Page images
PDF
EPUB

conduct were thus set at rest. For us we felt that, come what come might, we must press on.

It was a dreary enough adventure this time, for the day grew steadily worse, and we soon discovered, to our great discomfort, the havoc wrought upon the roads by the storms of the preceding week. The mountains were blotted out behind a grey veil, and we rode through a blurred circumscribed landscape distinguished chiefly by its excessive wetness. We climbed long hills, and heard swollen burns gurgle among dripping heather. We crossed bleak, deserted bleak, deserted peat-moors, and saw sad, forsaken little lochs stare gloomily up at gloomier skies. Our clothes grew heavy and our hearts heavier. There was no novelty about our road as there had been on our outward journey, for here every turn of the way was familiar to us. We had jogged over it time and again in the lumbering old mail-coach,— sometimes in summer sunshine, sometimes when the snowwreaths lay deep upon it in the hollows. We could remember a weird walk taken in the darkness over the dreariest part of it, at the season when the deer are wild and the Bens on either side echoed with their mournful belling. The loneliness, the sense of danger, the cries rising all about us in the blackness, were not soon to be forgotten.

by which we rode were familiar to us, so also were the legends which belonged to them. There was the ancient battlefield where, centuries ago, one clan fought with another for the possession of stolen herds of cattle. On a different sort of day it might have been interesting enough to halt awhile and look at the rough stones supposed to mark the burialplaces of the slain. But who wants to sit down in the pouring rain to consider the graves of his ancestors?

[ocr errors]

one

We passed the place where a man of our parish Sandy M'Pherson-lay down, on his way home from the fishing, in a fairy circle, in which, before he returned next day to common earth, he had some astonishing experiences-experiences that, alas! only provoked mirth from a cold modern world ever ready to cast doubts upon the sobriety of a seer. On a day like this, even we could see little romance in his tale.

On the heights of the way we passed by a place that had once been regarded as the possible site of a thriving village. The finest marble was to be quarried near it,—a marble finer, it was said, than that of Carrara. There was talk of of light railways, of capital, of employment for who knew how many men, but it all came to nothing. The expenses were too great, the marble too remote in the heart of the Bens. It was but one among the many vain As the moors and hillocks dreams of our people.

We seemed to pass by only way. old unhappy things on that ride. There were the ruined castles by the loch that we came upon as the grey day was changing to greyer night; desolate ruins, where in ancient times mournful things had happened, where honour had been forgotten and trust shamefully betrayed. A witch lived in one of them in the old witch days, and practised her dark arts behind their now crumbling walls. Ill spirits haunted these decaying places; the only prophecy still to be fulfilled in regard to them was a prophecy of strife.

Darkness fell and found us sinking deeper into roads that were here almost turned into quagmires by the storms of the preceding week. It was weary ride, though Cathal, I must confess, seemed little affected by the troubles of the

He laughed and made bad jokes with heroic gaiety, and vowed at every hill that it was easier and pleasanter and altogether more desirable to push two bicycles than one. About eleven at night I gave up the effort to ride, finding that, like the drunken man on horseback to which Luther compared his world, no sooner was I hoisted up on one side of my machine than I fell off again upon the other. Cathal went on ahead to announce our arrival, and I plodded heavily after. We arrived at midnight, and the first chapter of these travels was at an end. After hot baths, supper in the small hours was a wonderfully gay affair. I did not guess that for many a day I should not ride a bicycle again. My travels in quest of health were henceforth to be of a different character.

FROM THE OUTPOSTS.

EAGLES.

1.

On the confines of Earth ye shall find them,
Where civilisation's unknown,

Where underlings work if you bind them,
Where seeds of the Empire are sown,
Where life is far cheaper than feeding,

And men's hearts are carved out of stone;
Where wills made of iron are leading,
And leaders are always alone.

2.

Oh! seek ye the edge of Sahara,
The heart of the forest and swamp;
Oh! drink ye the waters of Marah,
Forgetting old London's sweet pomp.
Then meet them and know them, as kinglike
They rule in a cannibal land,

Where tortured by fever they're grim like
The Vikings-and you'll understand.

3.

Frock-coated in old Piccadilly,

In Bond Street quite beautifully dressed,
You'll meet them, for there, willy-nilly,
In leisure and comfort they rest.
Do not censure if wildly they're seeking
Forgetfulness deep in the cup,

Turning night into day whilst you're sleeping,
And sleeping, perchance, when you're up.

4.

Remember, your Empire they're making,
Remember the toll that they pay,
Remember the ties they're forsaking,
Do not judge as you see them to-day.

They toil not for lucre; but lonely,

Face nature where she's at her worst, Where men are like devils, and only The Starlight at night is uncursed.

5.

Their mothers perhaps understand them,
And know the full price that they pay.
The Officials who rule and command them,
The critics who carp every day,

The Socialist mob who denounce them
As tyrants and slayers of men,

Do you think that these same will renounce them
When the Lion's assailed in his den ?

6.

The seed that they sow ye'll be gleaning,
A crop that is watered with blood;
Perhaps ye shall guess the full meaning
When traversing desert or flood,

On the railways they built, and they paid for
With life and with health and with brain;
Then think of the Eagles who stayed for
Their Empire's magnificent gain.

JOHN DYKE.

THE DURBAR AT ZARIA.

A dull morning. The five thousand or so native horsemen assembled on the racecourse shivered and tossed the moisture from robe and turban. The horses preserved that characteristic air of sodden depression so proper to a Scots mist. The dismounted spectators had fewer fine clothes to be spoiled, but seemed no whit happier than their brethren a-horse. Men and horses were boredand showed it. The rain fell

gently-and very wetly. The three Politicals engaged in marshalling the crowd had thought to get across to the Mess for breakfast, but, glancing at the weather, Malcolm called the others about him and said, "Look here, you chaps, these beggars are having a pretty poor time, and I think the least we can do is to stick with 'em."

Just then the breakfast bugle sounded, and down came

we

The rain has ceased, and the sun is sending wavering watery shafts here and there about the scene. On the whole, it looks to be even money on a fine morning. From the stand we gaze across a great expanse of turf. Facing us are the troops

a perfect torrent of rain-rain and into position. The massed that crashed through every- bands were silent, and thing and beat up a regular waited. steam from the earth. Some thousands of natives and three Politicals sat or stood it out in devout silence-least ways, nothing to the contrary is known. An hour saw the end of the downpour, and things began to look like sunshine. Across the ground the Grand Stand (a great barn, built of iron telegraph-poles and grass mats, standing upon an earth mound) was filling with people in white uniforms. From the distance came the sound of

horse, foot, and guns-in line. Behind the troops, in a vast crescent, are the native horsemen, followers of the great Emirs, who have come from all parts of the Protectorate to assist at this, the Coronation Durbar. Each Emir is provided with pavilion, facing the stand, and behind each of these pavilions are massed the followers of the occupant.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

fifes, and presently there marched up the first of the troops-infantry, tall, well set up, scarlet zouave-jacketed swinging smartly into position in the enclosed oval of the course, facing the Grand Before the stand is a flagStand. Followed them the staff, and beside this an officer. Gunners wonderful people, Ready bent on the halliards is marching in a formation all the Union flag, and just at this their own, with guns-in bits moment the officer signs to an upon their heads. They orderly, and the flag flutters took post on the right of the aloft, and is broken at the top line, forming there what looked his Excellency is leaving to be four separate scrums, Government House. A few and, hey, presto! in a few minutes later he rides on to moments the scrums dissolved, the ground, and, accompanied disappeared, were not, and we by the commandant and folwere looking across at a lowed by his staff, rides down battery in line! Now the the line; what time the troops Mounted Infantry. Surely stand to attention, and the the queerest equipped, as they bands join in rendering the air are the smartest African always trotted out on these troops of the mounted branch. occasions a very simple little They wear a turban, a turban waltz refrain, intimately known with a streamer behind, they of all who have ever been incarry a lance and a carbine, spected by Generals and people. they ride like cavalrymen, and The inspection finished, the they manoeuvre like veterans. Governor canters across to the They trotted on to the ground saluting base and takes posi

« PreviousContinue »