“Sir I received your kind letter last night,
enclosing one pound sterling, for which I have only to request you will accept
the return of a grateful heart. My prayers, while on earth, will be always for
your welfare. Your letter came like a ministering angel to me. The idea of my
approaching end darts across my brain; and, as our immortal bard, Shakspeare, says, ‘harrows up my
soul.’ Some time since, when chance threw in my way Sir William Forbes’s
Life of Beattie, the
account of the closing scene of Principal
Campbell, as therein
| 242 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
“I have to mention, as a dying man, that it was not the greed of money that made me commit the crime, but the extreme pressure of poverty and want.
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“How silent seems all—not a whisper is heard,
Save the guardians of night when they bawl;
How dreary and wild appears all around;
No pitying voice near my call.
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“O life, what are all thy gay pleasures and cares,
When deprived of sweet liberty’s smile?
Not hope in all thy gay charms arrayed,
Can one heavy hour now beguile.
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“How sad is the poor convict’s sorrowful lot,
Condemned in these walls to remain,
When torn from those that are nearest his heart,
Perhaps ne’er to view them again.
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“The beauties of morning now burst on my view,
Remembrance of scenes that are past,
When contentment sat smiling, and happy my lot,
Scenes, alas! formed not for to last.
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“Now fled are the hours I delighted to roam
Scotia’s hills, dales, and valleys among,
And with rapture would list to the songs of her bards,
And love’s tale as it flowed from the tongue.
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| ANDREW STEWART. | 243 |
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“Nought but death now awaits me, how dread, but true,
How ghastly its form does appear;
Soon silent the muse that delighted to view
And sing of the sweets of the year.
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“You are the first gentleman I ever sent my poems to, and I never corrected any of them, my mind has been in such a state. I remain, sir, your grateful unfortunate servant,
