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.2 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's7 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; Each with warlike tidings fraught; As stars arise upon the night. Till high Dunedin the blazes saw, From Soltra and Dumpender Law; And Lothian heard the Regent's order, That all should bowne' them for the Border. 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. & Orig. "Since first they rolled their way to Tweed." 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.3 The Lay of the Last Minstrel. CANTO FOURTH. I. SWEET Teviot! on thy silver tide The glaring bale-fires blaze no more; No longer steel-clad warriors ride 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; For pathless marsh, and mountain cell, The peasant left his lowly shed.R The frighten'd flocks and herds were pent Beneath the peel's rude battlement; those in which the author drops the business of his story to moralize, and apply to his own situation the images and reflections 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,9 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.-non, by association of the past, rendered the more affecting.-En. 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. "4 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. 4 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, Seem'd newly dyed with gore; His shafts and bow, of wondrous strength, His hardy partner bore. VI. Thus to the Ladye did Tinlinn show But I was chased the livelong night. Black John of Akeshaw, and Fergus Græme, Until I turn'd at Priesthaugh Scrogg, VII. Now weary scouts from Liddesdale, 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, To wreathe his shield, since royal James, 66 IX. An aged Knight, to danger steel'd, The stars and crescent graced his shield, Without the bend of Murdieston.2 And bought with danger, blows, and blood. A braver knight than Harden's lord X.4 Scotts of Eskdale, a stalwart band,5 Came trooping down the Todshawhill; By the sword they won their land, 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. * 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; Homage and seignory to claim: 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; Till so highly blazed the Beattison's ire, As he urged his steed through Eskdale muir; Just on the threshold of Branksome gate. XI. The Earl was a wrathful man to see, Thy bonny white steed, or thou shalt rue. If my horn I three times wind, 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. '- FD. 4 Stanzas x. xi. xii. were not in the first Edition. 5 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 Herczeld, Wend thou to Branksome back on foot, With rusty spur and miry boot.”— He blew his bugle so loud and hoarse, That the dun deer started at fair Craikcross; He blew again so loud and clear, Through the grey mountain-mist there did lances appear; And the third blast rang with such a din, Then had you seen a gallant shock, When saddles were emptied, and lances broke! His own good sword the chieftain drew, source, Was lost and won for that bonny white horse. XIII. Whitslade the Hawk, and Headshaw came, The Ladye mark'd the aids come in, I saw him draw a cross-bow stiff, The raven's nest upon the cliff; The red cross, on a southern breast, Is broader than the raven's nest: Thou, Whitslade, shalt teach him his weapon to wield, And o'er him hold his father's shield." XIV. Well may you think, the wily page Cared not to face the Ladye sage. He counterfeited childish fear, And shriek'd, and shed full many a tear, And moan'd and plain'd in manner wild. The attendants to the Ladye told, Some fairy, sure, had changed the child, That wont to be so free and bold. This and the three following lines are not in the first edition.-ED. Then wrathful was the noble dame; To Rangleburn's lonely side. Sure some fell fiend has cursed our line, That coward should e'er be son of mine!"— XV. A heavy task Watt Tinlinn had, But as a shallow brook they cross'd, And fled, and shouted, "Lost! lost! lost!" XVI. Soon on the hill's steep verge he stood, And banners tall, of crimson sheen, And, glistening through the hawthorns green, XVII. Light forayers, first, to view the ground, Spurr'd their fleet coursers loosely round; Behind, in close array, and fast, The Kendal archers, all in green, Obedient to the bugle blast, Advancing from the wood were seen. To back and guard the archer band, Lord Dacre's bill-men were at hand: 2 See Appendix, Note 3 F. |