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The romance of war; or, The Highlanders in Spain
The romance of war or The Highlanders in Spain Author:James Grant Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. THE DEPABTURE. " Farewell, farewell, a last adieu ! Adieu, ye hill and u,. V . Bu eweet ; Atlieu, ye gurgling rill, fur you And I anin may n... more »ever meet! Sweet lovely scene, iih ?????? replete ! Backward my lonpinjr eyes 1 turn, Leave your atupen Kms rocks with woe, To yonder cloud-cupped town 1 go, Ah! never to return." Culin Itíucluurin. Sorrow for the sudden departure of Ronald was the prevailing sentiment in the tower of Lochisla, which old Janet the housekeeper caused to re-echo with her ceaseless lamentations, poured forth either in broken broad Scotch, or in her more poetical and descriptive Gaelic, for the going forth of the bold boy whom ehe had watched over and nursed from childhood with the tenderness of a mother. His father felt deeply the pang of parting with the only child that death had left him ; but he pent his teelitigs within his own proud bosom, and showed them but little. He said nothing more of Alice Lisle, unwilling to sour the few remaining hours they had to spend together by harsh injunctions or disagreeable topics, deeming that Ronald, in the busy scenes which were before him in his military career, would be taught to forget the boyish attachment of his early days. It is thus that old men ever reckon, forgetting that the first impressions which the young heart receives are ever the strongest and most lasting. He directed with cool firmness the arrangements for his son's early departure; and save now and then a quivering of the lip or a deep sigh, no other emotion was visible. He felt keenly, nor would he ever have parted with Ronald, notwithstanding the eagerness of the youth to join the army, but for the entanglement of his private affairs, which rendered it absolutely, necessary that his son should be independent of h...« less