, then, Sons of the mountain glen, Fight for the Queen and our old Scottish glory. Come from the hills where your hirsels are grazing; Come from the glen of the buck and the roe; Come to the crag where the beacon is blazing; Come with the buckler, the lance and the bow. Trumpets are sounding; War-steeds are bounding; Stand to your arms and march in good order. Tell of the bloody fray. When the Blue Bonnets came over the Border. THE ABBOT'S BLESSING ON THE BRUCE. : WALTER SCOTT. EXTRACTS. "DE BRUCE! I rose with purpose dread And give thee as an outcast o'er To him who burns to shed thy gore;- Who stood on Zophim, heaven-controlled, De Bruce, thy sacrilegious blow I bless thee, and thou shalt be blessed! Blessed in thy sceptre and thy sword. Shall tell thy tale of freedom won, And teach his infants, in the use 6 Of earliest speech, to falter Bruce.' Go, then, triumphant! Sweep along CARDINAL WOLSEY, ON BEING CAST OFF BY KING HENRY VIII. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. EXTRACTS. NAY, then, farewell. I have touched the highest point of all my greatness; I haste now to my setting: I shall fall So farewell to the little good you bear me. And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured, Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye! More pangs and fears than wars or women have. Never to hope again! Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear In all my miseries; but thou hast forced me, And sleep in dull, cold marble, where no mention Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate thee, — Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not. Thy God's and truth's; then, if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, And Prithee, lead me in: There take an inventory of all I have, To the last penny: 'tis the King's; my robe And my integrity to Heaven is all I dare now call mine own. O Cromwell, Cromwell! Had I but served my God with half the zeal THE EXECUTION OF SIR THOMAS MORE. JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE. THE Scaffold had been awkwardly erected, and shook as he placed his foot upon the ladder. "See me safe up," he said to Kingston; "for my coming down I can shift for myself." He began to speak to the people, but the sheriff begged him not to proceed, and he contented himself with asking for their prayers, and desiring them to bear witness for him that he died in the faith of the Holy Catholic Church, and a faithful servant of God and the king. He then repeated the Miserere psalm on his knees; when he had ended and had risen, the executioner, with an emotion which promised ill for the manner in which his part in the tragedy would be accomplished, begged his forgiveness. More kissed him. "Thou art to do me the greatest benefit that I can receive," he said. "Pluck up thy spirit, man, and be not afraid to do thine office. My neck is very short; take heed, therefore, that thou strike not awry for saving of thine honesty." The executioner offered to tie his eyes. "I will cover them myself," he said; and binding them in a cloth which he had brought with him, he knelt and laid his head upon the block. The fatal stroke was about to fall, when he signed for a moment's delay |