Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Jacobite minstrelsy

MINSTRELSY. 103
I tint half mysel when my gude lord I did tine :
A heart half sae brave a braid belt will never bin',
Nor the grassy sods e'er cover a bosom half sae
kin';
He's a drap o' dearest blude i' this auld heart o'
mine.
sincerest thanks for her kind offer to accompany me when I went to
present my petition. I added, that she might spare herself any far-
ther trouble, as it was now judged more adviseable to present one
general petition in the name of all : however, that I should never be
unmindful of my particular obligations to her grace, which I would
return very soon to acknowledge in person. I then desired one of the
servants to call a chair, and I went to the duchess of Montrose, who
had always borne a part in my distress. When 1 arrived, she left her
company to deny herself, not being able to see me under the affliction
which shejudged me to be in. By mistake, however, I was admitted ;
so there was no remedy. She came to me; and as my heart was in
an ecstacy of joy, I expressed it in my countenance as she entered the
room. I ran up to her in the transport of my joy. She appeared to
be extremely shocked and frighted ; and has since confessed to me,
that she apprehended my trouble had thrown me out of myself, till I
communicated my happiness to her. She then advised me to retire
to some place of security, for that the king was highly displeased, and
even enraged at the petition that I had presented to him, and had
complained of it severely. I sent for another chair; for I always
discharged them immediately, lest I might be pursued. Her grace
said that she would go to court, to see how the news of my lord's
escape was received. When the news was brought to the king, he
Hew into an' excess of passion, and said he was betrayed ; for it could
not have been done without some confederacy. He instantly de-
spatched two persons to the Tower, to see that the other prisoners
were well secured, lest they should follow the example. Some threw
the blame upon one, some upon another ; the duchess was the only
one at court who- knew it.
" When I left the duchess, I went to a house which Evans had
found out for me, and where she promised to acquaint me where my
lord was. She got thither some few minutes after me, and told me,
that, when she had seen him secure, she went in search of Mr. Mills,
who, by the time, had recovered himself from his astonishment ; that
he had returned to her house, where she had found him ; and that he
had removed my lord from the first place, where she had desired him
to wait, to the house of a poor woman directly opposite to the guard-
house. She had but one small room up one pair of stairs, and a very
small bed in it. We threw ourselves upon the bed, that we might not
be heard walking up and down. She left us a bottle of wine and some
bread, and Mrs. Mills brought us some more in her pocket the next
day. We subsisted on this provision from Thursday to Saturday
night, when Mrs. Mills came and conducted my lord to the Venetian