The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-30 00:00:00

in the discharge of their duties, and bore testimony, in
strong terms, to the very efficient nature of the secre-
tary's services.

Air. CHUKTON and othe gentlemen also spoke in
warm terms of Mr. Blakeman's zeal and ability.
Mr. BLAKEMAN returned thanks, and addressed the
meeting at some length on the gratifying prospects of
their affairs.

A vote of thanks was then passed to the president,
after which the meeting separated.

LITERATURE.
THE SCOTTISH CAVALIER. An Historical
Romance, By James Grant. 3 Vets.
Mr. Grant is favourably known as a writer of.
historical romance. The delightful " Memoirs of
Kiskaldy of Grange," and the more elaborate " Ro-
mance of War," have rendered him deservedly popular
with many readers. The " Scottish Cavalier" csnnot
fail to enhance its author's literary reputation. Truth
and fiction are harmoniously blended in its pages, and
the very spirit of the times of which it treats is infused
into the characters who take part in its adventures.
Of its value in an historical point of view, and of the
rich anec.lotal information with which it abounds, we
quote the following sketch of the famous " Scottish
Guard" of the French Kings, so well known to the
readers of " Quentin Durward"
:
" ORIGIN OF 'THE ROYALS,' OR FIRST REGIMENT OF

THE LINE.
"Louis, surnamed the Saint, King of France, having
taken the crews, sailed with a splendid retinue of knights,
nobles, and soldiers, bent on the delivery of Jerusalem
from the profanation of the Moslem; and, landing in
the East, laid siege to Damietta (in Lower Egypt),
which he triumphantly won by
storm. But after enduring
innumerable hardships and disasters by the sword and by
pestilence from the foetid waters of the marshy Nile and
the Lake of Menzaleh, he was overthrown in battle at
Mansoura, and made captive by the Soldan. This was
about the year 1254, when
A)exander 111. was King
of Scotland. In these Eastern wars, St. Louis was
twice saved from death by the valour of a small band
of auxiliary Scotch crusaders commanded
Stewart, Lord of
commanded by the
Earls of March and Dunbar, W
Dundonald, and Sir David Lindsay of Glenesk. These
brave adventurers had the good fortune to rescue the
French monarch, first from the scimitars of the followers
of the Klng of the Arsacides, a Mahommedan despot,
and afterwards from the emissaries cf the Comtesse de
la Marche.
" Our good King Alexander sent ambassadors to con-
gratulate St. Louis on his delivery from these double
perils, and on his return from this first crusade, the two
monarchs agreed, that in remembrance of these deeds of
fidelity and valour, there should remain in France, in all
time coming, ' a standing company or guard of Scots-
men, recommended by their own sovereign,' and who
should in future form the Garde du Corps of
the most Christian King. Such was the origin
of the bravvrt body- guard that Europe ever saw,
though cur ancient historians are fond of dating its
formation from the days of Charlemagne and Gregory
the Great of Scotland. The guard thus established by
St. Louis marched with him to the second crusade in
Y the Earls of Carrick
athned yearAt 1
h 01720
I,S. Itir wasStutahretn, led
dr
bIIT. Gordon, and other
brave knights, most of whom perished with Louis of a
deadly pestilence before the walls of Tunis, and under
the towers of Abu Zaccheria. _

" This noble band of Scottish archers remained con-
stantleyouinntFry until King Charlesrance,andweretheonlY military corps in
that vii,
added a few
French companies to increase his guards, still giving
the Scots their old pre-eminence and post of honour
next the royal person. The leader was styled Premier
Capitaine of the Guards, and, as such, took precedence
of all military officers in France. When the French
Sovereign was annointed, he stood beside him ;
and when the ceremony was over, obtained the royal
robes, with all their embroidery and jewels, as his per-
quisite. When a city was to be stormed, the Scottish
archers led the way; when it surrendered, tke keys were
received by their captain from the hands of the King.
Twenty-five of them, 'in testimony of their unspotted
fidelity,' wore over their magnificent armour white bo-,
quetons of a peculiar fashion, richly laced and embossed
with silver. Six of them in rotation were ever beside
the royal person—by night as well as by day—at the re-
ception of foreign ambassadors—in the secret debates in
the Cabinet—in the rejoicings of the tournament, the
revels of the banquet, the solemnities of the Church, and
the glories of the • battle-field. The Scottish hearts
formed a zone around the monarchs of France; and at
the close of the scene, the chosen twenty-five had the
privilege of bearing the royal remains to the regal se-
pulchre of St. Denis.
"It would require volumes, instead of a chapter, to
recount all the honours paid to the Scottish Guard, and
the glory acquired by them in the wars of five centuries.
Led by Alexander Earl of Buchan, Great Constable of
France, they performed good service in that great battle
at Banje•es-Anjou, where the English were completely
routed; and at Verneuil, where Buchan died sword in
hand, like a brave knight, and covered with renown, at
the same mement that Swinton, the gallant Laird of
Dalswinton, slew the boasting Clarence with one thrust
of his border spear. In 1570, the guard consisted of a
hundred cuirassier, or hommes-des armes, a hundred
archers of the corps, and twenty-five 'keepers of the
king's body,' all Scottish gentlemen of noble descent
and coat-armour. They saved the life of the
tyrant Louis XI. at Liege, and ,Pavia fought
around the gallant Francis in a circle until four only
were left alive; and then, end not till then, the King
fell into the hands of the fee. In gratitude for their
long-tried faith and unmatched valour, they were
vested with 'all the honour and confidence the King of
France could bestow on his nearest and dearest friends;'
and thus in a little band of Scottish archers originated
the fashion of standing armies, and the nucleus of the
great permanent forces of France. 'By this means,'
says an old Jacobite author, our gentry were at once
taught the rues of civility and art of war; and we were
possessed cf an inexhaustible stock of brave officers, fit
to discipline and to command our armies at home, and

ever sure to keep up that respect which was deservedly
paid to the Scots name and nation abroad.'
" As Sir James Hepburn's regiment of Pikemen they
returned to Scotland in 1633, being sent over by Louis
XII., to attend the coronation of Charles I. at Edin-
burgh. On the commencement of the great and disas-
trous civil war, eight years after, they loyally adhered
to the King, and were then by the Cavalier army first
styled the Royal Scots. On the reverse of Chrlrles's
fortune and subversion of all order, they went back to
France, and, under Louis of Bourbon, Duc d'Eng:hien,

shared in all the dangers and glories of that cam paign
on the frontiers of Flanders, so famous for eliding
in the utter destruction of the Spanish host, the death
of the blare Conde Fuentes, the fall of Thionville,
Philipsburg, Mentz, Werms, and Oppenheim, till the
waters of the Rhine reflected the flash of their armour ;

and there fell the vetern Hepburn, with his helmet
on his brow, and the flag of St. Andrew over him.
Returning in 1678, they rc-sntered the Scottish army
as the Earl of Dumbarton's foot; and eight years niter
served against the ill-fated Monmouth, and suffered
severely, being attacked at Sedgemoor by his cavalry in
the night, their position being discerned through. the
darkness by the glow of their lighted matches.
" At the union in 1707, on the incorporation of the
forces as the British establishment, and when Scottish
blood and Scottish treasure were more than ever re-
quired to further the grasping aims and useless wars of
that age, the Royals, in consequence of their high
standing in arms and venerable antiquity, were :num-
bered as the Ist, or Royal Scots Regiment of Foot—a
title they have since maintained with honour, and on a
hundred fields have upborne victoriously the same silver
cross which the brave archers of Athol' and the s pear-
men of Buchan unfurled so gloriously on the plains of
Anjou, and at Vernuil, on the banks of Aure."
Walter Fenton, the " Scottish Cavalier," is one of
this gallant band and among the heroic and perilous
adventures recorded in this volume, is an account of
that famous instance of Scottish gallantry which gave
a name to an island of the Rhine—an incident beauti-
fully commemorated by Aytoun in "the Island of the
"Lays
of
this historical romance are
the Scottish Cavaliers."
Amonglasof Finland, the writer of
these are Annie Laurie
which bears the name of his
ends well," then indeed the story of the
antsS
hneoc
:dome tstsesths, '
necessarily
still
favourite
ehehteolsf:
toho tiarhdirei
historical.
balladeDLr characters
g
faithless mistress, " Annie Laurie." If that only is
Cavalier" can have no claim to that qualifica-
iioswnce.ullt'ci
wsthilmicihght with propriety have fur its motto. the
mournful lines of Coleridge—
" Constancy lives in realms above,
And life is thorny, and youth is vain ;"
revolting.
for, interesting as it is at the commencement, the
conclusion will be fountdhemhoesrtorienpesug;nbtottho
htihsetrtautshte_
of all lovers of romance. Mr. Grant will hardly find
favour with his lady-readers, we should imagine,
afterf
ul
and
ci ea l Lauriejustice th
ufisc tsietlieocutsinnga rarsatives the fickletoofrroupl
Aloreentthinking the
punishment
acwwonhhndiicectlhhhu esaiiswoi
nnsaocioot
ffana
tsrththaseena
tttl
aiasLltfetaielcLtaoinsgroyn
somewhat
eakwbpiuihnetadrt.

COURT CIRCULAR,
OSBORNE, MAY 29.
grounds.
The Queen and Prince walked, at an early hour
this morning, in Osborne park and
yoHunigseßromyeaml
bHerisghofnetshse the Prince
Family,
of Wales,
and
walked and
rode as usual.
There was no addition yesterday to the royal dinner
party.

j7interview
yesterday. The
The Bishop of Toronto had. an interview with Earl
Grey yesterday at the Colonial-office.
Bishopintervi e
owf'
The Chevalier Bunsen, Prussian Minister, had an
wth
S Rochester Sir
r with the
Right ion. Baronet, at the Home-office.
Earl Grey gave a grand. dinner. to the Cabinet
Ministers last evening, at his residence on Carlton -
GhaedorgaelsoGarne
terrace.

THE WEATHER.—Tne mean dailyreading of the
i
barometer in the past week was 29.486 n. The mean tem-
perature was 55 deg. 5 min., and was rather higher than the
average of the same week in seven years. On Tuesday the
mean temperature was 6 dog. above the average of the same
day ; on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, it was more than
1 deg. below it.
'IGNS or TEE TlMES.—Yosterdny afternoon, at the
city of Bristol, Mr. G. C. liarril, auctioneer, sold the rever-
si.m or rffpninder in feeimplc' of an P tat, situate in the
parishes of i'darlborougu and West Alvington, South Devon,
for the sum of 3,0201., the reserved price upon which, and at
which the biddings =mewed, bewg only 1,6004