:

leave him assist him with your advice in its disposal. For my sake, be his friend, whom it is very doubtful whether I shall ever again see, till we meet in a happier world. Consider this, my dear Sir, as the dying request of

MARY STUART.'

"It would be impossible to describe the state of George's mind on the perusal of Mary's letter, which he then put into my hands. It breathed the most ardent, pure affection, ever dictated by female pen; and, at the same time, the most cheerful resignation to the will of Heaven. At a proper time, I delicately alluded to his future course of life; when he replied, I had resolved to die; but Mary requests me to live, and her commands are sacred.'

"I then proposed advancing a capital equal to his, and becoming his partner in business, conceiving this the most likely way to wean him from melancholy. But he replied, My dear friend, I sincerely thank you: but it cannot be. I am unfit for business. I have for ever done with the world, and all its concerns; although, in obedience to my dear Mary, I will live till Heaven shall call me to lie beside her; and I shall never remove to where our dust may be divided.' His resolution being fixed, and finding him deaf to all my reasoning, I, at his request, purchased an annuity for his life. In spite of my earnest entreaties, he removed

to the village, and took a lodging close to the churchyard, to which he procured a key. His first object was, to make Mrs Stuart obtain the consent of her husband that he should erect a monument to the memory of his Mary. The inscription and verses are his own composition, and were shewn to Stuart before being inscribed on the marble.

"An old woman keeps his house, from which he never stirs, except in the evening, or early in the morning, when, at all seasons, he passes some hours at the grave of Mary. Mrs Stuart and I are the only visitors he admits, and even us, he sometimes refuses to see. His house-keeper says that he fasts one day of every week; and that she frequently hears him holding a conversation when no person is with him. She is employed as his almoner to the poor, on whom he expends half his income. When I remonstrated with him on not attending public worship, he replied,' My dear friend, think me not irreligious: God is my best comforter, and heaven my only hope; but I cannot mingle in society.'

"His amusements are reading and writing. During his residence at Hazlewood, he made up a catalogue of my library, of which he has a duplicate, and borrows what books he wants. The old woman brings a note of those he wishes; and these notes are sometimes merely the names of the volumes, and at others short and polite cards; occasionally long and sensible letters,

although not without indications of melancholy, or even a disordered mind. Oftener than once I have found in the books he returned, fragments, both in prose and verse, with not a few graces of composition, all tenderly pathetic; and sometimes, if I may employ the expression, sublimely visionary, indicating that he still held communication with the spirit of his beloved Mary. In a word, his mind is like some ancient structures I have seen in Greece, exciting respect, admiration, and sorrow, on contemplating its ruins.

"When I reflect upon what George Bolton is, and what he might have been, and when I look upon the untimely grave of Mary Stuart, I am ready to exclaim, in the language of Camoens, as translated by Lord Strangford-I quote from memory—

There surely is some guiding power,

That wisely suffers wrong;

Gives vice to bloom its little hour,

But virtue late and long.

KING ROBERT THE BRUCE'S

BREAKFAST:

A TRADITIONARY STORY.

Why man, I never was a prince till now!

MARSTON'S Antonio and Mellida.

WHEN Wallace was from Scotland reft,

By coward traitor's guile,

Her bairns, with brave King Robert bless'd,
Again saw freedom smile;

But England's Edward, bauld and fierce,

A restless, tyrant loon,

Rose high in wrath, and shored to twin

The stripling of his crown.

And still he held, with harpy claw,
Full mony a fortress strang,
From which his sogers, sallying forth,
Wrought Scotland meikle wrang:

But they beneath King Robert's arm
Were daily seen to fa',

As melts, before the summer sun,

Benlomond's wintry sna'.

He saw, with grief, the valiant Bruce
Take castle, peel, and post :
It wrung the tyrant's heart to think

That a' would soon be lost.

He ca'd his bowmen from the bent,
His knights from ilka shire;

And sware to lay auld Scotland waste,
With famine, sword, and fire!

He sent his troops of foot and horse
To join the veteran band;

That still defied young Robert's might,
And hovered o'er the land:

He bade them tame the nobles' pride,

Nor prince nor peasant spare;
But burn and slay, till orphan bairns

And widows' hearts were sair!

"The crashing tower, the crackling flame," Said he," are music sweet!

Let not my warriors' hearts be moved,
Though women wail and greet!"

Among the flower of English youth
Was Walter Selby sent,

Whose early prowess had been tried
In tilt and tournament;

E