When e'en Clan-Alpine's rugged swarm X. ELLEN. "No, Allan, no! Pretext so kind Why else that solemn warning given, Am I to hie, and make me known? XI. "Nay, lovely Ellen!-dearest, nay Be sure he's safe; and for the Græme!- ELLEN. "Well, be it as thou wilt; I hear, XII. BALLAD. ALICE BRAND. Merry it is in the good green-wood, When the mavis* and merlet are singing, When the deer sweeps by, and the hounds are in cry And the hunter's horn is ringing. "O Alice Brand, my native land Is lost for love of you; And we must hold by wood and wold, As outlaws wont to do. "O Alice, 'twas all for thy locks so bright "Now must I teach to hew the beeck "And for vest of pall, thy fingers small A cloak must shear from the slaughter'd deer, "O Richard! if my brother died, "If pall and vair no more I wear, As warm, we'll say, is the russet grey, "And, Richard, if our lot be hard, And lost thy native land, Still Alice has her own Richard, And he his Alice Brand." XIII. BALLAD-Continued. Tis merry, 'tis merry, in good green-wood, So blithe Lady Alice is singing; On the beech's pride, and the oak's brown side, Lord Richard's axe is ringing. Up spoke the moody Elfin king, Thrush. + Blackbird. Like wind in the porch of a ruin'd church, "Why sounds yon stroke on beech and oak, Or who comes here to chase the deer, Or who may dare on wold to wear The fairies' fatal green! "Up, Urgan, up! to yon mortal hie, "Lay on him the curse of the wither'd heart Till he wish and pray that his life would part XIV. BALLAD-Continued. 'Tis merry, 'tis merry, in good green-wood, And Richard is faggots bringing. "That is made with bloody hands." But out then spoke she, Alice Brand, That woman void of fear, "And if there's blood upon his hand, Tis but the blood of deer." "Now loud thou liest, thou bold of mood! It cleaves unto his hand, The stain of thine own kindly blood, The blood of Ethert Brand." Then forward stepp'd she, Alice Brand, And made the holy sign, "And if there's blood on Richard's hand A spotless hand is mine. "And I conjure thee, demon elf, By Him whom demons fear, To show us whence thou art thyself, XV. BALLAD-Continued. ""Tis merry, 'tis merry in Fairy-land, When fairy birds are singing, When the court doth ride by their monarch's side With bit and bridle ringing; "And gaily shines the Fairy-land- Like the idle gleam that December's beam "And fading, like that varied gleam, Is our inconstant shape, Who now like knight and lady seem, "It was hetween the night and day, And, 'twixt life and death, was snatch'd awa "But wist I of a woman bold, Who thrice my brow durst sign, I might regain my mortal mould, As fair a form as thine." She cross'd him once-she cross'd him twice- The fouler grew his goblin hue, The darker grew the cave She cross'd him thrice, that lady hold; He rose beneath her hand The fairest knight on Scottish mould, Her brother, Ethert Brand! Merry it is in good green-wood, When the mavis and merle are singing, But merrier were they in Dunfermline grey, XVI. Just as the minstrel sounds were staid, 'Tis Snowdoun's Knight, 'tis James Fitz-James. Ellen beheld as in a dream, Then, starting, scarce suppress'd a scream. "O stranger! in such hour of fear, What evil hap has brought thee here ?"- That bids me look again on thee |