""to be wont; "" SECTION LXIII.—IDIOMS OF VARIOUS KINDS (continued). Pflegen, besides its primary meaning "to nurse" or "take care of," has in both the present and imperfect the signification "to be accustomed," as:-Er pflegte zu sagen, he used to say. Er pflegt zu reiten, he is accustomed to ride (on horseback). 1. Achten or Acht haben, followed by auf, is used thus:-3ch achte auf bas, was (Sect. LXIX. 2) ich höre, I give attention to that which I hear. Ich werde Acht auf ihn haben, I will attend to him (have attention on him). Er nimmt sich in Acht, he takes care of himself. Wir müssen uns vor dem Bösen in Acht nehmen, we must guard ourselves against that which is bad (take ourselves in attention before, etc.). 1. Derjenige, welcher in der Jugend sorgt, braucht nicht im Alter zu sorgen. 2. Habe Acht auf Dich, nicht nur in Gesellschaft fremder Leute, sondern auch wenn Du allein bist, damit (Sect. LXXVI.) Du Dich selbst kennen lernst. 3. Derjenige, welcher nicht immer auf sich Acht giebt, kommt nie zur Selbsterkenntniß. 4. Die alten Deutschen pflegten gewöhnlich in alten Eichenhainen ihren Göttern zu opfern. 5. Gute Kinder pflegen (Sect. XLVI.) ihre Eltern in ihrem Alter. 6. Meine Freunde pflegen des Mor. gens Wasser zu trinken. 7. Des Morgens und des Abends pflegt er der Ruhe. 8. Wir pflegen, anstatt des Thees, Kaffee zu trinken. 9. Seiner Gesundheit zu pflegen ist seine erste Sorge. 10. Er pflegt des Mor gens zu arbeiten, und des Nachmittags zu lesen. 11. Derjenige, welcher des Müßigganges pflegt, pflegt auch der Sünde. 12. Pfleget der Tugend, und nicht des Lasters. 13. Er pflegt nicht vor acht Uhr aufzustehen. 14. Man pflegt nicht in Amerika, wie in Deutschland, zu sagen: „Ich wünsche Ihnen einen guten Appetit." 15. Der Mensch sorgt oft mehr als nöthig ist um seinen Lebensunterhalt. 16. Die Ameise sorgt schon im Sommer für ihre Nahrung im Winter. 17. Der deutsche Kaiser Marimilian I. trug gleich bei seinem Regierungsantritt Sorge, die inxere Ruhe Deutschlands wieder herzustellen. EXERCISE 121. 1. Guard yourself against those who have smooth words, bad thoughts, and a treacherous heart. 2. He cares more for his soul than for his body. 3. We are accustomed to drink tea instead of coffee. 4. The Greeks fostered art and science long before the birth of Christ. 5. He is accustomed to rise at six He takes care of his health. 8. Give attention to thyself, not o'clock. 6. I will take care of this book till you return. 7. only when you are in society, but also when you are alone. 9. them. 10. We must guard ourselves against our enemies. Good children give attention to that which their parents tell A German marmot takes care in the summer of his food for the winter. KEY TO EXERCISES IN LESSONS IN GERMAN. EXERCISE 38 (Vol. I., page 211). 11. 1. Sie mögen in den Garten gehen, aber Sie dürfen nicht lange dort bleiben. 2. Diese aufmerksamen Schüler durften mit ihrem Lehrer nach Mannheim gehen. 3. Wir können unsere Zeit besser anwenden. 4. Kön nen Sie Deutsch sprechen? 5. Wir konnten unsere Aufgaben diese Woche nicht lernen. 6. Sie müssen die Aufgaben dieser Woche aufmerksam lernen. 7. Sie mögen morgen zu Ihren Eltern gehen. 8. Er mag ein guter Mann sein. 9. Die Hausfrau muß morgen auf den Markt gehen. 10. Haben Sie Ihren Eltern geschrieben? 11. Ja, ich mußte schreiben. 12. Es ist zwei Uhr. 13. Ich werde bei Ihnen (an Ihrem Hause), ein Viertel auf vier Uhr ankom. men. 14. Wollen Sie zwanzig Minuten vor acht Uhr kommen? 15. Ich mag diesen Abend zu Ihnen kommen, aber warten Sie nicht auf mich. 16. So lange als es regnet. kann ich nicht ausgehen. 17. Fische können nur im Wasser leben, und Vögel in der Luft. 18. Sie hätten das nicht thun sollen, es wird keine Empfehlung für Sie sein. 19. Ich will heute Abend nach dem (or ins) Theater gehen. 20. Wir mögen ein anderesmal diese Gelegenheit nicht haben. EXERCISE 39 (Vol. I., page 238). 1. I must go to the meadow to fetch hay. 2. What is your brother to do at school? 3. He is to go to school, to learn the Latin language. 4. Man must be honest or wretched. 5. What am I to do? 6. You may do what you like, and should do what you can. 7. Why did you not come to our house yesterday? 8. I would, but I could not; I was obliged to stay at home and read. 9. Will the tailor be willing to make me a coat? 10. He will be willing to make you one, but he may not be able to do it. 11. Why will he not be able to do it? 12. He will be obliged to go in the country to see his sick brother. 13. What does the boy want with the knife? 14. He wishes to cut bread and cheese. 15. Have you time to go into the stable ? 16. I have time, but I will not go; I will remain at home. 17. What have you to do at home? 18. I have letters to read and to write. 19. Are you obliged to write them to-day? 20. I must write them to-day, because I am going to Heidelberg to-morrow. 21. One must be cautious in the choice of one's friends. 22. This boy has learnt nothing at all today. 23. Have you also learnt nothing? 24. I have learnt something, but not much. EXERCISE 40 (Vol. I., page 238). 3. 1. To whom are you going? 2. I am going to my brother. With whom is this boy going? 4. He is going with his father to the 6. I heard it from town. 5. From whom did you hear this news? my old friend. 7. With whom are you going to the village? 8. I am not going to the village, I am going with my father to the great town. 9. When are you going out of the town to our friends? 10. We are not going to your friends, we are coming home again to-morrow. 11. I am going neither to my friend to-day, nor to the village, nor out of the house. 12. The count has a great castle with little windows. 13. The river comes from the mountains. 14. Has your father heard anything from his brother? 15. Yes, this man is (come) from Hungary, aud has brought my father a box from my uncle. 16. Is he going to Vienna? 17. No, he is going to Warsaw, and from Warsaw to Cracow. 18. The Bavarian, the Bohemian, and the Hessian come from Germany. 19. The huntsman with his gun comes from the forest. 20. The sergoing to their friend. vant is going to the town. 21. I heard from my brothers you were 22. The servant-girl comes from the well, and the man-servant goes to the butcher. EXERCISE 41 (Vol. I., page 239). 1. Wenn wir glücklich sein wollen, dürfen wir nicht vom Pfade der Tugend abweichen. 2. Ich weiß, daß er Ihr Freund nicht ist, aber ich weiß gleichfalls, daß er ein Mann von Redlichkeit ist. 3. Laßt sie wissen, daß diese Neuigkeiten nur Gerüchte sind. 4. Man muß nicht alles sagen, was man weiß. 5. Sie müssen in der Wahl Ihrer Freunde sehr vorsichtig sein. 6. Wir sollten wissen, an wen wir uns wenden. 7. Wollen Sie dem Schneider sagen, wenn er Ihren Rock fertig habe, bei mir vorzusprechen? 8. Haben Sie Zeit, mit mir nach der Stadt zu gehen? 9. Wenn er die Arbeit nicht hätte zu Stande bringen können, würde er sie nicht unternommen haben. 10. Haben Sie Zeit, diesen Brief zu lesen? 11. Er geht in tie Schule, um die lateinische Sprache zu lernen. LESSONS IN GEOMETRY.-XXII. THE OVAL-THE PARABOLA. THE next two problems will be found useful by the practical draughtsman, as the first enables him to draw an oval, a figure approaching very nearly to the form of the ellipse, by a few turns of his compasses; while the second shows how an ovoid or eggshaped figure, of which one end is more pointed than the other, may be formed. The oval is as elegant in form as the ellipse, and quite as useful for all practical purposes. It may be drawn far more readily than the ellipse when it is necessary to trace the curve by hand and determine points through which it must pass, as in the last problem. PROBLEM LX.-To describe an oval on any given straight line as its greater diameter. H Fi Let A B (Fig. 87) be the given straight line about which, as its greater diameter, it is required to describe an oval. Trisect the straight line A B in the points c and D. From the centre c at the distance B CD or CA describe the circle AEF, and from the centre D at the distance DC or DB describe the circle BEF, and let the circles AEF, BEF intersect each other in the points E and F. From the point E, Fig. 87. through D, draw the straight line E G, meeting the circumference of the circle B E F in G, and from the point F, through c, draw the straight line FH, meeting the circumference of the circle A E F in H. From the point E as centre, with E G as radius, describe the arc GK meeting the circumference of the circle AEF in K; and from F as centre, with the radius FH, describe the arc H L, meeting the circumference of the circle BEF in L. The figure AHLBG K is an oval, and it is described on or about the given straight line A B as its greater diameter. The straight line N o drawn through the points of intersection E and F of the circles A EF, BEF, is the lesser diameter of the oval, and M, the point in which its diameters intersect each other, is its centre. There is another method of constructing an oval, the principles of which may be readily applied to the mode of construction just described, inasmuch as in both cases the oval is described by arcs of circles drawn from four centres, which are the angular points of a rhombus, a figure formed by placing together two equal equilateral triangles, base to base. z In x Y (Fig. 88), a straight line of indefinite length, take any two points A and B, and on the straight line A B describe the equal and opposite equilateral triangles ACB, ADB. Produce the sides CA, CB of the triangle a C B indefinitely towards E and F, and the sides DA, DB of the triangle ADB also indefinitely towards G and H; and through C and D, the opposite vertices of the equilateral triangles A CD, AD B, draw the straight line K L of indefinite length, intersecting the straight line x y in the point z. In cz take any point м, and from set off z N along z D, equal to z M. From D as centre at the distance DM, describe the arc O M P, meeting the straight lines DG, DH in o and P; and from c as centre, at the distance C N, describe the arc Q NR, meeting the straight lines CE, CF in Q and Then from the point A as centre at the distance AO or A Q, and from the point B as centre at the distance B P or B R, describe the arcs o Q, P R. The figure OM PRN Q, composed of the four arcs O P, P R, R Q, Q O, described from the four angular points of the rhombus DB CA as centres, is an oval. By taking points beyond м and N at equal distances from z, a series of similar ovals may be drawn, as shown by the Fig. 88. R. dotted line surrounding the oval OM PRNQ. This shows us an easy and practical method of forming an oval grass-plot or flower-bed, surrounded by a gravel walk of uniform width. PROBLEM LXI.-To describe an ovoid or egg-shaped oval or any given straight line taken as its lesser diameter. Let A B (Fig. 89) be the straight line that is given on or about which to describe an ovoid or egg-shaped oval. Bisect A B in C, and from c as centre, at the distance CA or C B, describe the circle ADBE, and through c draw the straight line DZ of indefinite length towards z, at right angles to AB. Through the point E, from the points A and B, draw the straight lines A Y, B X of unlimited length. Then from A as centre, with A B as radius, describe the arc B G meeting A Y in G; and from B as centre, with B A as radius, describe the arc A F, meeting BX in F. From the point E, at the distance EF or EG, describe the arc FL G. The figure DALB is an ovoid, and it is described about A B as its lesser diameter as required. If it be required to make the ovoid longer or shorter than the ovoid DA L B, it is manifest that the points from which the arcs forming the sides of the figure are described must be without the points A and B in the straight line AB, produced both ways in the first case, and within the points A and B in the straight line AB itself in the second. Supposing that it be required to make it longer than the ovoid DALE, produce A B both ways to Q and R; in A Q take any point H, and make C K equal to CH. Take any point L in D Z, and through L from the points H and K draw the straight lines HP, KO of unlimited length towards P and o. Then from H and K as centres, at the distances H B, K A respectively, describe the arcs BN, AM, meeting HP KO in M and N, and complete the ovoid DAMNB 25 before, by drawing the arc M N from L as centre with the radius LM or L N. The student may work out the remaining case for himself, bearing in mind that the radius with which the arcs forming the sides of the ovoid are described must be necessarily greater than the radius of the circle described about the given lesser diameter, or, in other words, greater than onehalf of the straight line given as the lesser diameter, as, when the centres of the side arcs approach so closely together as to coincide with each other and the centre of Fig. 89. the circle, there can be no elongation of the lower part of the ovoid, which, in fact, then becomes identical with the circle. PROBLEM LXII. To describe a parabola by mechanical means. Fix a long flat ruler by means of two brass pins on the piece of wood or paper on which it is required to describe a parabola, and from a point A (Fig. 90), taken as nearly as possible in the middle of the ruler, draw a straight line A B at right angles to the ruler, or the direction in which the ruler is fixed. The straight line AB is called the axis of the parabola, while the line C D which represents one side of the fixed ruler is called the directrix of the parabola. Take a ruler made in the form of a right-angled triangle (see Vol. I., page 96), and at the extremity a of the longer of the two sides that contain the right angle GFE, fasten a piece of thread or string, and let the thread have a knot tied in it so that the length of the thread from a to the knot may be exactly equal to the side G F of the triangular ruler. Thrust a pin through the knot, and fix the pin through any point H, in the straight line A B, which has been selected as the focus of the parabola to be described. Place the edge FG of the triangular ruler along the straight line A B, keeping the string tight with s poncil-point, which, when the edge FG of the ruler is lying along the straight line AB, will manifestly be at a point K, the point of bisection of AH, the distance between the fixed ruler and the focus of the required parabola. Slide the edge FE of the triangular ruler slowly along the edge CD of the fixed ruler in the direction of c, keeping the pencil-point against the edge va Fig. 90. a M of the triangular ruler, and the thread at its utmost tension exiled princes was most firmly engrafted on the people, and from the focus H to the pencil-point, and from the pencil-point where it was most difficult to follow it for the purpose of to G. When the edge of the ruler has moved from AB to the rooting it out, disaffection was all but universal. The chiefs position L M, the pencil-point will have traced out the curve K N, of clans, or heads of great families, there, were petty sovereigns, while the string will be in the position indicated by the dotted lines ruling absolutely over all their tribes, jealous of each other, HN, N M. When the ruler's ready to quarrel, and being ignorant and half barbarous, ever edge occupies the position FG, ready to settle the quarrel by the arbitrement of the sword. To the pencil-point will have the King of Scotland and England they confessed a certain sort traced out the curve KN O, of allegiance, which they were quite ready to renounce whenever and the string will be in the the king's pleasure ran counter to their own; but when they o position indicated by the once threw in their lot with him they stuck as close as burrs; and thick lines HO, O G. Simi- no one could have more utterly devoted adherents. Trained larly, when the ruler's edge from childhood to regard implicit obedience to their own chief Boccupies the position E P, the as the highest virtue, their services were of immense importpencil-point will have traced ance to him with whom, for the time being, their chief was on out the curve KNOQ, and terms of friendship; and so thorough was their blind attachthe string will be in the posi-ment, that while they would go through fire and water for such tion indicated by the dotted a one so long as the friendship lasted, they would not scruple lines HQ, Q P. By turning to murder him the very moment that the chief's sentiments the ruler E F G, and reversing altered. They were rough men, lived rough lives, and held it the operation, the lower part more honourable to live by plunder than by toil; and they posof the curve K Sz V may be sessed those vices, as well as those virtues, which are incidental traced; the change of position of the ruler's edge, and the string, to savages who dwell in the face of nature, and are but slightly being shown by dotted lines, which are lettered RT, UW, HS, influenced by the voice of civilisation. Much sentimental matter 8T, HV, Vw in the diagram. has often been written about the Highlanders, chiefly by those who never knew what their chief characteristics were; and in popular novels their virtues have been extolled, while their numerous vices have been hidden or varnished over, and their manners and customs have been presented with that enchantment which distance lends to the view. While there was much that was admirable in the Highlanders-much to excite the most exalted respect for their courage, their endurance, their devotion, their hospitality-there was much also to condemn in their revengefulness, their thievishness, their brutality. Few of them were given to honest labour for procuring themselves a livelihood, and many of them were, not to put too fine a point on it, no better than King William's letter described them, "a set of thieves." They lived in the mountains, as their name implied; and protected by their hills, which they knew how to defend by their indomitable bravery-protected also by their poverty, they were long able to defy the authorities in the Lowlands. They preserved with religious care their allegiance to the Stuart princes, who found among them, on the two great risings against the house of Hanover in 1715 and 1745, their most hardy and most faithful adherents. Some of the heads of clans were members of the Scotch nobility, and these swayed the political influence of their followers according to their own interests at court; so that it often happened that as interests conflicted, clans were opposed to one another, and when they were so, it was an opposition to the death, for enmity was cherished among them to the entire exclusion of forgiveness. It will be seen as well from the construction of the mechanical means for producing the parabola as from examination of the diagram, that the leading principle of the parabola is that the distance of every point on it from the focus is exactly equal to a line let fall from the point in question perpendicularly to the directrix. Thus in Fig. 90, H N, the distance from the focus in a straight line to the point N, is equal to N L, the perpendicular let fall from N on the directrix C D. Similarly HO is equal to o F, HQ to QE, HS to 8 R, and H v to v U. A straight line drawn through any point in the curve at right angles to the axis is called the ordinate of that point. Thus, if we draw an indefinite straight line X Y, at right angles to the axis A B, passing through the point o and the focus H, HO is the ordinate of the point o, and H Z the ordinate of the point z. The part K H of the straight line AB, intercepted between K, the vertex of the parabola, and the focus H, in which the double ordinate oz cuts the axis A B at right angles, is called the abscissa of the points o z. In like manner oa is the ordinate of the point Q, and K a its abscissa. To find the focus of any given parabola, as Q KV in Fig. 90, draw the axis A B and the directrix C D, and at the point K in the straight line B K make an angle, в KO, equal to 60°. From the point o in which KO meets the curve draw o H perpendicular to AB; the point H is the focus of the curve. Make K A equal to KH, and through a draw CD at right angles to A B: CD is the directrix of the parabola. HISTORIC SKETCHES.-XXII. THE MASSACRE OF GLENCOE. "As for Mac Ian of Glencoe and that tribe, if they can be well distinguished from the other Highlanders, it will be proper, for the vindication of public justice, to extirpate that set of thieves." So wrote King William III., by the hand of the Master of Stair, to the commander of the royal troops in Scotland, in January, 1692. The words were part of a letter of instructions to the king's general, respecting the conduct he was to pursue towards the Highland chiefs, to whom a summons had been made to come in and make submission to the Government before the 31st of December, 1691. They were words of general or particular significance, according to the way in which the reader chose to read them, and according to the circumstances under which they were written. The letter was worded thus ambiguously by design, in order that the Secretary of State, who was to give further instructions upon it, might choose which interpretation he liked; and he chose an interpretation which had the effect of covering his master with shame, though posterity has done that master the justice to remove the blame from his shoulders and to place it where it is due. "The massacre of Glencoe" was on this wise:-Ever since the Revolution in 1688 had turned out the house of Stuart from the throne, there had been more or less of disaffection in certain parts of the kingdom to the rule of the new dynasty. In the Highlands of Scotland, where the sentiment of devotion to the Some of the more powerful clans had given in their allegiance to King William and Queen Mary; but these clans were for the most part amenable to military coercion by the Government, while the rest were influenced by bribes, either of money or favour, and were ready at any moment to turn against the hand that patted them. But by far the greater number of the clans remained in a state of chronic disaffection, would not own sovereign allegiance to any one, and remained independent of any king save their own chiefs. The trouble they gave was enormous; the necessity of keeping up a strong force to check them, most annoying and costly; and the nucleus they furnished for the gathering of a hostile army in the heart of Scotland, most dangerous to the peace of the kingdom. Statesmen in London were more concerned for the pacification of the Scotch Highlands than for any other matter of domestic policy. They tried all sorts of ways to effect the object; they played off one chieftain against another, sowed the seeds of dissension between them, bribed, flattered, threatened, and, whenever they had the chance, used force; but all means failed, and the Highlands remained a bugbear and a thorn in the side of the rulers, until, many years later, Mr. Pitt conceived the idea of utilising the courage and the hardihood of the men by employing them as soldiers in the service of the state. Not until the Highland regiments were raised were the Highlands pacified, and certainly in 1691, the time treated of in this sketch, they were the homes of men who were ready for any desperate enter prise against the Government. Sir John Dalrymple, Master of Stair, was William's Prime Minister for Scotland. He was a man who hated the marauding mountaineers with an implacable hatred, and would gladly have given his voice in favour of any project for crushing out their spirit by harsh means. He disbelieved in anything short of extirpation, and did his best to dissuade the Government from a policy of lenity, which they were willing to adopt. Contrary to his wish, it was determined to try the effect of a conciliatory present of £15,000, which was to be divided among the several chiefs, and John Campbell, Earl of Breadalbane, was chosen to be the agent for distributing it. He was to treat with the chiefs, and buy their friendship for so much; and he was to hint that, if this plan did not succeed, or if the chiefs should afterwards go from their bargain, there would be no more gentle treatment, but an overwhelming force to overawe them. The earl was not very successful in his negotiations. The chiefs came to his house at Glenorchy, but they could not agree about the price, and one of them, Macdonald of Glencoe, came to an open quarrel with the king's representative. Lochiel, head of the Camerons, joined with Macdonald, and there were local claims, not thought of by the Government, and which Breadalbane had not power to settle, that prevented an apportionment of the money. Negotiation was protracted, the Master of Stair was losing his patience, and, before the Earl of Breadalbane could give an account of his proceedings, had taken steps more in accordance with his own view of things. Proclamation was made at Edinburgh, calling upon the High-speaking on the subject, the Master of Stair suppressed the land chiefs to submit themselves to King William and Queen Mary before the 31st of December, 1691, and threatening that those who did not take the oaths of allegiance by that date should be treated as traitors and public enemies. Several months were allowed for the rebel chiefs to come in; the Earl of Breadalbane's negotiations went slowly forward; and the Government, on the other hand, were earnest in their preparations to act up to the spirit of the proclamation that had been issued. Naturally enough, the chiefs were unwilling to make submission. They hesitated, they blustered, they would die rather than submit. Some of them actually made preparations to resist the royal troops, and collected stores of provisions and warlike material. But as the time drew near, and the attitude of the Government remained firm and threatening, doubts entered the minds of some whether it would not, after all, be over-hazardous to continue obstinate. A comparison of their resources with those of the Government showed at a glance how hopeless it was for them to persevere; and gradually they gave way, pocketed their pride, and, presenting themselves before the sheriffs, took the oaths. By the 31st of December all had submitted, except Macdonald of Glencoe. Macdonald had delayed, partly out of unwillingness to go, partly out of bravado. He was ambitious of the honour of remaining out after powerful rivals had submitted, and he waited, perhaps in the hope that other chiefs would be laggards besides himself, and that, united, they would be able to offer such a stout resistance to the Government as would compel better terms than an unconditional surrender. But when he found that all the rest had given in their adhesion, and that if he persisted in obstinacy, he would have to face the wrath and to cope with the strength of the king, he resolved to take the oaths. Not until the 31st of December, the very last moment, did Mac Ian (Macdonald of Glencoe was so called in the Highlands) set out with his principal men, to take the oaths at Fort William. Arrived at the fort, he found that Colonel Hill, the governor, had not any power to administer the oaths, and that he must go to Inverary, the residence of the nearest competent magistrate. Colonel Hill gave him a letter of recommendation to the sheriff of Argyleshire, Sir Colin Campbell of Ardkinglass, and Mac Ian went on his way; but "the way was long, the wind was cold," the pitiless storms of a winter in the Highlands impeded the old man in his journey, and it was not till the sixth day after the expiration of the term fixed by the amnesty proclamation that Mac Ian appeared before the sheriff at Inverary. Overcome by the entreaties of Mac Ian, and by the letter of Colonel Hill, certifying that the rebel chief had offered himself at Fort William on the 31st of December to be sworn, Sir Colin Campbell administered the oath, and sent an explanatory certificate to Edinburgh, showing why he had departed from the strict words of the proclamation. Mac Ian went back to his home in the pass of Glencoe, glad at having made his peace, his mind having no misgivings about the ratification of his accepted allegiance. The news went up to London that Mac Ian of Glencoe had not submitted, and by the time the further news of his submission arrived, steps had been taken to punish him. The Master of Stair was greatly rejoiced at the prospect of being able to make an example, and the Earls of Breadalbane and Argyll, with whom Mac Ian was at private war, rejoiced at the prospect of taking a bloody revenge. The intelligence of Mac Ian's submission was a blow to all three, and they cast about how they might fend it off. In an age when persons arraigned on criminal charges were condemned to death on failure to sustain some technical objection to the indictment, it is not surprising to find that even a secretary of state should take advantage of an informality in order to press matters against an inveterately hated antagonist. Substantially, of course, it made no difference whatever, whether submission was made on the 31st of December or on the 6th of the following January, and the attempt made by Mac Ian on the earlier date might well be taken to show the animus with which he acted on the latter. But this was not the way in which the secretary looked at the case. He desired a loophole out of which he might fling Mac Ian and his people, and he found it in the fact that Mac Ian had not surrendered by the prescribed day. He knew it would be fatal to his purpose to furnish the king with all the information he himself had, and in evidence that Mac Ian had, though tardily, given in his allegiance. In those days news was slow in travelling, and the royal pleasure was taken as if the Macdonalds of Glencoe were still contumacious; but the royal pleasure seems to have been, even then, that the outlaws should but be repressed with a strong hand, their valley occupied, and examples made of such as should be guilty of flagrant breaches of the public peace. Certainly there is not any warrant for supposing that King William or his other ministers were at any time privy to the plan which the Master of Stair was maturing in his brain. To him it was a source of deep regret that any of the clans had submitted. He had hoped to make a clean sweep of them all. The Macdonalds of Glencoe he determined should not escape. So the order quoted at the beginning of this sketch was sent down to the Commander of the Forces, and the Master of Stair wrote full and particular instructions to explain how this generally worded order was to be carried out. Lord Macaulay thus describes the theatre where the Master's tragedy was to be acted:"Mac Ian dwelt in the mouth of a ravine situated not far from the southern shore of Lochleven, an arm of the sea which deeply indents the western coast of Scotland, and separates Argyleshire from Inverness-shire. Near his house were two or three small hamlets inhabited by his tribe. The whole population which he governed was not supposed to exceed 200 souls. In the neighbourhood of the little cluster of villages was some copsewood and some pasture land; but a little further up the defile no sign of population or of fruitfulness was to be seen. In the Gaelic tongue, Glencoe signifies the Glen of Weeping; and, in truth, that pass is the most dreary and melancholy of all the Scottish passes-the very Valley of the Shadow of Death. Mists and storms brood over it through the greater part of the finest summer; and even on those rare days when the sun is bright, and when there is no cloud in the sky, the impression made by the landscape is sad and awful. The path lies along a stream which issues from the most sullen and gloomy of mountain pools. Huge precipices of naked stone frown on both sides. Even in July, the streaks of snow may often be discerned in the rifts near the summits. All down the sides of the crags, heaps of ruin mark the headlong paths of the torrents. Mile after mile the traveller looks in vain for the smoke of one hut, or for one human form wrapped in a plaid, and listens in vain for the bark of a shepherd's dog, or the bleat of a lamb. Mile after mile the only sound that indicates life is the faint cry of a bird of prey from some storm-beaten pinnacle of rock." The chiefs With zealous care the Secretary of State and his friends, Breadalbane and Argyll, studied the geography of Glencoe, and took the necessary measures to bar the ways out of it when once the Macdonalds should become fugitives. beyond the passes from Glencoe were secured by promises, by appeals to their hatred and their interest; and when this was done, the conspirators proceeded to devise a scheme by which they might fall on the Macdonalds unawares, and slay them all, men, women, and children. The season was winter, and the Master of Stair reckoned on its help to finish his work, if peradventure any of his prey should escape to the wood or the thicket. The plot was laid with devilish cunning. Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, second in command to Colonel Hill, of Fort William, was selected as the military executioner. Hill was reckoned too humane, too squeamish, to undertake such a business, and he was simply ordered to place a strong detachment under his junior's command. "Better not meddle with them than meddle to no purpose. When the thing is resolved, let it be secret and sudden." These were the secretary's instructions to Hamilton, whose brain readily thought of a method for strictly obeying them. A hundred and twenty men were chosen from a regiment lately raised by the Earl of Argyll, and therefore for clan reasons deadly opposed to the Macdonalds; they were put under the command of a Captain Campbell, commonly called Glenlyon, whose niece was married to the second son of Mac Ian, and were marched on the 1st of February, 1692, to Glencoe. The fears of the clansmen were allayed by the king's officers, who assured them they came but as friends, and that all they wanted were food and quarters. These were accorded cheerfully, the men were distributed through the community, the officers were lodged with the chief's kinsman; Highland hospitality was largely extended to men who came as travellers and friends, and Mac Ian little thought the advent of his guests was in any way connected with his tardy journey to Inverary. Indeed, he supposed, and reasonably, that his fault was condoned, and if he speculated at all upon the object of the soldiers' march through his territory, he certainly did not think that ho was the aim and object of it. All went happily for nearly a fortnight, Glenlyon and Lindsay were treated like members of Mac Ian's own family, and there was no hint in the conduct of the officers of the danger that was threatening their hosts. Yet all the while Glenlyon was secretly informing Hamilton of what he saw, and receiving his instructions in return. Those instructions, the final instructions, were to begin operations at 8 a.m. on the 13th of February, and to kill every Macdonald in Glencoe under the age of seventy. Hamilton intended to come with 400 men for the purpose of cutting off fugitives, but in any case Glenlyon was to fall on at the time and date agreed. There was not any suspicion of guests who were eating and drinking at the clansmen's tables, sleeping in their huts, and. interchanging the offices of friendship with them, until a few hours before the massacre began, and then the suspicions of John Macdonald, son of Mac Ian, were allayed as soon as aroused by the assurances of Lindsay, that they were only about to march against the Glengarry men, who had been giving some trouble. Sharp at five o'clock, Glenlyon began the work by shooting his host and family, and then the fiendish slaughter went on all through Glencoe. Mac Ian was shot through the head, his wife was so maltreated that she died next day, and the chief's sons had a hairbreadth escape, having only time to fly ere the human bloodhounds could come upon them. The rattle of musketry mingled grimly with the groans of the dying and the shrieks of the wounded, and the red glare of the burning houses for the soldiers set fire to the dwellings which had sheltered them-lighted the way to the destruction which was meant to be universal. But Hamilton was delayed on the road, and did not appear in time; Glenlyon's men bungled at their bloody work, and the result was that at least half of the people escaped. When Hamilton came he found the work unfinished, and though he committed a few more cold-blooded murders by way of wreaking vengeance, he was unable to follow the bulk of the fugitives into the fastnesses which were known only to them. When he had gone the ruined remnant of the Macdonalds came back, only to find their houses a heap of ashes, the bodies of their murdered kindred unburied, and all the flocks of the clan driven away as plunder. It was a long time before the truth leaked out. The perpetrators of the massacre kept the thing quiet, and the surviving sufferers by it were not in a position to make themselves heard. Rumour, then revelations by men in their cups, then the complaint of Mac Ian's sons, gradually brought the affair at Glencoe into prominence. The story was disbelieved at first, as being simply impossible; but fresh facts continued to present them selves till the mass of evidence became enormous, and there was a cry all over Scotland for an inquiry into the circumstances attendant on the slaughter of the Macdonalds of Glencoe. Tho Scottish Parliament took the matter in hand, and King William was at length obliged, for the honour of his Government, to order an inquiry by a commission. The result of the inquiry was to fix the entire guilt of the massacre upon the Master of Stair, whose letters and papers of instructions were produced. The subordinates, Hamilton, Glenlyon, Lindsay, and some more, were voted by the Parliament to be murderers, and they fled for their lives before the request of the Estates that they might be prosecuted for their crimes. For the Master of Stair, the Estates left him to the judgment of the king, his master, whom they voted to have had no knowledge of what the Master intended, and whose letter to the commander of the troops they declared was not capable of the interpretation put upon it by the secretary. The king simply dismissed the Master of Stair from his posts, and refused to prosecute him for the murder; and finding that so many persons were implicated in the affair, and that it would be inconvenient to prosecute them all, while he could not punish a few only where all were guilty, proclaimed soon afterwards a general amnesty. For the actual participators in the massacre of Glencoe, the only punishment that was inflicted upon them was that described by Macaulay, the punishment "which made Cain cry out that it was greater than he could bear; to be vagabonds on the face of the earth, and to carry wherever they went a mark from which even bad men should turn away sick with horror." OUR HOLIDAY. CROQUET.-I. THE game of Croquet is a very recent introduction into the list of our popular pastimes; but the number of persons of both sexes with whom it is a favourite amusement is now so large, and so rapidly increasing, that we give it a prominent place in this series of papers. It is true it is not every one who has access at all times to a private croquet ground; but many of our public places of recreation are now provided with accommodation for the game, and, as it becomes more widely known, additional facilities will no doubt spring up for its practice. Before describing it, we will give a short account of the history of the game. Although new in its modern features, it is little more than an old game revived, after it had been almost forgotten. Most of our readers either know or have heard of the neighbourhood of Pall Mall, in St. James's Park, and are perhaps aware that the long avenue in front of Buckingham Palace is called "The Mall." These names are derived from a pastime which was frequently played here after the Restoration, and, there seems reason to believe, was introduced from France when King Charles II. returned from his exile in that country. It is certain that the same game had long been known in France, where it was termed the jeu de mail, and the following account of it is given in a modern book of French sports and pastimes :"This game, which is said to have been played by the Gauls, our ancestors, was so generally played in former years, that the greater portion of the promenades adjoining many of our towns consisted of a long avenue, termed the mail, because it was set apart for the jeu de mail. To this day it is still as much in vogue as ever in some of the towns in the centre of France, and in Montpellier it has never ceased to be a favourite amusement with all classes and all ages. The instrument termed the mail consists of a club of strong wood, made in the form of a cylinder, furnished at the two extremities with a tip or ferule of iron, and in the middle of which is firmly fixed a handle, about a yard long, not too stiff nor too pliant, but proportioned to the weight of the cylinder. The ball, which is struck with the club, is made of boxwood, very dry and firm." Here we have a description of the same implements as those that were used in the English game of Pall-mall, as appears from the recent discovery of a set, concerning which the following account is given in Mr. Timbs's "Curiosities of London:" "In 1854 were found in the house No. 68, Pall Mall, a box containing four pairs of the maîles, or mallets, and one ball, such as were formerly used for playing the game of Pall Mall in the Mall of St. James's Park. Each maile is four feet long, |
