But loud, on the morrow, their wail and their cry: He had laugh'd on the lass with his bonny black eye, And she fled to the forest to hear a love-tale, And the youth it was told by was Allen-a-Dale! XXXI. "Thou see'st that, whether sad or gay, Love mingles ever in his lay. But when his boyish wayward fit Is o'er, he hath address and wit; O! 'tis a brain of fire, can ape Each dialect, each various shape.""Nay, then, to aid thy project, Guy— · Soft! who comes here?"- "My trusty spy. Speak, Hamlin ! hast thou lodged our deer?"— "I have--but two fair stags are near. 1 The duty of the ranger, or pricker, was first to lodge, or harbour the deer; i. e. to discover his retreat, as described at length in note, p. 146, and then to make his report to his prince, or master: "Before the King I come report to make, Then husht and peace for noble Tristrame's sake . . . My hound did stick, and seem'd to vent some beast. I held him short, and drawing after him, I watch'd her, as she slowly stray'd His beam seem'd great, in good proportion led, "Then if he ask what slot or view I found, I say the slot or view was long on ground; The toes were great, the joynt bones round and short, The shinne bones large, the dew-claws close in port: Short ioynted was he, hollow-footed eke, An hart to hunt as any man can seeke." The Art of Venerie, ut supra, p. 97. |