Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/259

Rh expedition of the Highland host, which took place in 1678. His object was to satirise both the men who composed this expedition and those who directed it to take place. It chiefly consists in a ludicrous account of the outlandish appearance, senseless manners, and oppressive conduct of the northern army. So far as satire could repay the rank cruelty of that mode of constraining men's consciences, it was repaid for the poem is full of poignant sarcasm, expressed in language far above the poetical diction of that day, at least in Scotland. Ii was not published, however, till 1697, nearly twenty years after the incident which called it forth, when at length it appeared in a small volume, along with several other poems by the same author. We present the reader with the following specimen of the composition, being a description of the Highlanders:—