The vulture still will whet the thirsty beak-
The twittering swallow still will chirp and squeak:
Thus tho' the vesture shine like drifted snow,
The heart's dark passions lurk unchang'd below.
Nor when the viper lays aside his skin,
Less baleful does the venom work within;
The tiger frets against his cage's side,

As wild as when he roam'd in chainless pride.
Thus neither crossing mountains nor the main,
Nor flying human haunts and follies vain,

Nor the black robe nor white, nor cowl-clad head,
Nor munching ever black and mouldy bread,
Will lull the darkly-working soul to rest,
And calm the tumults of the troubl'd breast.
For always, in whatever spot you be,
Even to the confines of the Frozen Sea,
Or near the sun, beneath a scorching clime,
Still, still will follow the fierce lust of crime-
Deceit and the dark working of the mind,
Where'er you roam, will not be left behind.

JAMES THE FIFTH.

BORN 1512- DIED 1542.

JAMES THE FIFTH was born at the palace | king in such restraint as induced him to make of Linlithgow in the month of April, 1512. When the fatal field of Flodden numbered among its victims the chivalrous James IV., his successor, the infant prince, was not a year and a half old. Among those who had charge of his education was the celebrated Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, and John Bellenden, the translator of Boethius' History. The works of both authors abound with passages referring to the share which they had in the formation of the young sovereign's character. seem that to the poet the task had chiefly fallen of attending the prince in his hours of amusement. In his Complaint" he says

his escape from the palace of Falkland when in his seventeenth year, and take refuge in Stirling Castle, the residence of his mother. By the most vigorous measures the king now proceeded to repress disorders and punish crime throughout the kingdom. Attended by a numerous retinue, under the pretence of enjoying the pleasures of hunting, he visited various districts, executing thieves and marauders, and caused the laws to be obeyed on every foot

It would of Scottish soil. The most memorable of his

"And ay quhen thou came from the schule, Then I behufft to play the fule."

It is to the happy influence of Sir David Lindsay that we may ascribe a large share of that regard for justice, that taste for literature and art, and that love of poetry, music, and romance for which the young Scottish king became distinguished.

In his twelfth year the nobles, tired of the state of misrule into which Scotland had been brought, and of the dissensions among themselves, requested James to assume the government. His power, however, was merely nominal, as four guardians were appointed, by whom the whole authority of the state was

exercised in his name.

The Earl of Angus,

victims was the noted borderer Johnnie Armstrong, who was summarily hanged with his twenty-four followers, "quhilk," says Pitscottie, "monie Scottisman heavilie lamented, for he was ane doubtit man and als guid ane chieftain as evir was upon the borderis aither

of Scotland or England."

In 1535 James proceeded to France upon a matrimonial expedition, and married Magdalene, eldest daughter of the French king, who died of consumption within forty days of her arrival in Scotland. He afterwards espoused

Mary of Guise. A rupture with Henry VIII. led to the battle of Solway Moss, one of the most inglorious engagements in Scottish annals. The command of the army having been con ferred on Oliver Sinclair, a favourite of the king, the high-spirited and discontented nobles indignantly refused to obey such a leader, and

were in consequence easily defeated by an When the tidings of this

one of these, soon obtained the ascendency inferior force.

over his colleagues, and he held the young disaster reached James he was frantic with

grief and mortification. Hastening to Edin- | inferior fame, were among the men of letters burgh, he shut himself up for a week, and who contributed to shed a lustre on his reign, then passed over to Falkland, where he took and who, in an age when there was no reading to his bed. Meantime the queen had given public, could live on the patronage of the birth to a daughter, afterwards the beautiful court alone. To gratify a strong passion for but unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots. On adventures of a romantic character James being informed of this event he said, "It came would often roam through the country in diswith a lass, and it will go with a lass," deem- guise under the soubriquet of "The Gudeman ing it another misfortune that it was not a of Ballangeich." He is believed to be the male heir. A little before his death, which author of the well-known and popular ballads occurred previous to the 13th of December, of "The Gaberlunzie Man" and "The Jollie 1542, when he was but thirty-one years of age, Beggar," both founded on his own adventures. he was heard muttering the words "Solway Sir Walter Scott said of the last-mentioned, Moss," the scene of that disaster which hurried that it was the best comic ballad in any lanhim to an early grave. The love of justice guage. George Chalmers and some other endeared the lamented monarch to the people, authorities have attributed other productions who conferred on him the title of King of to the pen of the commons' king, but it is the Poor." Other princes have been called thought without sufficient evidence. The great and bold and mighty, but it was the far two songs attributed to James V. are both pronobler pride of James to be styled THE KING ductions of great merit-remarkable for their OF THE POOR. roguish humour and freedom of expression. albeit they are rather broad for the last half of the nineteenth century:

Of the elegant and useful arts, and of all branches of what was called profane learning, he was a liberal patron and active promoter. "He furnished the countrie," says Pitscottie, "with all kyndis of craftismen, sik as Frenchmen, Spainyardis, and Dutchmen, quhilk ever wes the finest of thair professioun that culd be had; quhilk brought the countrie to great policie." Lindsay, Buchanan, Bellenden, Maitland, Montgomery, and many others of

"Old times are changed, old manners gone." Yet no change of manners or evolutions of time will much affect poetry which is founded in nature; and this makes the lyrics of James as fresh and lively and intelligible as they were more than three hundred years ago, when they were composed by the young king.

THE GABERLUNZIE-MAN.

The pawky auld carle came o'er the lee,
Wi' many good e'ens and days to me,
Saying, Goodwife, for your courtesie.

Will you lodge a silly poor man?
The night was cauld, the carle was wat,
And doun ayont the ingle he sat;
My daughter's shoulders he 'gan to clap,
And cadgily ranted and sang.

O wow! quo' he, were I as free
As first when I saw this countrie,
How blythe and merry wad I be!

And I wad never think lang.
He grew canty, and she grew fain,
But little did her auld minny ken
What thir slee twa thegither were say'ng,
When wooing they were sae thrang.

And O, quo' he, an' ye were as black
As e'er the croun of my daddy's hat,
'Tis I wad lay thee by my back,

And awa' wi' me thou shou'd gang.
And O, quo' she, an I were as white
As e'er the snaw lay on the dike,
I'd cleed me braw and lady like,

And awa' wi' thee I wou'd gang.

Between the twa was made a plot;
They rose a wee before the cock,
And wilily they shot the lock,

And fast to the bent are they gane.
Up in the morn the auld wife raise,
And at her leisure pat on her claise;
Syne to the servant's bed she gaes,

To speer for the silly poor man.

And we'll go no more a roving,
A roving in the night,
Although the moon is moving,
And stars are shining bright.

He took the lassie in his arms,
And gae her kisses three,
And four-and-twenty hunder merk
To pay the nurse's fee:

He took a wee horn frae his side,

And blew baith loud and shrill,
And four-and-twenty belted knights
Came skipping o'er the hill.

And we'll go no more a roving,
A roving in the night,

Nor sit a sweet maid loving
By coal or candle light.

And he took out his little knife,
Loot a' his duddies fa',
And he was the brawest gentleman
That was amang them a'.
The beggar was a clever loon,
And he lap shoulder height,
O ay for sicken quarters
As I got yesternight!

And we'll ay gang a roving,
A roving in the night,
For then the maids are loving,
And stars are shining bright.

ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY.

BORN 1540

DIED 1614. (?)

of his compositions is styled "The Flyting between Montgomerie and Polwart," which is written after the manner of the "Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie." He is also the author of "The Minde's Melodie," consisting of paraphrases of the Psalms, and a great variety of sonnets. Among the books presented by Drum mond of Hawthornden to the University of Edinburgh is a manuscript collection of the poems of Montgomery, consisting of odes,

occurred between 1597 and 1615, in which latter year an edition of his "Cherrie and Slae" was printed by Andrew Hart. Editions of his poetical works were published in 1751 and 1754; and in 1822 a complete edition, with a biographical preface by Dr. Irving, was issued in Edinburgh, under the superintendence of David Laing.

ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY, known as a poet in 1568, is supposed to have been a younger son of Montgomery of Hazlehead Castle, in Ayrshire. Of his personal history there are no authentic memorials. In his poem entitled "The Navigatioun," he calls himself "ane German born." Dempster describes him as "Eques Montanus vulgo vocatus;” but is certain that he was never knighted. In the titles to his works he is styled Captain, and it has been conjectured that he was an officer in the body-sonnets, psalms, and epitaphs. His death guard of the Regent Morton. Melville in his Diary mentions him about 1577 as "Captain Montgomery, a good honest man, and the regent's domestic." His poetical talents secured him the friendship of James VI., from whom he received a pension. In the king's "Reulis and Cautelis to be observit and eschewit in Scottish Poesie," published in 1584, his majesty quotes some of Montgomery's poems as examples of the different styles of His best known production is his allegorical poem of "The Cherrie and the Slae," on which Allan Ramsay formed the model of his "Vision," and to one particular passage in which he was indebted for his description of the Genius of Caledonia. It was first published in 1595, and reprinted two years later by Robert Waldegrave, "according to a copie corrected by the author himselfe." Another

verse.

An eminent critic says of Montgomery, that he "deserves more notice than he has obtained; he was long spoken of, but seldom read; and I am willing to believe that the fortunate abuse of Pinkerton contributed to his fame, by arming in his behalf all the lovers of old Seottish song. The cast of his genius is lyrical: there is a sweetness and a liquid motion about even his most elaborate productions, and one cannot easily avoid chanting many passages on perusal. His thoughts are ready, his images

at hand, and his illustrations natural and play of scholarship was less affected then than apt. His language is ever flowing, felicitous, it would be now. To glance, as the stream of and abundant. His faults are the faults of story flows along, at old glory and at ancient the times. Printing had opened the treasures things, is very well when happily managed of ancient lore; and all our compositions were and not dwelt upon; but Venus can only come speckled and spotted with classical allusions. into courtships now to be laughed at, and the He embalms conceits in a stream of melody, most reasonable god in all the mythology will and seeks to consecrate anew the faded splen- | abate rather than increase the interest of any dour of the heathen mythology. Such dis- | living poet's song."

THE CHERRIE AND THE SLAE.
(EXTRACT.)

About an bank with balmy bewis,
Quhair nychtingales thair notis renewis,
With gallant goldspinks gay;
The mavis, merle, and progne proud,
The lintqubyt, lark, and laverock loud,
Salutit mirthful May.

Quhen Philomel had sweitly sung,
To progne scho deplord,

How Tereus cut out hir tung,
And falsly hir deflourd;

Quilk story so sorie

To schaw hir self scho semit,

To heir hir so neir hir,

I doubtit if I dreimit.

The cushat crouds, the corbie crys,
The coukow couks, the prattling pyes
To geck hir they begin:
The jargoun or the jangling jayes,
The eraiking craws, and keckling kays,
They deavt me with thair din.
The painted pawn with Argos eyis
Can on his mayock call;

The turtle wails on witherit treis,
And eccho answers all,
Repeting with greiting,
How fair Narcissus fell,
By lying and spying
His schadow in the well.

I saw the hurcheon and the hare
In hidlings hirpling heir and thair,
To mak thair morning mange.
The con, the cuning, and the cat,
Quhais dainty downs with dew were wat,
With stif mustachis strange.
The hart, the hynd, the dae, the rae,
The fulmart and false fox;
The beardit buck clam up the brae,
With birssy bairs and brocks;

Sum feiding, sum dreiding
The hunter's subtile snairs,
With skipping and tripping,
They playit them all in pairs.

The air was sobir, saft, and sweit,
Nae misty vapours, wind, nor weit,
But quyit, calm, and clear,
To foster Flora's fragrant flowris,
Quhairon Apollo's paramouris,
Had trinklit mony a teir;

The quhilk lyke silver schaikers shynd,
Embroydering bewties bed,

Quhairwith their heavy heids declynd,
In Mayis collouris cled,

Sum knoping, sum droping,
Of balmy liquor sweit,
Excelling and smelling,
Throw Phebus hailsum heit.

Methocht an heavenlie heartsum thing,
Quhair dew lyke diamonds did hing,

Owre twinkling all the treis,
To study on the flurist twists,
Admiring nature's alchymists,
Laborious bussie beis,

Quhairof sum sweitest honie socht,

To stay thair lyves frae sterve,
And sum the waxie veschells wrocht,
Thair purchase to preserve;
So heiping, for keiping
It in thair hyves they hyde,
Precisely and wysely,
For winter they provyde.

NIGHT IS NIGH GONE.

Hey, now the day's dawning;
The jolly cock's crowing;
The eastern sky's glowing;
Stars fade one by one;