The attack which he meditated was pre-lowed by the six soldiers; but as they vented by the unexpected apparition of a obtained the first traverse of the ascent, female upon the summit of the rock. the flash of a dozen of firelocks from "Stand!" she said, with a commanding various parts of the pass parted in quick tone, "and tell me what ye seek in succession and deliberate aim. The serM'Gregor's country?" geant, shot through the body, still struggled to gain the ascent, raised himself by his hands to clamber up the face of the rock, but relaxed his grasp, after a desperate effort, and falling, rolled from the face of the cliff into the deep lake, where he perished. Of the soldiers three fell, slain or disabled; the others retreated on their main body, all more or less wounded. I have seldom seen a finer or more commanding form than this woman. She might be between the term of forty and fifty years, and had a countenance which must once have been of a masculine cast of beauty; though now, imprinted with deep lines by exposure to rough weather, and perhaps by the wasting influence of grief and passion, its features were only strong, harsh, and expressive. She wore her plaid, not drawn around her head and shoulders, as is the fashion of the women in Scotland, but disposed around her body as the Highland soldiers wear theirs. She had a man's bonnet, with a feather in it, an unsheathed sword in her hand, and a pair of pistols at her girdle. 66 It's Helen Campbell, Rob's wife," said the bailie, in a whisper of considerable alarm; "and there will be broken heads amang us or it's lang." "What seek ye here?" she asked again at Captain Thornton, who had himself advanced to reconnoitre. 'Grenadiers, to the front!" said Captain Thornton. You are to recollect that in those days this description of soldiers actually carried that destructive species of firework from which they derive their name. The four grenadiers moved to the front accordingly. The officer commanded the rest of the party to be ready to support them, and only saying to us, "Look to your safety, gentlemen," gave, in rapid succession, the word to the grenadiersOpen your pouches-handle your grenades-blow your matches-fall on. 66 The whole advanced with a shout, headed by Captain Thornton, the grenadiers preparing to throw their grenades among the bushes where the ambuscade "We seek the outlaw, Rob Roy M'Gregor Campbell," answered the officer, "and make no war on women; there-lay, and the musketeers to support them fore offer no vain opposition to the king's troops, and assure yourself of civil treat by an instant and close assault. Dougal, forgotten in the scuffle, wisely crept into the thicket which overhung that part of the road where we had first halted, which he ascended with the activity of a wild cat. I followed his example, instinctively recollecting that the fire of the Highlanders would sweep the open track. I clambered until out of breath; for a continued spattering fire, in which every shot was multiplied by a thousand echoes, the hissing of the kindled fusees of the grenades, and the successive explosion of those missiles, mingled with the huzzas of the soldiers, and the yells and cries of their Highland antagonists, formed a contrast which added-I do not shame to own it--wings to my desire to reach a place of safety. The difficulties of the ascent soon increased so much that I despaired of reaching Dougal, who seemed to swing himself from rock to rock, and stump to stump, with the facility of a squirrel, and I turned down my eyes to see what had become of my other companions. Both were brought to a very awkward still-out lending a hand to disengage him. At stand. The bailie, to whom, I suppose, fear had given a temporary share of agility, had ascended about twenty feet from the path, when his foot slipping as he straddled from one huge fragment of rock to another, he would have slumbered with his father, the deacon, whose acts and words he was so fond of quoting, but for a projecting branch of a ragged thorn, which, catching hold of the skirts of his riding-coat, supported him in mid-air, where he dangled not unlike to the sign of the Golden Fleece over the door of a mercer in the Trongate of his native city. As for Andrew Fairservice, he had advanced with better success, until he had attained the top of a bare cliff, which, rising above the wood, exposed him, at least in his own opinion, to all the dangers of the neighboring skirmish, while, at the same time, it was of such a precipitous and impracticable nature that he dared neither to advance nor retreat. Footing it up and down upon the narrow space which the top of the cliff afforded (very like a fellow at a country fair dancing upon a trencher), he roared for mercy in Gaelic and English alternately, according to the side on which the scale of victory seemed to predominate, while his exclamations were only answered by the groans of the bailie, who suffered much, not only from apprehension but from the pendulous posture in which he hung suspended by the loins. On perceiving the bailie's precarious situation, my first idea was to attempt to render him assistance; but this was impossible without the concurrence of Andrew, who continued to pour forth piteous prayers for mercy, which no one heard, and to skip to and fro, writhing his body into all possible antic shapes to avoid the balls which he conceived to be whistling around him. In a few minutes this cause of terror ceased, for the fire, at first so well sustained, now sunk at once, a sure sign that the conflict was concluded. To gain some spot from which I could see how the day had gone was now my object, in order to appeal to the mercy of the victors, who, I trusted (whichever side might be gainers), would not suffer the honest bailie to remain suspended, like the coffin of Mahomet, between heaven and earth, with length, by dint of scrambling, I found a spot which commanded a view of the field of battle. It was, indeed, ended; and, as my mind already augured, from the place and circumstances attending the contest, it had terminated in the defeat of Captain Thornton. I saw a party of Highlanders in the act of disarming that officer and the scanty remainder of his party. They consisted of about twelve men, most of whom were wounded, who, surrounded by treble their number, and without the power either to advance or retreat, exposed to a murderous and wellaimed fire, which they had no means of returning with effect, had at length laid down their arms by the order of their officer, when he saw that the road in his rear was occupied, and that protracted resistance would be only wasting the lives of his brave followers. By the Highlanders, who fought under cover, the victory was cheaply bought, at the expense of one man slain and two wounded by the grenades. SIR WALTER SCOTT. A famous virtuoso, upon a certain occasion, was pleased to call the attention of his friend to a picture which he professed to prize above all others in his collection. It was an atrociously bad picture, and the longer this friend gazed upon it the more amazed he became, both at the ugliness of the work itself, and the taste of the owner in permitting it a place where everything else was rare and beautiful. Having viewed it in all possible lights, and in endeavoring to discover some element of merit in the apparently worthless canvas, exhausted his interest and his patience, he turned at length in despair to the virtuoso, who answered the look of silent inquiry upon his face in this wise: "I value that picture above all others in my collection because it constantly reminds me of the goodness of God in permitting the artist to live."Phila. Times. FRIDAY AND THE BEAR. [DANIEL DEFOE, born in Cripplegate, 1661. After him, and show us some laugh, as he called it. As soon as the bear felt the having been in trade many years, he became an author, stone, and saw him, he turns about, and comes after him, taking very long at first of political works, but afterwards of fiction. strides, and shuffling on at a strange rate, Died in April, 1731.] so as would have put a horse to a midBut never was a fight managed so hard-dling gallop. Away runs Friday, and ily, and in such a surprising manner, as that between Friday and the bear, which gave us all, though at first we were surprised and afraid for him, the greatest diversion imaginable. My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we came up to him, he was helping him off from his horse, for the man was both hurt and frightened, and indeed the last more than the first, when on a sudden we espied the bear come out of the wood, and a vast, monstrous one it was, the biggest by far that ever I saw. We were all a little surprised when we saw him; but when Friday saw him, it was easy to see joy and courage in the fellow's countenance. "Oh, oh, oh!" says Friday, three times, pointing to him; "oh, master! you give me te leave, me shakee te hand with him; me makee you good laugh." I was surprised to see the fellow so pleased. "You fool!" said I, "he will eat you up. Eatee me up! eatee me up!" says Friday, twice over again; "me catee him up; me makee you good laugh; you all stay here, me show you good laugh. So down he sits, and gets his boots off in a moment, and puts on a pair of pumps (as we call the flat shoes they wear, and which he had in his pocket), gives my other servant his horse and with his gun away he flew, swift like the wind. The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with nobody, till Friday coming pretty near calls to him as if the bear could understand him, "Hark ye, hark ye," says Friday, "me speakee with you. We followed at a distance, for now being come down to the Gascony side of the mountains, we were entered a vast, great forest, where the country was plain and pretty open, though it had many trees in it scattered here and there. Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of the bear, came up with him quickly, and took up a great stone, and threw it at him, and hit him just on the head, but did him no more harm than if he had thrown it against a wall; but it answered Friday's end, for the rogue was so void of fear that he did it purely to make the bear follow takes his course as if he ran towards us for help; so we all resolved to fire at once upon the bear, and deliver my man; though I was angry at him heartily for bringing the bear back upon us, when he was going about his own business another way; and especially I was angry that he had turned the bear upon us, and then run away; and I called out, "You dog!' said I, "is this your making us laugh? Come away, and take your horse, that we may shoot the creature. He heard me, and cried out, "No shoot, no shoot; stand still, you get much laugh;" and as the nimble creature ran two feet for the beast's one, he turned on a sudden on one side of us, and seeing a great oak-tree fit for his purpose, he beckoned us to follow; and doubling his pace, he got nimbly up the tree, laying his gun down upon the ground, at about five or six yards from the bottom of the tree. The bear soon came to the tree, and we followed at a distance. The first thing he did, he stopped at the gun, smelled at it, but let it lie, and up he scrambles into the tree, climbing like a cat, though so monstrous heavy. I was amazed at the folly, as I thought it, of my man, and could not for my life see anything to laugh at yet, till, seeing the bear get up the tree, we all rode near to him. When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small end of a large limb of the tree, and the bear got about half way to him. As soon as the bear got out to that part where the limb of the tree was weaker-"Ha!" says he to us, แ now you see me teachee the bear dance; so he began jumping and shaking the bough, at which the bear began to totter, but stood still, and began to look behind him, to see how he should get back; then, indeed, we did laugh heartily. But Friday had not done with him by a great deal; when seeing him stand still, he called out to him again, as if he had supposed the bear could speak English, What, you no come farther? pray you come farther; so he left jumping and shaking the bough; and the bear, just as if he had understood what he said, did come a little farther; then he began jumping again, and the bear stopped again. We thought now was a good time to knock him on the head, and called to Friday to stand still, and we would shoot the bear; but he cried out earnestly. "Oh, pray! oh, pray! no shoot! me shoot by-andthen; he would have said by-and-bye. upon However, to shorten the story, Friday danced so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughing enough indeed, but still could not imagine what the fellow would do; for first we thought he depended upon shaking the bear off; and we found the bear was too cunning for that too; for he would go out far enough to be thrown down, but clung fast with his great broad claws and feet, so that we could not imagine what would be the end of it, and what the jest would be at last. But Friday put us out of doubt quickly: for seeing the bear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be persuaded to come any farther, "Well, well," says Friday, "you no come farther, me go; you no come to me, me come to you; and this he went out to the smaller end of the bough where it would bend with his weight, and gently let himself down by it, sliding down the bough till he came near enough to jump down on his feet, and away he ran to his took it up, gun, and stood still. "Well," said I to him, "Friday, what will you do now? why don't you shoot him?" "No shoot," says Friday, no yet; me shoot now, me no kill me stay, give you one more laugh" and, indeed, so he did, as you will see presently; for when the bear saw his enemy gone, he came back from the bough where he stood, but did it very cautiously, looking behind him every step, and coming backward till he got into the body of the tree; then, with the same hinder end foremost, he came down the tree, grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot at a time, very leisurely. At this juncture, and just before he could set his hind feet upon the ground, Friday stepped up close to him, clapped the muzzle of his piece into his ear, and shot him dead as a stone. Then the rogue turned about to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased by our looks, he began to laugh very loud. "So we kill bear in my country," says Friday. "So you kill them?" says I; "why, you have no guns. No," says he. 66 แ Tha crow The shanghi reuster is a gintile, and ginrally speaks in a forun tung. He is bilt on piles like our Sandy Hill crane. If he had bin bilt with legs he wud resembul the Peruvian lama. He is not a game animal, but quite often comes off sekond best in a ruff and tumble fite; like the Injins that kant stand civilisation, and are fast disappearing. Tha roost on the ground similar to the mud-turkle. Tha often go to sleep standing, and sumtimes pitch over, and when they dew they enter the ground like a pickaxe. Their feed consists uv corn in the ear. like a jackass troubled with the bronkeesucks. Tha will eat as much tu onst az a district skule master, and generally sit down rite oph, tew keep from tipping over. Tha are dreadful unhandy to cook; you have to bile one end uv them to a time, you kant git them awl into a potash kittle tu onst. The female reuster lays an egg as big as a kokeenut, and is sick for a week afterward, and when she hatches out a litter of young shanghis, she has to brood over them standing, and then kant kiver but three uv them; the rest stand around on the outside, like boys around a cirkus tent, giting a peep under the kanvass whenever they kan. The man who fust brought the breed into this country ought to own them all and be obliged tew feed them on grasshoppers caught bi hand. I never owned but one, and he got choked to death by a kink in a clothes line, but not till he had swallowed eighteen feet ov it. Not enny shanghi for me, if you pleaze; I would rather board a travelling colporter, and az for eating one, give me a biled owl rare done, or a turkee buzzard roasted hole, and stuffed with a pair of injun rubber boots, but not enny shanghi for me, not a shanghi! JOSH BILLINGS, |