When deed of danger was to do.

He grieved that day their games cut short,
And marr❜d the dicer's brawling sport,
And shouted loud, "Renew the bowl!
And, while a merry catch I tròll,
Let each the buxom chorus bear,
Like brethren of the brand and spear."

V

SOLDIER'S SONG.'

Our vicar still preaches that Peter and Poule
Laid a swinging long curse on the bonny brown bowl,
That there's wrath and despair in the jolly black-jack,
And the seven deadly sins in a flagon of sack;
Yet whoop, Barnaby! off with thy liquor,
Drink upsees' out, and a fig for the vicar!

Our vicar he calls it damnation to sip
The ripe ruddy dew of a woman's dear lip,
Says, that Beelzebub lurks in her kerchief so sly,
And Apollyon shoots darts from her merry black eye,
Yet whoop, Jack! kiss Gillian the quicker,
Till she bloom like a rose, and a fig for the vicar!

Our vicar thus preaches-and why should he not?
For the dues of his cure are the placket and pot;
And 'tis right of his office poor laymen to lurch,
Who infringe the domains of our good Mother Church.
Yet whoop, bully-boys! off with your liquor,
Sweet Marjorie's the word, and a fig for the vicar!

VI.

The warder's challenge, heard without,
Staid in mid-roar the merry shout.

A soldier to the portal went,-
"Here is old Bertram, sirs, of Ghent;
And,-beat for jubilee the drum !
A maid and minstrel with him come."
Bertram, a Fleming, grey and scarr'd,
Was entering now the Court of Guard,

Bacchanalian interjection, borrowed from the Dutch.

["The greatest blemish in the poem, is the ribaldry and dull vulgarity which is put into the mouths of the soldiery in the guard-room. Mr. Scott has condescended to write a song for them, which will be read with pain, we are persuaded, even by his warmest admirers; and his whole genius, and even his power of versification, seems to desert him when he attempts to repeat their conversation. Here is some of the stuff which has dropped, in this inauspicious attempt, from the pen of one of the first poets of his age or country," etc. etc.-JEFFREY.]

A harper with him, and in plaid

. All muffled close, a mountain maid,

Who backward shrunk to 'scape the view
Of the loose scene and boisterous crew.

"What news?" they roar'd:-"I only know,
From noon till eve we fought with foe,

As wild and as untameable

As the rude mountains where they dwell;
On both sides store of blood is lost,
Nor much success can either boast.

"But whence thy captives, friend? such spoil
As theirs must needs reward thy toil.'
Old dost thou wax, and wars grow sharp;
Thou now hast glee-maiden and harp!
Get thee an ape, and trudge the land,
The leader of a juggler band. "-

VII..

66
'No, comrade ;-no such fortune mine.
After the fight these sought our line,
That aged harper and the girl,

[The MS. reads after this :

"Get thee an ape, and then at once

Thou mayst renounce the warder's lance,

And trudge through borough and through land,

The leader of a juggler band."]

The jongleurs, or jugglers, as we learn from the elaborate work of the late Mr. Strutt, on the sports and pastimes of the people of England, used to call in the aid of various assistants, to render these performances as captivating as possible. The glee-maiden was a necessary attendant. Her duty was tumbling and dancing; and therefore the Anglo-Saxon version of Saint Mark's Gospel states Herodias to have vaulted or tumbled before King Herod. In Scotland, these poor creatures seem, even at a late period, to have been bondswomen to their masters, as appears from a case reported by Fountainhall. "Reid the mountebank pursues Scot of Harden and his lady, for stealing away from him a little girl, called the tumbling-lassie, that danced upon his stage: and he claimed damages, and produced a contract, whereby he bought her from her mother for 301. Scots. But we have no slaves in Scotland, and mothers cannot sell their bairns; and physicians attested, the employment of tumbling would kill her; and her joints were now grown stiff, and she declined to return; though she was at least a 'prentice, and so could not run away from her master: yet some cited Moses's law, that if a servant shelter himself with thee, against his master's cruelty, thou shalt surely not deliver him up. The Lords, renitente cancellario, assoilzied Harden, on the 27th of January, (1687.) "—FOUNTAINHALL'S Decisions, vol. i. p. 439.* The facetious qualities of the ape soon rendered him an acceptable addition to the strolling band of the jongleur. Ben Jonson, in his splenetic introduction to the comedy of "Bartholomew Fair," is at pains to inform the audience "that he has ne'er a sword-and-buckler man in his Fair, nor a juggler, with a well-educated ape, to come over the chaine for the King of England, and back again for the prince, and sit still on his haunches for the Pope and the King of Spaine."

Though less to my purpose, I cannot help noticing a circumstance respecting another of this Mr. Reid's attendants, which occurred during James II.'s zeal for Catholic proselytism, and is told by Fountainhall, with dry Scottish irony. "January 17th, 1687.-Reid the mountebank is received into the Popish church, and one of his blackamores was persuaded to accept of baptism from the Popish priests, and to turn Christian papist; which was a great trophy: he was called James, after the king and chancellor, and the Apostle James."-Ibid. p. 440.

And, having audience of the Earl,
Mar bade I should purvey them steed,
And bring them hitherward with speed.
Forbear your mirth and rude alarm,
For none shall do them shame or harm.
"Hear ye his boast?" cried John of Brent,
Ever to strife and jangling bent;
"Shall he strike doe beside our lodge,
And yet the jealous niggard grudge
To pay the forester his fee?

I'll have my share howe'er it be,
Despite of Moray, Mar, or thee.
Bertram his forward step withstood; '
And, burning in his vengeful mood,
Old Allan, though unfit for strife,
Laid hand upon his dagger-knife;
But Ellen boldly stepp'd between,
And dropp'd at once the tartan screen :-
So, from his morning cloud, appears
The sun of May, through summer tears.
The savage soldiery, amazed, ⚫
As on descended angel gazed;

Even hardy Brent, abash'd and tamed,
Stood half admiring, half ashamed.

-

He wiped his iron eye and brow,“Must bear such age, I think, as thou.—

Their Captain came, a gallant young,-
(Of Tullibardine's house he sprung,)
Nor wore he yet the spurs of knight;
Gay was his mien, his humour light,
And, though by courtesy controll❜d,
Forward his speech, his bearing bold.
The high-born maiden ill could brook
The scanning of his curious look
And dauntless eye;-and yet, in sooth,
Young Lewis was a generous youth;
But Ellen's lovely face and mien,
Ill suited to the garb and scene,
Might lightly bear construction strange,
And give loose fancy scope to range.
"Welcome to Stirling towers, fair maid!
Come ye to seek a champion's aid,
On palfrey white, with harper hoar,
Like errant damosel of yore?

Does thy high quest a knight require,

Or may the venture suit a squire ?

Her dark eye flash'd;-she paused and sigh'd,"O what have I to do with pride!

-Through scenes of sorrow, shame, and strife,
A suppliant for a father's life,

I crave an audience of the King.
Behold, to back my suit, a ring,
The royal pledge of grateful claims,
Given by the Monarch to Fitz-James."

X.

The signet-ring young Lewis took,
With deep respect and alter'd look ;
And said, "This ring our duties own;
And pardon, if to worth unknown,

1 [MS." The Monarch gave to James Fitz-James." ]

In semblance mean obscurely veil'd,
Lady, in aught my folly fail'd.

Soon as the day flings wide his gates,
The King shall know what suitor, waits.
Please you, meanwhile, in fitting bower
Repose you till his waking hour;
Female attendance shall obey
Your hest, for service or array.
Permit I marshal you the way."
But, ere she follow'd, with the grace
And open bounty of her race,

She bade her slender purse be shared
Among the soldiers of the guard.

The rest with thanks their guerdon took;
But Brent, with shy and awkward look,
On the reluctant maiden's hold

Forced bluntly back the proffer'd gold;-
"Forgive a haughty English heart,
And O forget its ruder part!

The vacant purse shall be my share, '

Which in my barret-cap I'll, bear,

Perchance, in jeopardy of war,

Where gayer crests may keep afar."

With thanks,-'twas all she could,-the maid

His rugged courtesy repaid.

XI.

When Ellen forth with Lewis went,

Allan made suit to John of Brent :

66

My lady safe, O let your grace

Give me to see my master's face!
His minstrel I,-to share his doom
Bound from the cradle to the tomb.
Tenth in descent, since first my sires
Waked for his noble house their lyres,
Nor one of all the race was known
But prized its weal above their own.
With the Chief's birth begins our care;
Our harp must soothe the infant heir,
Teach the youth tales of fight, and grace
His earliest feat of field or chase;
In peace, in war, our rank we keep,
We cheer his board, we soothe his sleep,
Nor leave him till we pour our verse,―