On thankless courts, or friends estranged, But come where kindred worth shall smile, To greet thee in the lonely isle." IV. As died the sounds upon the tide, His reverend brow was raised to heaven, As from the rising sun to claim V. Upon a rock with lichens wild, ead forth his fleet upon the lake, While her vex'd spaniel, from the beach, Bay'd at the prize beyond his reach? Yet tell me, then, the maid who knows, Perchance the maiden smiled to see VI. While yet he loiter'd on the spot, The guardian in her bosom chid On the smooth phrase of southern tongue; 1 MS. The loveliest Lowland fair to spy. 2 The ancient and powerful family of Graham (which, for metrical reasons, is here spelt after the Scottish pronunciation) held extensive possessions in the counties of Dumbarton and Stirling. Few families can boast of more historical renown, having claim to three of the most remarkable characters in the Scottish annals. Sir John the Græme, the faithful and undaunted partaker of the labors and patriotic warfare of Wallace, fell in the unfortunate field of Falkirk, in 1298. The celebrated Marquis of Montrose, in whom De Retz saw realized his abstract idea of the heroes of antiquity, was the second of these worthies. And notwithstanding the severity of his temper, and the rigor with which he executed the oppressive mandates of the princes whom he served, I do not hesitate to name as a third, John Græme of Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee, whose heroic death, in the arms of victory, may be allowed to cancel the memory of his cruelty to the non-conformists, during the reigns of Charles II. and James II. When deep the conscious maiden blush'd; VII. The minstrel waked his harp- three times In melancholy murmurs died. "Vainly thou bid'st, O noble maid," Clasping his wither'd hands, he said, "Vainly thou bid'st me wake the strain, Has tuned my harp, my strings has spann'd! And the proud march, which victors tread, O well for me, if mine alone If, as my tuneful fathers said, This harp, which erst Saint Modan sway'd,1 1 I am not prepared to show that Saint Modan was a performer on the harp. It was, however, no unsaintly accomplishment; for Saint Dunstan certainly did play upon that instrument, which retaining, as was natural, a portion of the sanctity attached to its master's character, announced future events by its spontaneous sound. "But labouring once in these mechanic arts for a devout matrone that had sett him on work, his violl, that hung by him on the wall, of Can thus its master's fate foretell, Then welcome be the minstrel's knell! VIII. "But ah! dear lady, thus it sigh'd, The eve thy sainted mother died; Came marring all the festal mirth, Appalling me who gave them birth, its own accord, without anie man's helpe, distinctly sounded this anthime: Gaudent in cælis animæ sanctorum qui Christi vestigia sunt secuti; et quia pro eius amore sanguinem suum fuderunt, ideo cum Christo gaudent æternum. Whereat all the companie being much astonished, turned their eyes from beholding him working, to look on that strange accident." "Not long after, manie of the court that hitherunto had borne a kind of fayned friendship towards him, began now greatly to envie at his progresse and rising in goodnes, using manie crooked, backbiting meanes to diffame his vertues with the black maskes of hypocrisie. And the better to authorise their calumnie, they brought in this that happened in the violl, affirming it to have been done by art magick. What more? this wicked rumour encreased dayly, till the king and others of the nobilitie taking hould thereof, Dunstan grew odious in their sight. Therefore he resolued to leaue the court, and goe to Elphegus, surnamed the Bauld, then Bishop of Winchester, who was his cozen. Which his enemies understanding, they layd wayt for him in the way, and hauing throwne him off his horse, beate him, and dragged him in the durt in the most miserable manner, meaning to have slaine him, had not a companie of mastiue |