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

199
150-163] SCOTI GRAMEIDOS LIB. V.
Quo res cunque cadat, placet his consistere terris.1
Haec ait; ecce vagae per arnica silentia lunae
Dum redit adjutus Batavorum Scaurius armis,
Nuntius hostili delapsus ab agmine noctu
Advolat, et magni ruit ad tentoria Grami,
Atque equitum celeres Scotorum nuntiat alas
Velle iterum Batavo jam regia castra relicto
Sponte sequi; sic velle duces, sic velle cohortes,
Commoda si rebus bene cesserit2 ansa gerendis.
Jamque refert Batavum multis legionibus auctum
Raptim instare ducem, rursusque ad bella reversum
Transiliisse cito Bogi vaga flumina cursu.
Et prius a cano quam surgat nata 3 marito
Memnonis, aut roseos proferret Lutea vultus,
Thus he speaks; Lo! while Scourie returns, favoured by the
friendly obscurity of the moon, his force increased with the troops
of Dutchmen, a messenger,4 slipping away from the hostile army,
flies hither by night, and runs to the tent of the great Graham,
and announces that the swift troops of Scotch dragoons desire now
again freely to follow the Royal camp, deserting from the Dutch¬
man; that thus the officers willed, thus the troopers, if a conveni¬
ent opportunity should arise for happily achieving the business.
And now he tells of the Orange commander, his strength increased
by many companies (or regiments) pressing on secretly, and that,
with his face once more to his foe, he had crossed the winding
streams of Bogie in rapid course. And he says that before the
daughter5 {mother) of Memnon rises from the couch of her aged
1 Var. led. turris; also ‘castris.’
2 ‘ Cesserit ansa ’: a singular phrase, but giving good sense metaphorically.
8 ‘ Nata,’ a mistake of the author for Mater. See translation, and note5.
4 This messenger was Sergeant Provensal, a confidential servant of Lieuten¬
ant-Colonel Livingstone, afterwards Lord Kilsyth. He and another dragoon
were found hid in a wood near Edinglassie, along with a servant and a boy
belonging to our friend Captain Bruce (see Book IV.). After the discovery of
Provensal, and the evidence of his companions, Mackay ordered the arrest of
the disaffected officers. Poor Provensal got a good word from nobody. Mackay
urges his being put to torture. Sir John Dalrymple, while excusing Livingstone,
says: ‘ There is one Sergeant Provincial!, a Papist, who was the most guilty,
he may serve for an example.’ See Mackay’s letter, urging torture, p. 240 of
Appendix to his Memoir. Also ‘ Remits and Orders for torturing dragoons,’
quoted from Privy Council Register in Napier’s Dundee, where also see
pp. 684, 685, interesting correspondence on the subject.
5 Our author here makes a slip as to the relationship of Aurora to Memnon.
She was his mother, not his daughter, his father being the aged spouse Tithonus.