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The other was a maiden in her morn;
And they were one in name and one in faith,
Mother and daughter in the bond of Christ,
That bound them closer than the ties of blood.

The troop moved on; and down the sunny street
The people follow'd, ever falling back

As in their faces flash'd the naked blades.
But in the midst the women simply went
As if they two were walking, side by side,
Up to God's house on some still Sabbath morn;
Only they were not clad for Sabbath day,
But as they went about their daily tasks:
They went to prison and they went to death,
Upon their Master's service.

1

On the shore

The troopers halted; all the shining sands
Lay bare and glistering; 1 for the tide had
Drawn back to its farthest margin's weedy mark;
And each succeeding wave, with flash and curve,
That seem'd to mock the sabres on the shore,
Drew nearer by a hand-breadth. "It will be
A long day's work," murmur'd those murderous men,
As they slack'd rein. The leader of the troops
Dismounted, and the people passing near
Then heard the pardon proffer'd, with the oath
Renouncing and abjuring 2 part with all

The persecuted, covenanted folk.

But both refused the oath; "because," they said,

1 Glistering: glistening.

2 Abjuring: swearing to give up or withdraw from.

"Unless with Christ's dear servants we have part, We have no part with Him."

On this they took

The elder Margaret, and led her out

Over the sliding sands, the weedy sludge,1
The pebbly shoals, far out, and fasten'd her
Unto the farthest stake, already reach'd
By every rising wave, and left her there :
And as the waves crept round her feet, she pray'd
"That He would firm uphold her in their midst,
Who holds them in the hollow of His hand."

3

The tide flow'd in. And up and down the shore
There paced the Provost 2 and the Laird of Lag,
Grim Grierson, with Windram and with Graham;"
And the rude soldiers, jesting with coarse oaths,
As in the midst the maiden meekly stood,

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Waiting her doom, delay'd, said “she would

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Turn before the tide, seek refuge in their arms
From the chill waves."

But ever to her lips

There came the wondrous words of life and peace: "If God be for us, who can be against?"

"Who shall divide us from the love of Christ?" "Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature."

From the crowd

A woman's voice cried a very bitter cry,

"O Margaret! my bonnie,5 bonnie Margaret!

1 Sludge mud, mire.

:

2 Provost: the magistrate or mayor.

3 Laird lord; often used for a Scottish squire or country gentleman.

:

4 Graham: this was not John Graham of Claverhouse but his brother, who was sheriff.

5 Bonnie: pretty.

Gie1 in, gie in, my bairnie,2 dinna 3

ye drown,

Gie in, and tak' the oath."

The tide flow'd in;

And so wore on the sunny afternoon;

And every fire went out upon the hearth,

And not a meal was tasted in the town that day.
And still the tide was flowing in:

Her mother's voice yet sounding in her ear,

They turn'd young Margaret's face towards the sea, Where something white was floating,

something White as the sea-mew 5 that sits upon the wave: But as she look'd it sank; then show'd again; Then disappear'd; and round the shore

And stake the tide stood ankle-deep.

Then Grierson

With cursing vow'd that he would wait.
No more; and to the stake the soldier led her
Down, and tied her hands; and round her
Slender waist too roughly cast the rope, for
Windram came and eased it while he whisper'd
In her ear, "Come, take the test 6 and ye are free";
And one cried, "Margaret, say but God save
The King!" "God save the King of his great grace,'
She answer'd, but the oath she would not take.

And still the tide flow'd in,

And drove the people back and silenced them.

1 Gie in: give in, submit. 2 Bairnie: child.

3 Dinna: do not, don't.

4 The town: the town of Wigton, on Solway Firth, where this martyrdom occurred.

5 Sea-mew: a species of gull or sea-bird having white plumage.

6 Test: here meaning the oath of abjuration of the Covenant.

The tide flow'd in, and rising to her knees,
She sang the psalm, "To Thee I lift my soul"; 1
The tide flow'd in, and rising to her waist,
"To Thee, my God, I lift my soul," she sang.
The tide flow'd in, and rising to her throat,
She sang no more, but lifted up her face,
And there was glory over all the sky,

And there was glory over all the sea,
A flood of glory, and the lifted face

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Swam in it 2 till it bow'd beneath the flood,
And Scotland's Maiden Martyr went to God.

ANONYMOUS.

1 Psalm xxv.

2 Compare Tennyson's "Two Voices," —

"But looking upward, full of grace,
He prayed, and from a happy place
God's glory smote him on the face."

THE EXECUTION OF MONTROSE.1

I.

COME hither, Evan Cameron,

Come, stand beside my knee ---
I hear the river roaring down
Towards the wintry sea.

There's shouting on the mountain-side,
There's war within the blast-

Old faces look upon me,

Old forms go trooping past;

I hear the pibroch2 wailing

1 James Grahame, Marquis of Montrose, was born in Edinburgh in 1612. During the English Civil War between King Charles I. of England and Parliament, Montrose served at first on the side of the people, but eventually went over to the Royalists. Charles made him Marquis of Montrose and commander-in-chief of the Scottish army.

He gained several victories for the crown, but was defeated by General Leslie at Philiphaugh in 1645.

Montrose then went to the continent, but after the execution of Charles I. by Parliament, he returned to Scotland in 1650, and led an insurrection in behalf of Prince Charles (Charles II.). The effort failed, and the Marquis was taken prisoner and executed "with all the vindictive insult which his hereditary enemy, the Marquis of Argyle," could heap upon him.

"Montrose," said an eminent French nobleman, "is the only man in the world that has ever realized to me the ideas of certain heroes, whom we now discover nowhere but in the lives of Plutarch." Professor Aytoun states that in the historical incidents recorded in the following ballad there is no element of fiction. "It may," he says, "be considered as a narrative related by an aged Highlander who had followed Montrose through his campaigns, to his grandson-Evan Cameron."

2 Pibroch: the battle-music of the bagpipe.

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