mortal birth
Are gently loosening every tie that links him to the earth;
And inward faith gives outward force--strong is his deep dark eye--
And his brow and lip are beautiful as in the days gone by.
Meekly he rises to depart, but pauses for a space,
And looks upon his cowering foes with calm and saintly grace:
"The time is short, the sentence sharp--your malice I forgive;
For God hath made me fit to die, as ye, my lords, to live!"

And meekly he departs! his toils, his work, and warfare done--
And his martyr chariot waits him, and his triumphs are begun!

And twelve hours thence, upon the block, his reverend head did fall,
And for a terror was exposed upon the city wall;
His limbs were quarter'd, and were hung, all mutilate and bare,
At Jedburgh, and Lanark town, at Glasgow, and at Ayr:
And thus through all broad Scotland these martyr'd relics go,
Like a fiery cross to rouse the land to the tyrant's overthrow!

The ancient halls of Jervieswoode are desolate and gray,
And its ancient oaks and lime trees are sinking in decay;
These are of things that perish, and their place soon knows them not,
But a glory from the past illumes this consecrated spot.
To him who braves the martyr's death is deathless honour given,
For the faith that breeds heroic deeds is dear to earth and heaven;
And through all succeeding ages, amongst the wise and good,
Enshrined shall be the memory of the noble Jervieswoode.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, the King's Advocate.

METRICAL TRANSLATIONS

FROM

The Modern Gaelic Minstrelsy.

DUNCAN MACFARLAN.

Duncan Macfarlan was a native of Rannoch, in Perthshire. He was born in
1750, and became, early in life, chaplain to one of the Highland
regiments. He was subsequently admitted to the pastoral charge of the
Gaelic Church, Perth. He executed some of the translations of Ossianic
remains published by H. & J. M'Callum in 1816, under the auspices of the
Highland Society of London. He died about the year 1834. Our translator
remembers him as a venerable old gentleman, of polished manners and
intelligent conversation. The following specimen of his poetical
compositions is, in the original, extremely popular among the Gael.

THE BEAUTY OF THE SHIELING.

My beauty of the shieling,
Thy graceful air, like arrow-shaft,
A fiery flame concealing,