"Thou liest, thou liest, thou little foot-page, For that knight is cold, and low laid in the mould, "Yet hear but my word, my noble lord! And that lady bright, she called the knight, The bold Baron's brow then changed, I trow, "The grave is deep and dark-and the corpse is stiff So I may not trust thy tale. "Where fair Tweed flows round holy Melrose, Full three nights ago, by some secret foe, That gay gallant was slain. "The varying light deceived thy sight, And the wild winds drowned the name; For the Dryburgh bells ring, and the white monks For Sir Richard of Coldinghame!" He passed the court-gate, and he oped the tower grate, To the bartizan-seat, where, with maids that on her wait, He found his lady fair. That lady sat in mournful mood; Looked over hill and vale; Over Tweed's fair flood, and Mertoun's wood, And all down Teviotdale. "Now hail, now hail, thou lady bright!" What news, what news, from Ancram fight? What news from the bold Buccleuch ?" "The Ancram Moor is red with gore, For inany a Southron fell; And Buccleuch has charged us, evermore To watch our beacons well." The lady blushed red, but nothing she said; Nor added the Baron a word: Then she stepped down the stair to her chamber fair, m Eildon is a high hill, terminating in three conical summits, imniediately above the town of Melrose, where are the admired ruins of a magnificent monastery. Eildon-tree is said to be the spot where Thomas the Rhymer uttered his prophecies. In sleep the lady mourned, and the Baron tossed and turned, And oft to himself he said "The worms around him creep, and his bloody grave is deep. It cannot give up the dead!" It was near the ringing of matin-bell, When a heavy sleep on that Baron fell, The lady looked through the chamber fair, "Alas! away, away!" she cried, "By Eildon-tree, for long nights three, The mass and the death-prayer are said for me, "By the Baron's brand, near Tweed's fair strand, Most foully slain I fell; And my restless sprite on the beacon's height For a space is doomed to dwell. At our trysting-place, for a certain space I must wander to and fro; But I had not had power to come to thy bower, Love mastered fear-her brow she crossed; "How, Richard, hast thou sped ? And art thou saved, or art thou lost?" The Vision shook his head! "Who spilleth life, shall forfeit life, So bid thy lord believe: That lawless love is guilt above, This awful sign receive." He laid his left palm on an oaken beam; The lady shrunk, and fainting sunk, The sable score, of fingers four, There is a Nun" in Dryburgh bower, That Nun, who ne'er beholds the day, CADYOW CASTLE. ADDRESSED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY ANNE HAMILTON. THE ruins of Cadyow, or Cadzow Castle, the ancient baronial residence of the family of Hamilton, are situated upon the precipitous banks of the river Evan, about two miles above its junction with the Clyde. The situation of the ruins, embosomed in wood, darkened by ivy and creeping shrubs, and overhanging the brawling torrent, is romantic in the highest degree. In the immediate vicinity of Cadyow is a grove of immense oaks, the remains of the Caledonian Forest, which anciently extended through the south of Scotland, from the Eastern to the Atlantic Ocean. Some of The circumstance of the nun, "who never saw the day," is not entirely imaginary. About fifty years ago, an unfortunate female wanderer took up her residence in a dark vault, among the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, which, during the day, she never quitted. When night fell, she issued from this miserable habitation, and went to the house of Mr. Halliburton of Newmains, Sir Walter Scott's greatgrandfather, or to that of Mr. Erskine of Sheilfield, two gentlemen of the neighbourhood. From their charity she obtained such necessaries as she could be prevailed upon to accept. At twelve, each night, she lighted her candle and returned to her vault, assuring her friendly neighbours that, during her absence, her habitation was arranged by a spirit, to whom she gave the uncouth name of Fatlips; describing him as a little man, wearing heavy iron shoes, with which he trampled the clay floor of the vault, to dispel the damps. This circumstance caused her to be regarded, by the well-informed, with compassion, as deranged in her understanding; and by the vulgar, with some degree of terror. The cause of her adopting this extraordinary mode of life she would never explain. It was, however, believed to have been occasioned by a vow that, during the absence of a man to whom she was attached, she would never look upon the sun. Her lover never returned. He fell during the civil war of 1745-6, and she never more would behold the light of day. The vault, or rather dungeon, in which this unfortunate woman lived and died, passes still by the name of the supernatural being with which its gloom was tenanted by her disturbed imagination, and few of the neighbouring peasants dare enter it by night. these trees measure twenty-five feet, and upwards, in circumference; and the state of decay, in which they now appear, shows that they may have witnessed the rites of the Druids. The whole scenery is included in the magnificent and extensive park of the Duke of Hamilton. In this forest was long preserved the breed of the Scottish wild cattle, until their ferocity led to their extirpation, about forty years ago. Their appearance was beautiful, being milk-white, with black muzzles, horns, and hoofs. The bulls are described by ancient authors as having white manes; but those of latter days had lost that peculiarity, perhaps by intermixture with the tame breed. In detailing the death of the regent Murray, which is made the subject of the following ballad, it would be injustice to my reader to use other words than those of Dr. Robertson, whose account of that memorable event forms a beautiful piece of historical painting. "Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh was the person who comImitted this barbarous action. He had been condemned to death soon after the battle of Langside, as we have already related, and owed his life to the regent's clemency. But part of his estate had been bestowed upon one of the regent's favourites, who seized his house, and turned out his wife naked, in a cold night, into the open fields, where, before next morning, she became furiously mad. This injury made a deeper impression on him than the benefit he had received, and from that moment he vowed to be revenged of the regent. Party_rage strengthened and inflamed his private resentment. His kinsmen, the Hamiltons, applauded the enterprise. The maxims of that age justified the most desperate course he could take to obtain vengeance. He followed the regent for some time, and watched for an opportunity to strike the blow. He resolved, at last, to wait till his enemy should arrive at Linlithgow, through which he was to pass, in his way from Stirling to Edinburgh. He took his stand in a wooden gallery, which had a window towards the street; spread a feather-bed on the floor, to hinder the noise of his feet from being heard; hung up a black cloth behind him, that his shadow might not be observed from without; and, after all this preparation, calmly expected the regent's approach, who had lodged, during the night, in a house not far distant. Some indistinct information of the danger which threatened him, had been conveyed to the regent, and he paid so much regard to it, that he resolved to return by the same gate through which he had entered, and to fetch a compass round the town. But, as the crowd about the gate was great, and he himself unacquainted with fear, he proceeded directly along the street; and the throng of people obliging him to move very slowly, gave the assassin time to take so true an aim, that he shot him, with a single bullet, through the lower part of his belly, and killed the horse of a gentleman, who rode on his other side. His followers instantly endeavoured to break into the house whence the blow had come; but they found the door strongly barricaded, and, before it could be forced open, Hamilton had mounted a fleet horse, which stood ready for him at a back passage, and was got far beyond their reach. The regent died the same night of his wound."-History of Scotland, book v. The Regent died on the 23rd of January, 1569. Immediately after the murder Bothwellhaugh rode to Hamilton, where he was received in triumph. WHEN princely Hamilton's abode For thou, from scenes of courtly pride, And mark the long-forgotten urn. Then, noble maid! at thy command, The past returns-the present flies. Where with the rock's wood-covered side And feudal banners flaunt between: And ramparts frown in battled row. Is chequering the moonlight beam. The weary warder leaves his tower; |