Chadeau de la Clocheterie) refusing,
the _Arethusa_ (Captain Marshall) opened fire. The ships were
fairly matched, and in the action which ensued the _Arethusa_
appears to have got the worst of it. In the end, after about
an hour's fighting, Keppel's liners came up, and the _Belle
Poule_ made off. She was afterwards driven ashore by a superior
English force, and it is an odd coincidence that in 1789 the
_Arethusa_ ran ashore off Brest during her action (10th March)
with _l'Aigrette_. As for the French captain, he lived to command
_l'Hercule_, De Grasse's leading ship in the great sea-fight
(12th April 1782) with Rodney off Dominica, where he was killed.
XLI
From the _Songs of Experience_ (1794).
XLII
_Scots Musical Museum_, 1788. Adapted from, or rather suggested
by, the _Farewell_, which Macpherson, a cateran 'of great personal
strength and musical accomplishment,' is said to have played and
sung at the gallows foot; thereafter breaking his violin across
his knee and submitting his neck to the hangman.
spring = _a melody in quick time_
sturt = _molestation_
XLIII
_Museum_, 1796. Burns told Thomson and Mrs. Dunlop that this
noble and most moving song was old; but nobody believed him then,
and nobody believes him now.
pint-stoup = _pint-mug_
braes = _hill-sides_
gowans = _daisies_
paidl't = _paddled_
burn = _brook_
fiere = _friend_, _companion_
guid-willie = _well-meant_, _full of good-will_
waught = _draught_
XLIV
The first four lines are old.
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