2nd Foot; and they embarked at Kinsale on the 4th of April, 1680, on board the James and Swan frigates. In the subsequent July strong detachments of the Coldstream and English Guards, and other corps, the whole of which were styled "The King's Battalion," sailed for Tangiers, under the command of John, Earl of Mulgrave, concerning whom Johnson, in his "Lives of the Poets," mentions a curious story, to the effect that he was intentionally exposed on this occasion to peril in a leaky ship, to gratify some jealous pique of King Charles, whose health he would never permit to be drunk at table till he found himself on dry land. It was during this voyage that he composed a poem called "The Vision."

Screened by the Atlas chain from those burning winds that sweep over the sandy wastes of Sahara, Tangiers is situated in a land of beauty and fertility, where the palm, the orange, and vine grow in luxuriance, and where the fields are teeming with flowers in January.

Fort Hamilton stood at some distance from the town. The cannon of the Moors had made two breaches in the walls, which had, moreover, been undermined by them; hence it became evident that the garrison could no longer defend it so a sally from the castle was proposed to relieve them, to the end that they might blow up the tower, and cut a passage through the Moors back to the town. For this most perilous service there volunteered

Bayley (of the family of Polkemmet), four sergeants, and eighty rank and file, all of the Royals.

On the 12th of May, at eight o'clock in the morning, this resolute band loaded, lighted their matches, and, led by their three officers, armed with pike and rapier, issued from Tangiers; while at the same moment the troops in the tower blew up their magazine, and rushed out to cut a passage through the investing force, and unite their strength with that of the coming succour.

With wild and diabolical yells, the Moors on horse and foot came rushing from all quarters to cut them off, to slay, hew, and decapitate. Forcing the first intrenchment with clubbed matchlock, and at push of pike and partisan, the English soon stormed the second, though the ditch was fully twelve feet deep; but ere they effected a junction with their Scottish comrades, Captain Trelawney and 120 men were killed and barbarously mutilated, while only forty-four succeeded in reaching Captain Hume's advancing detachment, which was assailed by a great body of Moorish horse, with lances and bucklers. But though he was ridden down and wounded, with fifteen of his men, he retired skirmishing and in good order, until all were-as .the London Gazette recordssafe under the guns of the castle of Tangiers; and a few days after this, twelve additional companies of the Royals landed, under the command of Major Sir James Halkett, a native of Fifeshire.

Each company now consisted of one hundred men-thirty of these were pikemen, whose weapon was fast falling into disuse; sixty were armed with matchlocks or snaphance muskets; and ten, on the flanks, were armed with light fusils called fowling-pieces, to pick off conspicuous leaders. The snaphance musket, or true Brown Bess of later wars, was a weapon first used by the Dutch marauders termed snaphans, or poultry-stealers, who, as they could not afford to purchase the more expensive wheel-lock, adopted a flint for the pyrite, and a furrowed piece of steel above the priming-pan, which on being snapped elicited the sparks. In January 1683-4 the English Guards were supplied with snaphance muskets and pikes only; matchlocks were discontinued, though used in the Scots Guards and Line to à later period. The grenadiers alone had conical caps, and doublets looped or slashed; those of the battalion companies were wide and of scarlet cloth, with blue petticoat breeches in the Royals, and broad hats with white feathers, the officers when on duty being accoutred with cuirass and gorget. The Scottish regiments

According to Nathan Brook's Army List, published in 1684, all Scottish grenadiers had "caps lined with white, the lion's face crowned; the flies St. Andrew's cross with the thistle and crown; in the centre "Nemo me impune lacessit."

A few months' truce having come to an end, the entire garrison quitted the town and encamped under the walls, when, on a general parade that took place, Sir Palmes Fairborne, the LieutenantGovernor made a spirited address to the troops, but in particular to the sixteen companies of the Royals, which is given in "Tangiers' Rescue" (by John Ross, 1681).

"Countrymen and brother soldiers," said he, in the quaint and euphuistic manner of the age, "let not your approved valour be derogated from at this time, neither degenerate from your ancient and former glory abroad; and as you are looked upon here to be brave and experienced soldiers, constant and successive victory having hitherto at tended your conquering swords, do not come short of the great hopes we have in you and the propitious procedures we expect from you at this time. For the glory of your nation, if you cannot surpass, you may imitate the bravest, and be emulous of their praises and renown."

Whereupon, we are told, "there ensued a prodigious amount of cheering, and waving of plumed beavers, muskets, and pikes ;" and inspired by the praise of the old English Cavalier, and emulous of maintaining their old regimental and national reputation; the Royals covered themselves with distinction in all the encounters that ensued. On the 20th and 22nd of September two very sharp conflicts took place; over ground where the Moorish vintage was past, and where the Grenadiers, under Captain Hodges, behaved with remarkable bravery, encountering the dusky sons of Africa both on foot and horseback, and using their hatchets, grenades, and broadswords with wonderful rapidity. The whole of the 22nd was spent in fighting, and we are told that throughout the entire day "the Scots, and the English seamen from the fleet, were hotly engaged, and beat the Moors out of several trenches."

On this day a Moorish emir, who had shown remarkable bravery, when just about to pass his gaily-tasselled lance through an officer of the Royals, was shot, and fell from his beautiful horse.

"On this a Scots grenadier of undaunted courage, being desirous of possessing the Moor's charger, leaped over the trenches and seized it; but this brave man was immediately cut to pieces

by a party of Moors, who came galloping forward at the moment he was about to retire with the horse. On the same day it was resolved, in consequence of a newly-erected fort being completed, to retire within the walls (of Tangiers), when Sir James Halkett, at the head of Dumbarton's Scots, covered the retrograde movement, and repulsed several furious charges made by the Moorish lancers."

Inspired by monotonous Moorish songs, and stories of Gebel-at-Tarik, who first led the Moors into Spain, of Musa Ben Nozier, who led his shining legions through Andalusia, and set up his tents by the Guadiana, and similar incentives, the turbaned horsemen of Muley Ismael made many desperate but futile attacks, riding onward launching darts and lances, or brandishing their keen crooked scimitars with shrill cries of "Allah ackbar!" and when repelled or routed, crying with defiant resignation, "Wa la ghalib illah Allah!" ("There is no true conqueror but God!").

In a sally on the 24th of September, Sir Palmes Fairborne, of the Queen's Regiment, and Captain Forbes, of the Royals, fell mortally wounded. The former was succeeded as lieutenant-governor by Colonel Edward Sackville, of the Coldstream Guards, an officer who afterwards resigned his commission into the hands of James, at Rochester, in 1688. On the 27th it was resolved to make a general sally on the Moorish lines, where more than 15,000 half-barbarian warriors were strongly and not unskilfully intrenched, under the banner of the Emperor Muley Ismael.

Without beat of drum or sound of trumpet, in silence and darkness, the garrison, about three in the morning, issued from the embattled gates, and formed in order in front of the town.

There were four troops of Edward Viscount Cornbury's English horse (now known as the 1st Dragoons); three troops of Spanish horse, which were disbanded in 1683; a mixed battalion, composed of the two regiments of English Guards; the Scots Royals; the Earl of Inchiquin's Tangiers Regiment (now 2nd Foot); and Vice-Admiral Herbert's (afterwards Earl of Torrington) English battalion of seamen and marines.

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and till within a very few years ago such an appendage was carried by every corporal of a section. In the year previous to the Revolution, the Tangiers or Queen's Regiment wore red frock coats with the skirts buttoned back, and white facings, baggy green knickerbockers, broad-brimmed black beaver hats looped up on one side, and shoes with huge rosettes; and such very probably was their dress on that morning before the gates of Tangiers.

To the Scots Royals, in right of seniority, was assigned the van; and, on the signal being given, their grenadiers, led by Captain Hodges, and followed by the other fifteen companies of the corps, reached the Moorish intrenchments in the dark, and rushed upon them with a fury that was irresistible. "The Scots," says the author of "Tangiers' Rescue," charged first, if there was any time at all between the charging; for, like fire and lightning, they all went on at once."

The enemy, who deemed themselves secure in their trenches, were taken by surprise, and many lay asleep upon their weapons. The mighty rush of many thousand feet was heard, and loud and reiterated hurrahs, as Hodges' company blew their fuses and cast their grenades-the special terror of the Moors-in bursting showers among them; and then falling on with sword or hammer-hatchet, his "lads in the looped-up clothes" did dreadful execution on every hand.

Startled and confused, yet the Moors were in no way daunted. To their arms-the long slender lance, the matchlock, scimitar, and dagger—they stood resolutely, and the battle soon became general along the line of their intrenchments. By the time that day had broken on the picturesque old castle, with its towers and galleries, the far-stretching mole, and the blue Mediterranean, "nothing was heard," says the quaint old folio already quoted, "but the roar of cannon, the firing of muskets, and the loud acclamations of the Christians, who ever and anon, when they stormed any trench from the enemy, raised a shout (the hearty old British cheer, no doubt) which pierced the clouds and echoed into the sky."

The Royals stormed the first ditch, scouring out the defenders with their pikes, and throwing in the

According to the "Royal Orders of the Day," the cuirasses and gorgets of captains were of the colour of gold; those of lieutenants were black, studded with gold-headed nails, as those of the ensigns were with silver. The barrels of all firearms were bright steel, and in addition to his other ammunition, every soldier bore a priming-horn,

seven troops of English and Spanish cavalry, who galloped through, and were speedily at work with rapier and pistol, trampling down or slashing to pieces the yelling hordes of infuriated Moors, on whose thick white turbans, however, many a trooper showered his trenchant strokes in vain.

In close ranks, and charging shoulder to shoulder, the steady British pikemen bore all before

them, while the musketeers, slinging their muskets, advanced to closer quarters with their swords. Thus an incredible number of personal and hand-tohand conflicts ensued. "These, however, generally terminated in favour of the British; and the Scots Royals, particularly Captain Hodge and his grenadier company, were distinguished for the number they slew."

The Guards and Marines took four pieces of cannon; and the Moors, defeated on all hands, were swept in utter rout, with the loss of four standards. One of these, the remarkably beautiful banner of Muley Ismael, was taken by the Royals, who within an hour had 154 of all ranks made hors de combat. Among their mortally wounded was Captain Julius Lockart, son of Sir William Lockart, of Lee (who had named him after Cardinal Mazarin), and nephew of Oliver Cromwell.

The total loss of the army in killed and wounded, was 35 officers and 434 men, and 63 horses; but the siege of Tangiers was instantly raised, and the power of the Moors was so completely broken that they were fain to make a six months' truce with Sir Edward Sackville, the new governor.

Lieutenant-Colonel Piercy Kirk, of the 2nd Foot, a cruel and merciless officer, of whom hereafter, was sent by the latter on the perilous duty of ambassador to the exasperated Muley Ismael, with whom he concluded a treaty of peace in the spring of 1681, and this document Captain Langston placed in the hands of Charles II., with whom the English House of Commons was at that time in extreme ill-humour. So when he applied for money to enable him to retain Tangiers, they voted

an address which was in reality a remonstrance. All the abuses of Government, the alliance with France, the Dutch War, and "the damnable and hellish plots ascribed to the machinations of the Papists" were referred to; and as it was dreaded by those short-seeing individuals that Tangiers would become a nursery for " the Popish soldiery" of his successor, the members refused to grant the necessary supply.

Towards the end of 1683, Admiral Lord Dartmouth arrived there with twenty men-of-war, with the king's orders to choke up the harbour, and to destroy the castle, mole, and town. The magnificent mole ran for 600 yards into the sea, and was so firmly built, says Mr. Josiah Burchett, that the admiral had to blow it up with gunpowder, and its destruction alone occupied the army and navy six months. "By the king's directions, there were buried among the ruins a good number of milled crown pieces of His Majesty's reign, which per haps many centuries hence, when other memory of it shall be lost, may declare to succeeding ages that this place was once a member of the British Empire."

After its abandonment, Tangiers soon became a nest for pirates and corsairs.

For its services there, in the autumn of 1684, King Charles II. ordered Dumbarton's corps to assume the distinctive appellation of "The Royal Regiment," borne by its two battalions until the 15th of December, 1871, when Her Majesty Queen Victoria ordered them to resume their old title of the 1st or "Royal Scots Regiment of Foot," the name by which it has ever been termed in Scotland.

AFTER the death of Charles II., whose loss, with all his faults, was so much deplored that there was scarcely even a housemaid in London who did not wear crape on the occasion, and after the accession of his brother, King James, plots and religious and political discontents at home increased the number of British exiles abroad. Amsterdam was the place where the leaders of these assembled. Thither came Monmouth (expatriated since the Ryehouse Plot) from Brabant, and Argyle from Friesland. The latter, son of that Argyle who had been beheaded for complicity with Cromwell, after being

sentenced to death for treason, had escaped from the castle of Edinburgh in 1681. These two great fugitives and their followers had few sentiments in common, save antagonism to King James and the desire of return. The English and Scotch were jealous of each other. Monmouth's aims at royalty were distasteful to Argyle, a Celtic chief of long descent, and the legitimate representative of the Scottish kings.

Compromising their differences, it was agreed at last that they should make an attempt on Britain to secure the throne for Monmouth; that Argyle