THE TWO MOORISH KNIGHTS Upon two mares both strong and fleet, White as the cygnet's snowy wing,

[Illustration: THE CYGNET.

THE CYGNET.The Cygnet, or the young Swan, was formerly much esteemed; but it has "fallen from its high estate," and is now rarely seen upon the table.

110 With these the swan's maternal care Had sent her scarce-fledged cygnet heir: The hen (though fond and loath to part) Here lodged the darling of her heart: The spider, of mechanic kind, Aspired to science more refined: The ass learnt metaphors and tropes, But most on music fixed his hopes.

[wild mammals] fox, Reynard, vixen, stag, deer, hart, buck, doe, roe; caribou, coyote, elk, moose, musk ox, sambar^. [birds] bird; poultry, fowl, cock, hen, chicken, chanticleer, partlet^, rooster, dunghill cock, barn door fowl; feathered tribes, feathered songster; singing bird, dicky bird; canary, warbler; finch; aberdevine^, cushat^, cygnet, ringdove^, siskin, swan, wood pigeon.

Examination and description of Cygnet Bay.

On laying down upon the chart the plan of this part, I found Cape Leveque to be the point which Dampier anchored under when on his buccaneering voyage in the Cygnet in 1688.

In commemoration, therefore, of his visit, the name of Buccaneer's Archipelago was given to the cluster of isles that fronts Cygnet Bay, which was so-called after the name of the ship in which he sailed.

No natives were seen on any of the islands but there were many large smokes on the horizon at the back of Cygnet Bay.

On the voyage to this place three charts of the north-west coast were reduced and copied by Mr. Roe and were forwarded to the Admiralty by H.M. Sloop Cygnet, together with a brief account of our voyage from the time that we parted company with the Dick, off Cape Van Diemen.

Examination and description of Cygnet Bay.

With respect to the opening we had now left there were many conflicting opinions among us, but I have every reason to think that the land from Cape Leveque to Point Gantheaume is an island and that there is also a communication between Cygnet and Collier's Bays, behind the islands of the Archipelago, where it is also probable there is an opening trending to the south-east.

After blowing most tempestuously for an hour the wind moderated, and the night passed without any repetition of it; we had however run five miles to leeward: had we been obliged to do this last night when underway in Cygnet Bay, or been drifted back this evening by the ebb-tide, we should have been very dangerously placed, from being surrounded by islands and blinded by the darkness of the night.

At noon we were in 15 degrees 12 minutes 15 seconds South and 7 minutes 1 second east of the anchorage in Cygnet Bay.

After extending for thirty miles farther to the South-West, the land terminates evidently in islands, which then trend to the South-East; and to the westward they are separated from Cygnet Bay, and the land to the southward of it by a strait five or six leagues wide.

CYGNET BAY is formed between the islands and Point Cunningham; it is fronted by a bank, over which the least water that we found was two fathoms; within this bank there is good anchorage, and near the inlets at the bottom of the bay, there is a muddy bottom, with eight and nine fathoms mud.

Upon our return to the North-west Coast from the Mauritius, early in 1822, the only part visited was Cygnet Bay, situate about 2 1/2 degrees to the south-west of the last-mentioned sound, and it happening at a season when some rain had fallen, I met with several plants in an abundant flowering state, of species, however, in part originally discovered upon other coasts, and described by Mr. Brown, during the Investigator's voyage.

A specimen of the soil of the hills at Cygnet Bay, consists of very fine reddish-yellow quartzose sand.

" It was four o'clock when we reached Strasburg, where we stopped at The Cygnet.

Castleman and I found the burgomaster, to whom we paid five hundred guilders (a sum equal to his entire annual salary), and within an hour a troop of twenty men-at-arms awaited us in the courtyard of The Cygnet.

The leading objects of your examination there will be, the extent of the two deep inlets connected with Roebuck Bay and Cygnet Bay, where the strength and elevation of the tides have led to the supposition that Dampier Land is an island, and that the above openings unite in the mouth of a river, or that they branch off from a wide and deep gulf.

He is as oblivious of rondeaux, ballades, and roundels, as he is of fair damosels with cygnet necks and full pomegranate lips.

Take this packet," he continued, placing a sealed letter of more than usual size into the hand of the gondolier, and drawing from his finger a signet ring, "with this token of thy authority.

Thou wilt seek him beneath the Bridge of Sighs, and, showing the signet, deliver the package according to my instructions.

Here is a ring whose signet may help us to understand each other.

But thy errand was not solely to exhibit the signet?"

Frightened at the loss of his master's signet, however, the indiscreet but well intentioned gondolier rushed into the crowd, and tried in vain to select the delinquent from among a thousand masks.

"Harkee, Signore," uttered the half-distracted gondolier to one, who, having first examined his person with distrust, evidently betrayed a wish to avoid him, "if thou hast sufficiently pleased thy finger with my master's signet, the occasion offers to return it.

"The signet, if thou pleasest, and the affair need go no further.

"My master's signet.

Dost thou bear thy master's signet?

I have given them the Neapolitan's signet by way of proof.

The mosaics, the signet rings, cameos, bracelets, bronzes, vases, couches, banqueting-tables, lamps, colored glass, potteries, all attest great elegance and beauty.

Plutarch says that the troops murdered him because he was suspected of having killed Pompeius, and that, when he tried to bribe a centurion with a signet-ring to spare him, the centurion replied that he was not going to seal a bond but slay a tyrant.

But do not resort to gunpowder unless you receive an order from me accompanied by my signet-ring.

Suddenly rousing himself, he took forth his tablets, and hastily tracing a few lines upon a leaf, tore it out, and delivered it with his signet-ring to Lord Argentine.

At midnight, in his guarded tent, The Turk was dreaming of the hour When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent, Should tremble at his power; In dreams, through camp and court he bore The trophies of a conqueror; In dreams his song of triumph heard; Then wore his monarch's signet ring: Then pressed that monarch's thronea king; As wild his thoughts, and gay of wing, As Eden's garden bird.

They remain with us just as they appeared in life; they look down upon us from our walls; they lie upon our tables; they rest upon our bosoms; nay, if we will, we may wear their portraits, like signet-rings, upon our fingers.

The Devil sits in Christ's seat, and hath stolen his signet-ring, to seal decrees against the Lord's own followers.

The escort brought your signet-ring.

While grateful feelings, like a signet sign'd By a strong hand, seem burnt into her mind.

Moreover, when he died, they would not believe this news till late, and until they saw his signet that had been sent.

I was of opinion that Miss Agnes was somehow connected with this signet-ring,that it had some influence over her fate.

The day that she was married, our cousin far away saw the black letters turn red upon the signet-ring.

MACLEAN, Sir Allan, Chief of the Macleans, v. 310; Johnson visits him, v. 322-31; his house, v. 322, n. 1, 323; Sunday evening, v. 325; accompanies Johnson, v. 331-44; in Iona, v. 335; asserts the rights of a chieftain, v. 337; brags of Scotland, v. 340; visits Lochbury, v. 341-3; lawsuit, his, ii. 380, n. 4; iii. 95, 101, 102, 122, 126-7; hates writers to the signet, v. 343, n. 3.

"That same evening I received a present for my mistress, a small basket marked with the signet of the princess, and containing articles of no great value.

WRITERS TO THE SIGNET, a body of solicitors in Scotland who had at one time the exclusive privilege of practising in and drawing up cases for the supreme courts of the country, and whose privileges are now limited to the preparation of crown writs.