Series 1 > Grameid: an heroic poem descriptive of the campaign of Viscount Dundee in 1689, and other pieces

103-119] SCOTI GRAMEIDOS LIB. II.
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Ignavi, aut animo dat terga inhonesta remisso.
Verum et opes et opem tanto in discrimine Regi
Contulit, et rebus lateri comes haesit in arctis.
Tandem belligerae deceptus fraude catervae
Cogitur undoso Rex se committere ponto.
Dira Stuartorum fortuna o fataque Regum !
Caesaris heu patria pulsi sorsque aspera, Gramo
Tristis et ilia dies, qua castris ire Stuartum
Viderat armatum, quaque hunc conspexit inermem
Furtivae dare terga fugae, vectumque biremi
Exigua patriae linquentem littora terrae.
Huic vero curam Reginae, et Principis ultro
Tutelam medias mittendi puppe per undas1
Discedens dederat, monumentum et pignus amoris.
Inde domum rediens castris cum laude relictis,
Fida Stuartaeis tulit et suffragia sceptris.
Conventu in medio procerum, summoque Senatu
betake himself to dastardly flight. With money 2 and strength he
aids the King, and in his adversity cleaves to his side.
At length, betrayed by the treachery of his soldiers, the King
is compelled to commit himself to the stormy waves. Oh sad
fortune, sad fate of the Stuart kings ! Alas ! bitter was the lot
of the exiled Caesar, and sad to the Graham was the day when he
beheld the King, now armed in his camp, anon unarmed, turning
his back in flight, and secretly, in a two-oared boat,3 leaving the
paternal shores. But to him the King had given the care of the
Queen,4 and the custody of the Prince, the monument and pledge
of his love, that he might see them safely embarked. Then,
returning to Scotland, the camp honourably left, he presented his
faithful suffrage for the maintenance of the Stuart sceptre. In the
midst of the Convention, at the head of the Senate, he declared
1 Var. lect. Full stop at ‘ undas.’
2 Balcarres in his Memoir, p. 47, Bannatyne Club Edition, says of Claver-
house that ‘ although a good manager of his private fortune, he had no reserve
when your (King James’s) service and his own reputation required him to be
liberal! ’ Elsewhere he says he distributed frankly when the service demanded
it, though naturally more sparing than profuse.
* If this is historical at all, it may mean that Dundee saw James leave the
shore for the French frigate on December 23d. Dumbarton, Arran, and a few
others, went down the river with the King, and stayed with him at Rochester
till the 23d, when he embarked.
4 As far as I know, this is quite new to history, and is inconsistent with recog¬
nised facts and dates.