For Walter of Harden shall come with speed, He faced the blood-hound manfully, And held his little bat on high; But still in act to spring; When dash'd an archer through the glade, XVI. The speaker issued from the wood, And check'd his fellow's surly mood, Well could he hit a fallow-deer Five hundred feet him fro; With hand more true, and eye more clear, No archer bended bow. Ilis coal-black hair, shorn round and close, All in a wolf-skin baldric tied; XVII. His kirtle, made of forest green, A furbish'd sheaf bore he; His buckler, scarce in breadth a span, No larger fence had he; He never counted him a man, Would strike below the knee:1 His slacken'd bow was in his hand, And the leash, that was his blood-hound's band. XVIII. He would not do the fair child harm, XIX. "Yes! I am come of high degree, For I am the heir of bold Buccleuch; And, if thou dost not set me free, False Southron, thou shalt dearly rue! 1 See Appendix, Note 2 P. 2 Bandelier, belt for carrying ammunition. And William of Deloraine, good at need, I'll have thee hang'd to feed the crow!"- XX. "Gramercy, for thy good-will, fair boy! My mind was never set so high; And ever comest to thy command, Our wardens had need to keep good order; My bow of yew to a hazel wand, Thou'lt make them work upon the Border. I think our work is well begun, XXI. Although the child was led away, XXII. Well I ween the charm he held Had done the bold moss-trooper wrong; XXIII. She drew the splinter from the wound, And with a charm she stanch'd the blood; She bade the gash be cleansed and bound: No longer by his couch she stood; a Hackbuteer, musketeer. 4 See Appendix, Note 2 Q. But she has ta'en the broken lance, Whene'er she turn'd it round and round, Then to her maidens she did say, That he should be whole man and sound, Within the course of a night and day. Full long she toil'd; for she did rue Mishap to friend so stout and true. XXIV. So pass'd the day-the evening fell, XXV. Is yon the star, o'er Penchryst Pen, And, spreading broad its wavering light, Scarce could she draw her tighten'd breath, XXVI. The Warder view'd it blazing strong, 1 See Appendix, Note 2 R. 2 "As another illustration of the prodigious improvement which the style of the old romance is capable of receiving from a more liberal admixture of pathetic sentiments and gentle affections, we insert the following passage, [Stanzas xxiv. to xxvii.,] where the effect of the picture is finely assisted by the Contrast of its two compartments."—JEFFREY. XXVII. The Seneschal, whose silver hair The foe to scout! Mount, mount for Branksome, every man! XXVIII. Fair Margaret, from the turret head, And out! and out! In hasty route, The horsemen gallop'd forth; Dispersing to the south to scout, And east, and west, and north, To view their coming enemies, And warn their vassals and allies. XXIX. The ready page, with hurried hand," Awaked the need-fire's slumbering brand, And ruddy blush'd the heaven: For a sheet of flame, from the turret high, Waved like a blood-flag on the sky, All flaring and uneven; And soon a score of fires, I ween, From height, and hill, and cliff, were seen; As stars arise upon the night. Till high Dunedin the blazes saw, From Soltra and Dumpender Law; XXX. The livelong night in Branksome rang Were piled on echoing keep and tower, XXXI. The noble Dame, amid the broil, Cheer'd the young knights, and council sage Some said, that there were thousands ten; And others ween'd that it was nought But Leven Clans, or Tynedale men, Might drive them lightly back agen. CEASED the high sound-the listening throng 1 Bowne, make ready. 2 Protection money exacted by freebooters. 3" Nothing can excel the simple concise pathos of the close of this Canto-nor the touching picture of the Bard when, with assumed business, he tries to conceal real sorrow. How well the poet understands the art of contrast-and how judiciously it is exerted in the exordium of the next Canto, where our mourning sympathy is exchanged for the thrill of pleasure!"-ANNA SEWARD. 4 "What luxury of sound in this line!"-ANNA SEward. 5 Orig. "Since first they rolled their way to Tweed." 6 The Viscount of Dundee, slain in the battle of Killicrankie. 7" Some of the most interesting passages of the poem are And busied himself the strings withal, To hide the tear that fain would fall. In solemn measure, soft and slow, Arose a father's notes of woe." The Lay of the Last Minstrel. CANTO FOURTH. I. SWEET Teviot! on thy silver tide Along thy wild and willow'd shore ;* Where'er thou wind'st, by dale or hill, All, all is peaceful, all is still, As if thy waves, since Time was born, Since first they roll'd upon the Tweed,5 Had only heard the shepherd's reed, Nor started at the bugle-horn. II. Unlike the tide of human time, Which, though it change in ceaseless flow, Retains each grief, retains each crime Its earliest course was doom'd to know; And, darker as it downward bears, Is stain'd with past and present tears. Low as that tide has ebb'd with me, It still reflects to Memory's eye The hour my brave, my only boy, Fell by the side of great Dundee." Why, when the volleying musket play'd Against the bloody Highland blade, Why was not I beside him laid !-Enough he died the death of fame; Enough he died with conquering Græme.7 III. Now over Border, dale and fell, Full wide and far was terror spread; those in which the author drops the business of his story to moralize, and apply to his own situation the images and reflec tions it has suggested. After concluding one Canto with an account of the warlike array which was prepared for the reception of the English invaders, he opens the succeeding one with the following beautiful verses, (Stanzas i. and ii.) "There are several other detached passages of equal beauty, which might be quoted in proof of the effect which is produced by this dramatic interference of the narrator."— JEFFREY. 8 See Appendix, Note 2 V. 9 No one will dissent from this, who reads, in particular, the first two and heart-glowing stanzas of Canto VI.-now, by association of the past, rendered the more affecting. -ED And maids and matrons dropp'd the tear, IV. Now loud the heedful gate-ward cried"Prepare ye all for blows and blood! Watt Tinlinn, from the Liddel-side, Comes wading through the flood.3 Full oft the Tynedale snatchers knock At his lone gate, and prove the lock; It was but last St. Barnabright They sieged him a whole summer night, But fled at morning; well they knew, In vain he never twang'd the yew. Right sharp has been the evening shower, That drove him from his Liddel tower; And, by my faith," the gate-ward said, "I think 'twill prove a Warden-Raid. " V. While thus he spoke, the bold yeoman But sparely form'd, and lean withal; A batter'd morion on his brow; A leather jack, as fence enow, On his broad shoulders loosely hung; A border axe behind was slung; 1 See Appendix, Note 2 W. 2 See Appendix, Note 2 X. 3" And when they cam to Branksome ha', They shouted a' baith loud and hie, Till up and spak him auld Buccleuch, Said- Whae's this brings the fraye to me?'It's I, Jamie Telfer, o' the fair Dodhead, And a harried man I think I be,'" &c. Border Minstrelsy, vol. ii. p. 8. • An inroad commanded by the Warden in person. 5 "The dawn displays the smoke of ravaged fields, and shepherds, with their flocks, flying before the storm. Tidings brought by a tenant of the family, not used to seek a shelter on light occasions of alarm, disclose the strength and object of the invaders. This man is a character of a lower and of a rougher cast than Deloraine. The portrait of the rude retainer is sketched with the same masterly hand. Here, again, Mr. Scott has trod in the footsteps of the old romancers, who confine not themselves to the display of a few personages who stalk over the stage on stately stilts, but usually reflect all the varieties of character that marked the era to which they belong. The interesting example of manners thus preserved to us is not the only advantage which results from this peculiar His spear, six Scottish ells in length, VI. Thus to the Lady did Tinlinn show But I was chased the livelong night. Black John of Akeshaw, and Fergus Græme, Fast upon my traces came, Until I turn'd at Priesthaugh Scrogg, And shot their horses in the bog, VII. Now weary scouts from Liddesdale, From Teviot, Aill, and Ettrick shade, There was saddling and mounting in haste, Was but lightly held of his gaye ladye.13 structure of their plan. It is this, amongst other circumstances, which enables them to carry us along with them, under I know not what species of fascination, and to make us, as it were, credulous spectators of their most extravagant scenes. In this they seem to resemble the painter, who, in the delineation of a battle, while he places the adverse heroes of the day combating in the front, takes care to fill his background with subordinate figures, whose appearance adds at once both spirit and an air of probability to the scene."Critical Review, 1805. 6 The broken ground in a bog. 7 See Appendix, Note 2 Y. 8 Bondsman. 9 As the Borderers were indifferent about the furniture of their habitations, so much exposed to be burned and plundered, they were proportionally anxious to display splendour in decorating and ornamenting their females.-See LESLEY de Moribus Limitaneorum. 10 See Appendix, Note 2 Z. 11 See Appendix, Note 3 A. 12 Musketeers. See Appendix, Note 3 B. 13 The four last lines of stanza vii. are not in the 1st Edition ED. VIII. From fair St. Mary's silver wave, From dreary Gamescleugh's dusky height, His ready lances Thirlestane brave Array'd beneath a banner bright. The tressured fleur-de-luce he claims, IX. An aged Knight, to danger steel'd, The stars and crescent graced his shield, And bought with danger, blows, and blood. A braver knight than Harden's lord X.4 Scotts of Eskdale, a stalwart band,5 And by the sword they hold it still. Earl Morton was lord of that valley fair, 1 See Appendix, Note 3 C. 2 See Appendix, Note 3 D. a See, besides the note on this stanza, one in the Border Minstrelsy, vol. ii. p. 10, respecting Wat of Harden, the Author's ancestor. A satirical piece, entitled "The Town Eclogue," which made much noise in Edinburgh shortly after the appearance of the Minstrelsy, has these lines : The Earl was gentle, and mild of mood, The vassals were warlike, and fierce, and rude; Of Gilbert the Galliard a heriot he sought, Saying, "Give thy best steed, as a vassal ought.” "Dear to me is my bonny white steed, Oft has he help'd me at pinch of need; As he urged his steed through Eskdale muir; Just on the threshold of Branksome gate. XI. The Earl was a wrathful man to see, Eskdale shall long have the sound in mind.” XII. Loudly the Beattison laugh'd in scorn; "Little care we for thy winded horn. Ne'er shall it be the Galliard's lot, To yield his steed to a haughty Scott. "A modern author spends a hundred leaves, To prove his ancestors notorious thieves. '-ED. 4 Stanzas x. xi. xii. were not in the first Edition. See Appendix, Note 3 E. 6 The feudal superior, in certain cases, was entitled to the best horse of the vassal, in name of Heriot, or Herezeld. |