To the squire's hand the rein he threw,
And spoke no word as he withdrew:
But yet the moonlight did betray,
The falcon-crest was soil'd with clay;
And plainly might Fitz-Eustace see,
By stains upon the charger's knee,
And his left side, that on the moor
He had not kept his footing sure.
Long musing on these wondrous signs,
At length to rest the squire reclines,
Broken and short; for still, between,
Would dreams of terror intervene :
Eustace did ne'er so blithely mark
The first notes of the morning lark.

MARMION.

INTRODUCTION TO CANTO IOURTH.

JAMES SKENE, ESQ.'

Ashestiel, Ettrick Forest.

view'd,

AN ancient Minstrel sagely said,
"Where is the life which late we led?"
That motley clown in Arden wood,
Whom humorous Jacques with envy
Not even that clown could amplify,
On this trite text, so long as I.
Eleven years we now may tell,

Since we have known each other well;
Since, riding side by side, our hand
First drew the voluntary brand;2
And sure, through many a varied scene,
Unkindness never came between.

1 [James Skene, Esq., of Rubislaw, Aberdeenshire, was Cornet in the Royal Edinburgh Light Horse Volunteers; and Sir Walter Scott was Quartermaster of the same corps.]

2 [MS." Unsheath'd the voluntary brand."]