RULLION GREEN.

I PLACE in succession three ballads (all of which were printed in the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border"), relating to the disturbances which followed the restoration of Episcopacy in Scotland during the reign of Charles II.

The first in order refers to a skirmish at Rullion Green among the Pentland Hills, where the insurgents, headed by one Wallace, were routed by the cavalry of General Dalzell of Binns. This was not a general rising of the disaffected. It was a sudden outbreak on the part of the Covenanters of Dumfriesshire, who, enraged at the severities of the notorious Sir James Turner, then levying arbitrary fines from the non-conformists, seized upon that officer, and disarmed his soldiers. It must be allowed that, on this occasion, they displayed remarkable forbearance; for they spared the life of their oppressor when that was entirely in their power. None of the gentry joined them; but, being instigated by some of the ejected ministers who trusted to the contagion of example, they resolved to march towards Edinburgh, hoping to gain reinforcements by the way. Their numbers, when they reached Lanark, are said to have amounted to three thousand men; but as they approached Edinburgh, they received the disheartening intelligence that the city was fortified, the townsmen under arms, and cannon drawn out for their reception. This caused a panic and desertion, so that scarcely one-third of the Covenanters remained together; and though they made a courageous resistance, they could not withstand the shock of Dalzell's cavalry. It was at this engagement, fought on 28th November 1666, that the

Covenanters first made the discovery that old Dalzell, “the Muscovian beast," as they were wont to term him, had sold himself to the Prince of Darkness. A cloud of witnesses were ready to swear that they saw the bullets hopping off his buff-coat like hailstones.

This ballad is evidently the production of a Royalist. If, as Sir Walter Scott supposed, the gallant Grahams mentioned in the text were Graham of Claverhouse's horse, the ballad cannot have been written immediately after the event which it celebrates. Claverhouse was at that time an officer in the Dutch service, and did not hold an independent command in Scotland until the year 1678.

HE gallant Grahams cam' from the west,

THE

Wi' their horses black as ony craw;
The Lothian lads they marched fast,
To be at the Rhyns o' Gallowa.

Betwixt Dumfries town and Argyle,
The lads they marched mony a mile;
Souters and taylors unto them drew,
Their covenants for to renew.

The whigs, they, wi' their merry cracks,
Gar'd the poor pedlars lay down their packs ;

But aye sinsyne they do repent

The renewing of their covenant.

At the Mauchline muir, where they were reviewed,

Ten thousand men in armour showed;

But, ere they came to the Brockie's burn,

The half o' them did back return.

General Dalyell, as I hear tell,
Was our lieutenant-general;

And captain Welsh, wi' his wit and skill, Was to guide them on to the Pentland hill.

General Dalyell held to the hill,
Asking at them what was their will,
And who gave them this protestation,
To rise in arms against the nation ?

"Although we all in armour be,
It's not against his majesty ;

Nor yet to spill our neighbour's blude,
But wi' the country we'll conclude."

"Lay down your arms in the king's name,
And ye shall all gae safely hame ;'
But they a' cried out wi' ae consent,
“We'll fight a broken covenant."

"O well," says he, " since it is so,
A willfu' man never wanted woe;"
He then gave a sign unto his lads,
And they drew up in their brigades.

The trumpets blew, and the colours flew,
And every man to his armour drew ;
The whigs were never so much aghast,
As to see their saddles toom sae fast.

The cleverest men stood in the van,
The whigs they took their heels and ran;
But such a raking was never seen,
As the raking o' the Rullion Green.

LOUDON HILL.

THIS is a poetical account, by one of the Covenanting party, of the action which has been so graphically described by Sir Walter Scott in "Old Mortality." It was fought on 1st June 1679, shortly after the assassination of Archbishop Sharpe on Magus Muir.

YOU'LL

Our noble Burly, and his train ;

When last he march'd up thro' the land,
Wi' sax-and-twenty westland men.

Than they I ne'er o' braver heard,

For they had a' baith wit and skill
They proved right well, as I heard tell,
As they cam' up o'er Loudoun hill.

Weel prosper a' the Gospel lads,
That are into the west countrie;

Ay wicked Claver'se to demean,
And ay an ill dead may he die!

For he's drawn up i' battle rank,
An' that baith soon an hastilie;
But they wha live till simmer come,
Some bludie days for this will see.

But up spak cruel Claver'se then, Wi' hastie wit, an' wicked skill; "Gie fire on yonder westlan' men:

I think it is my sov'reign's will."

But up bespake his cornet then,

"It's be wi' nae consent o' me! I ken I'll ne'er come back again, An' mony mae as weel as me.

"There is not ane of a' yon men,

But wha is worthy other three; There is na ane amang them a', That in his cause will stop to die.

"An' as for Burly, him I knaw;

He's a man of honour, birth, an' fame; Gie him a sword into his hand, He'll fight thysel an' other ten."

But up spake wicked Claver'se then,
I wat his heart it raise fu' hie!
And he has cry'd that a' might hear,
"Man, ye hae sair deceived me.

"I never ken'd the like afore,

Na, never since I came frae hame, That you sae cowardly here suld prove, An' yet come of a noble Græme."

But up bespake his cornet then, "Since that it is your honour's will,

Mysel shall be the foremost man

That shall gie fire on Loudon hill.