Isa. (in going off.) The ground is slippery life! Myself! myself! I could not bear thou Heavens it is floated with blood! shouldst know-Oh! (Dies.) [Exit into the sacristy. ROD. (apart to BERTRAM.) Whom dost thou mean to call? [BERTRAM whispers. ROD. This goes beyond me. (After a moment's thought.) But be it so. Maltingen shall behold Aspen humbled in the dust. (Aloud.) Brethren, the accuser calls for a witness who remains without: admit him. [All muffle their faces. Enter RUDIGER, his eyes bound or covered, leaning upon two members; they place a stool for him, and unbind his eyes. ROD. Knowest thou where thou art, and before whom? RUD. I know not, and I care not. Two strangers summoned me from my castle to assist, they said, at a great act of justice. I ascended the litter they brought, and I am here. ROD. It regards the punishment of perjury and the discovery of murder. Art thou willing to assist us? RUD. Most willing, as is my duty. ROD. What if the crime regard thy friend? RUD. I will hold him no longer so. ROD. What if thine own blood? RUD. I would let it out with my poniard. ROD. Then canst thou not blame us for this deed of justice. Remove the pall. (The pall is lifted, beneath which is discovered the body of GEORGE, pale and bloody. RUDIGER staggers towards it.) RUD. My George! my George! Not slain manly in battle, but murdered by legal assassins. Much, much may I mourn thee, my beloved boy; but not now-not now: never will I shed a tear for thy death till I have cleared thy fame.-Hear me, ye midnight murderers, he was innocent (raising his voice)-upright as the truth itself. Let the man who dares gainsay me lift that gage. If the Almighty does not strengthen these frail limbs, to make good a father's quarrel, I have a son left, who will vindicate the honor of Aspen, or lay his bloody body beside his brother's. ROD. Rash and insensate! Hear first the cause. Hear the dishonor of thy house. Isa. (from the sacristy.) Never shall he hear it till the author is no more! (RUDIGER attempts to rush owards the sacristy, but is prevented. ISABELLA exters wounded, and throws herself on GEORGE's body.) ISA. Murdered for me-for me! my dear, dear son! RUD. (still held.) Cowardly villains, let me loose! Maltingen, this is thy doing! Thy face thou wouldst disguise, thy deeds thou canst not! I defy thee to instant and mortal combat! RUD. Oh! let me go-let me but try to stop her blood, and I will forgive all. ROD. Drag him off and detain him. The voice of lamentation must not disturb the stern deliberation of justice. RUD. Bloodhound of Maltingen! Well beseems thee thy base revenge! The marks of my son's lance are still on thy craven crest! Vengeance on the band of ye! [RUDIGER is dragged off to the sacristy. ROD. Brethren, we stand discovered! What is to be done to him who shall descry our mystery? ELDEST JUDGE. He must become a brother of our order, or die! ROD. This man will never join us! He cannot put his hand into ours, which are stained with the blood of his wife and son: he must therefore die! (Murmurs in the assembly.) Brethren! I wonder not at your reluctance; but the man is powerful, has friends and allies to buckler his cause. It is over with us, and with our order, unless the laws are obeyed. (Fainter murmurs.) Besides, have we not sworn a deadly oath to execute these statutes? (A dead silence.) Take to thee the steel and the cord (to the eldest judge.) ELDEST JUDGE. He has done no evil-he was the companion of my battle-I will not! ROD. (to another.) Do-thou-and succeed to the rank of him who has disobeyed. Remember your oath! (Member takes the dagger, and goes irresolutely forward; looks into the sacristy, and comes back.) MEM. He has fainted-fainted in anguish for his wife and his son; the bloody ground is strewed with his white hairs, torn by those hands that have fought for Christendom. I will not be your butcher. (Throws down the dagger.) BER. Irresolute and perjured! the robber of my inheritance, the author of my exile, shall die! ROD. Thanks, Bertram. Execute the doomsecure the safety of the holy tribunal! [BERTRAM seizes the dagger, and is about to rush into the sacristy, when three loud knocks are heard at the door. ALL. Hold! Hold! [The Duke of BAVARIA, attended by many ROD. The Duke of Bavaria! I am lost. Isa. (looking up.) No! no! endanger not thy tims le fallen. ROD. Lord Duke, thou hast charged me with treachery-thou art my liege lord-but who else dares maintain the accusation, lies in his throat. HEN. (rushing from the sacristy.) Villain! I accept thy challenge! ROD. Vain boy! my lance shall chastise thee in the lists there lies my gage. DUKE. Henry, on thy allegiance, touch it not. (To RODERIC.) Lists shalt thou never more enter; lance shalt thou never more wield (draws his sword.) With this sword wast thou dubbed a knight; with this sword I dishonor thee-I thy ROD. Chief among our circles, I have but acted prince-(strikes him slightly with the flat of the according to our laws. DUKE. Thou hast indeed observed the letter of our statutes, and woe am I that they do warrant this night's bloody work! I cannot do unto thee as I would, but what I can I will. Thou hast not indeed transgressed our law, but thou hast wrested and abused it: kneel down, therefore, and place thy hands betwixt mine. (RODERIC kneels as directed.) I degrade thee from thy sacred office (spreads his hands, as pushing RODERIC from him.) If after two days thou darest to pollute Bavarian ground by thy footsteps, be it at the peril of the steel and the cord (RODERIC rises.) I dissolve this meeting (all rise.) Judges and condemners of others, God teach you knowledge of yourselves! (All bend their heads-Duke breaks his rod, and comes forward.) | sword)-I take from thee the degree of knight, the dignity of chivalry. Thou art no longer a free German noble; thou art honorless and rightless; the funeral obsequies shall be performed for thee as for one dead to knightly honor and to fair fame; thy spurs shall be hacked from thy heels; thy arms baffled and reversed by the common executioner. Go, fraudful and dishonored, hide thy shame in a foreign land! (RODERIC shows a dumb expression of rage.) Lay hands on Bertram of Ebersdorf: as I live, he shall pay the forfeiture of his outlawry. Henry, aid us to remove thy father from this charnel-house. Never shall he know the dreadful secret. Be it mine to soothe his sorrowA and to restore the honor of the House of Aspen. (Curtain slowly falls.) THE END. INDEX. A. "ABBOT," Verses from the, 691-2. Abercorn, Marquis of, suggestion of, regarding a passage in Marmion, 85, n.; dedication of The Lady of the Lake" to, 183. Marchioness of, 105, n. Abercromby, Sir Ralph, tribute to the memory of, 105. Achaius, King of Scotland, 169, n. Adam, Right Hon. William, a specimen of minstrel recitation obtained from, 553. Addison, his criticism on Chevy Chase, 539, 540, Adolphus, J. L., Esq. extracts from his "Letters on the Author of Waverley," 391, n.; 516. n.; 527, n.; 535. "AHRIMAN," 716. Albania, a poem, extract from, 613. Albyn's Anthology, SONGs written for, 660, 661. 675, 676. Alexander III." the last Scottish king of the pure Celtic race," 542. Alexandre, Mons., the ventriloquist, "LINES ADDRESSED TO," 713. ALICE BRAND," 213. 254, n. "ALLEN-A-DALE," 323. Alvanley, Lady, 654, n. Ambition, personification of, 277. "ANCIENT GAELIC MELODY," 679. Bell-the-Cat," 130. 143. 171. Angus, seventh Earl of, 40. 74. 194. 244. "AN HOUR WITH THEE," 720. "Annual Review," the critical notices from, 16. 32, 53. ANNE OF GEIRSTEIN. Verses from, 724. Anthony Now Now, 555. "ANTIQUARY," Verses from the, 662-5. Anxiety, effect of, in giving acuteness to the organs of sense, 297. 356. Arbuthnot, Sir William, 662, n.; 704, n. Aram, Eugene, remarkable case of, 361. Archers, English, 126. 169. 462. 498. 729. 730. Ardoch, Roman camp at, 263. Argentine, Sir Giles de, 422, 465, 500. Arran, Earl of (1569), 600, n. Island of, 448. 489. Arthur, King, 154. 385. 392. 411. Artornish Castle, 469. 411. Schoolmaster," note from, Ashton, Lucy, Song of, 678. "As Lords their laborers' hire delay," 715. "ASPEN, THE HOUSE OF, a tragedy," 796. Athole, John de Strathbogie, Earl of (temp. Rob I.), 480. David de Strathbogie, Earl of (1335), 299, n. "AUCHINDRANE, or the Ayrshire tragedy," 770. Ayr, loyalty of the men of, rewarded by King Robert Bruce, 458, n. B. BAILLIE, JOANNA, letter to, on Rokeby, 353. Prologue to her "Family Legend," 639. Dedication to her of Macduff's Cross," 738. 105. 524, n.; 729, n. Balfour of Burley, epitaph on, 666. "BALLAD, THE ANCIENT, ESSAY ON IMITATIONS OF," 555. "BALLADS, IMITATIONS OF," 574. FROM THE GERMAN," 609. and Poems, ancient, very few manuscript records of discovered, 543. Printed in Garlands, ib. Rit Collections of, by Pepys, 543. The Duke of Roxburgh, ib. An anonymous editor, ib. Miller and Chapman, 544. James Watson, ib. Allan Ramsay, ib. Dr. Percy, ib. Evans, 548. David Herd, 549. Pinkerton, ib. son, ib. Scott (the Border Minstrelsy), 550. Sir J. G. Dalzell, ib. Robert Jamieson, ib. Motherwell, 551. Finlay, ib. Kinloch, ib. C. K. Sharpe, ib. Charles Leslie, ib. Peter Buchan, ib. And Rev. C. H. Hartshorne, 552. Ballantyne, Mr. James, Border Minstrelsy, the first work printed by him, 550. 570. Letters from Scott to, 236. 238. 292. 306. 310, 313. 322. 354. His remarks on John Kemble's retirement from the Edinburgh stage, 671, n. Constable's sobriquets of, 713. Mr. John, 665. Bangor, the Monks of, 672. BANNATYNE CLUB, THE," 711. Bannatyne, George, compiler of ancient MSS., 711. Bannerman, Miss Anne, her "Tales of Superstition and Chivalry," 559. Bannockburn, Battle of, 460; stanza 18 to end of the poem. See also notes, pp. 495. 501. Bansters, what, 549, n. Barbauld, Mrs., 565. "BARD'S INCANTATION, THE," written under the threat of invasion, 1804, 632. "BAREFOOTED FRIAR, THE," 681. Barnard Castle, 296. 306. 356. 360. Barrington, Shute, Bishop of Durham, 524. "BATTLE OF SEMPACH," 619. Bealach-nam-bo, Pass of, 209. 253. Dr.. lines from, on the power of fancy, 305, n. Bellenden, 36. 71. Sir James, 599, n. Beltane-tree, the, 589. 593. Beresford, Field-marshal Lord, tribute to, 282,283. His training the Portuguese troops, 291. 642. "BETROTHED," Verses from the, 715 716. "Bessie Bell and Mary Gray," remarks on the ballad of, 553. Bethune, or Beaton, family of, 57. Bigotry, personification of, 276 Binram's Corse, tradition of, 161. Biting the thumb, or the glove, 47. 76. "BLACK DWARF," Mottoes from the, 666. Blackford-hill, 122. Black-mail, 32. 263. Blackwater, Battle of, in Ireland, 367. "BLACK KNIGHT'S SONG, THE," 683. Blackwood's Magazine, 551, n.; critical notices from, 408. 513. 536. Blair, Right Honorable Robert, Lord President of the Court of Session, death of, 269. "BLONDEL, THE BLOODY VEST," Song of, 717. Blood of which party first shed, an augury of success in battle, 212. 254. Blood-hound, or Sluith-hound, 59. 186. 240. 482. "Blue-blanket," the, 704, n. "BOAT SONG," 197. Bohun, Sir Henry de, his encounter with Bolero, a Spanish dance, 287. "The Vision of Don Roderick," 277. 281, 282. And in "The Field of Waterloo," 504-511, passim. A postrophe to the period of his fall, 455, 456. 642. Bond of Alliance, or feud stanching, betwixt the clans of Scott and Kerr (1529), 57. "Bonnets of Bonny Dundee," SONG to the air of, 759. "BORDER BALLAD," 689. Borderers, English, excommunication of, by the Bishop of Durham (1498), 248. Disorderly conduct of those who attended the Protector Somerset, 74. Custom of hanging up a glove in a church as a challenge, 377. Scottish, moss-troopers after the union of the crowns, 59. Religion, 60. Speed in collecting large bodies of horse, 68. Places of their herdsmen's refuge, ib. March-treason, 72. Form of Oath, ib. Instances of the cruelty which oc casionally attended their warfare, 69. Regulations in 1648, 73. Friendly intercourse with the English, 74. Football play, ib. Pursuit of marauders called the hot-trod, 75. Robbers quell ed by K. James V., 247. Manner of carrying on depredations, 363. Taste for poetry and music, 542. Borough-moor of Edinburgh, 168. Bothwell, Adam Hepburn, Earl of (temp. Jac. IV.), 167. Francis Stewart, Earl of (temp Jac. VI.), 244. James Hepburn, Earl of (temp Mary), 74. 118. "BOTHWELL CASTLE," 628. Bowhill, 52, n. BERTRAM, HARRY, Nativity of," 658. Brackenbury Tower, 314. 362. Berwick, North, 135. Bracklinn Cascade, 195. 245 "Brooch of Lorn," the, 424. 476. Edward, brother of King Robert, Nigel, another brother of the Sir John, of Kinross, 549. Brunne, Robert de, 540, 546. Brydone, Patrick, Esq., 177. Charles, Duke of, 95, n. Harriet, Duchess of, 12. 95, n. and Monmouth, Anne, Du- chess of, 18, n. "CADYOW CASTLE," 598. Cadell, Mr. Robert, his recollections of Caledonian Forest and wild cattle, 598. Cambusmore, 185. Cameron, Colonel, killed at Fuentes de Colonel, of Fassiefern, killed at Sir Ewan of Lochiel, 264. Camp, a favorite dog of the author's, 115. Lady Charlotte. See "Bury." author recollected of having seen, 560. Castilians, their skill in fighting with Catiline, death of, 506, n. Chalmers, George, his “ Caledonia," 163. Chapel Perilous, 86. 154. ter. X. of France, in Edinburgh, Prince Edward, one of his places Chace, the royal, in Ettrick Forest, 160. Chatterton, Thomas, 558. Constable, Mr. Archibald, his "bold and Coronach of the Highlanders, 96.51 "CoUNTY GUY," Song, 709. Cox, Captain, of Coventry, 542. George, Esq., consulted fr Crichton Castle, 118. 167. Cup, a drinking one, at Duneregas, lik D. Duke of Buccleuch), dedicanas Harriet, Countess of aflera Town and Castle of, 607. Sir William, his combat w2 & 239, 260. David I., King, founded Mere Aller, 698. Cid, the, in Spain, metrical poems of, 538. Re- Bury, Lady Charlotte, introduced the John, Esq., of Eldin, author of an John, Esq. (Lord Eldin), 711, n. Collins, his flights of imagination, 383. 410. Colman's "Random Records," 753. 163. Combat, single, 38. 66. 72, 73. 132. 172. OF KEELDAR THE," 73 269. 1 "DOOM OF Devorgoil." Archibald, third Ear of, called "The Good Lord Junes" targ Review, the, critical extracts Edward I., King, his vindictive spirit, II. at Bannockburn, 461. His III., Motto on his shield, 546. Erskine, Thomas Lord, speech of, on hu- William, Esq. (Lord Kinnedder), Mrs., Epitaph on, 685. Eugene Aram, remarkable case of, 361. Mr. R. H., his republication of "EVE OF ST. Jous," 594. See also 568. Evil principle, the, 716. Ezekiel, quotation from the prophecies of, F. FAC-SIMILE of Sir Walter Scott's Manu- "Fair Rosamond," ballad of, 555. Fiery Cross, the, 201, 202. 248. "FIRE KING," ballad of the, 616. Flanders, manner of reaping in, 511. "Flodden Field," an ancient English 178. Florinda, daughter of Count Julian, 285. a dreadful act of vengeance, 487. Eildon Hills, 63. Elfin Gray, the," translated from the Ellis, George, Esq., critical notices by, 50, Following" (feudal retainers), 128, n. son of the preceding, 115, 115, n. Encampment, Scottish mode of, in 1547, Forgeries of documents, 176. Elves, 260. See Fairies.'' 169. "FORTUNE, Lines on," 726. "GELLATLEY's, Davie," Songs, 648. Janet, alleged witch- craft, 650. language, similarity of the, to the literature, introduction of, into "Ghaist's Warning, the," translated from the Danish Kæmpe Viser, 257. 249. Gil Morrice, ballad of, 571. "GLEE-MAIDEN," Song of the, 722. Glencairn The Good Earl" of, 601. "GLENCOE, on the Massacre of," 642. Glenfruin, conflict of, between the Mac Golagrus and Gawane, the knightly tale. Goldsmith, Oliver, his imitations of ballad "GOLDTHRED'S SONG," 692. Gordon, Adam, gallant conduct of, at Colonel, the Hon. Sir Alexander, 291. Sir John the, 243. 291. River, 308. 316. 360, 361, 364. Grotto on the estate of Strathaird, de Guisards of Scotland, 174. "GUY MANNERING," Verses from, 658. |