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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 liege, I went this morning on my quest,

My hound did stick, and seem'd to vent some beast.

I held him short, and drawing after him,
I might behold the hart was feeding trym;
His head was high, and large in each degree,
Well paulmed eke, and seem'd full sound to be.
Of colour browne, he beareth eight and tenne,
Of stately height, and long he seemed then.

I watch'd her, as she slowly stray'd
From Eglistone up Thorsgill glade;
But Wilfrid Wycliffe sought her side,
And then young Redmond, in his pride,
Shot down to meet them on their way:
Much, as it seem'd, was theirs to say:
There's time to pitch both toil and net,
Before their path be homeward set."
A hurried and a whisper'd speech
Did Bertram's will to Denzil teach;
Who, turning to the robber band,
Bade four, the bravest, take the brand.

His beam seem'd great, in good proportion led,
Well barred and round, well pearled neare his head.
He seemed fayre tweene blacke and berrie brounde,
He seemes well fed by all the signes I found.
For when I had well marked him with eye,
I stept aside, to watch where he would lye.
And when I had so wayted full an houre,
That he might be at layre and in his boure,
I cast about to harbour him full sure;
My hound by sent did me thereof assure...

"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.

ROKEBY.

CANTO FOURTH.

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