The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 11Dryden, John
General
The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 11
Dryden, John
English literature
This lady is here mentioned with the more propriety, as Mrs Anne
Killigrew dedicated the following lines to her memory:
Orinda (Albion's and our sexes grace)
Owed not her glory to a beauteous face,--
It was her radiant soul that shone within,
Which struck a lustre through her outward skin,
That did her lips and cheeks with roses dye,
Advanced her height, and sparkled in her eye:
Nor did her sex at all obstruct her fame,
But higher 'mong the stars it fixed her name;
What she did write not only all allowed,
But every laurel to her laurel bowed.
]
UPON THE DEATH OF
THE VISCOUNT OF DUNDEE.
JAMES GRAHAM of Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee, studied the military
art under the Prince of Orange. He first distinguished himself by his
activity in exercising the severities which the Scottish council, in the
reigns of Charles II. and James II., decreed against the frequenters of
the field-meetings and conventicles. On this account his memory is
generally reprobated by the Scottish presbyterians; nor would history
have treated him more gently, had not the splendour of his closing life
effaced the recollection of his cruelties. When the Scottish Convention
declared for the Prince of Orange in 1688-9, Dundee left Edinburgh, and
retired to the north, where he raised the Highland clans, to prop the
sinking cause of James II. After an interval of a few months, spent in
desultory warfare, General Mackay marched, with a regular force, towards
Blair in Athole, against this active and enterprising enemy. Upon the
17th June, 1689, when Mackay had defiled through the rocky and
precipitous pass of Killicrankie, he found Dundee, with his Highlanders,
arranged upon an eminence opposite to the northern mouth of the defile.
Dundee permitted his adversary gradually, and at leisure, to disengage
himself from the pass, and draw up his army in line; for, meditating a
total victory, and not a mere check or repulse, he foresaw that Mackay's
retreat would be difficult in proportion to the distance of his forces
from the only path of safety through which they could fly. He then
charged with irresistible fury, and routed Mackay's army in every
direction, saving two regiments who stood firm. But as Dundee hastened
towards them, and extended his arm as if urging the assault, a shot
penetrated his armour beneath his arm-pit, and he dropt from his horse.
He lived but a very short time, and died in the arms of victory. With
Dundee fell all hopes of restoring King James's affairs in Scotland; the
independent chieftains, who had been overawed by his superior talents,
resumed the petty altercations which his authority had decided or
suppressed; their followers melted away without a battle; and after his
death, those who had been rather the implements than the companions of
his victory, met nothing but repulse and defeat, until all the north of
Scotland submitted to William III.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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