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He was stately, and young, and tall,
Dreaded in battle, and loved in hall:
And she, when love, scarce told, scarce hid,

Lent to her cheek a livelier red;
When the half sigh her swelling breast
Against the silken riband press'd:
When her blue eyes their secret told,
Though shaded by her locks of gold-
Where would you find the peerless fair

With Margaret of Branksome might compare?

XXIX.

And now,
fair dames, methinks I see
You listen to my minstrelsy;
Your waving locks ye backward throw,
And sidelong bend your necks of snow:
Ye ween to hear a melting tale
Of two true lovers in a dale;
And how the knight, with tender fire,
To paint his faithful passion strove;
Swore, he might at her feet expire,

But never, never, cease to love;

And how she blush'd, and how she sigh'd,
And, half consenting, half denied,
And said that she would die a maid;-
Yet, might the bloody feud be stay'd,
Henry of Cranstoun, and only he,
Margaret of Branksome's choice should be.

XXX.

Alas! fair dames, your hopes are vain! My harp has lost the enchanting strain;

Its lightness would my age reprove : My hairs are gray, my limbs are old, My heart is dead, my veins are cold: I may not, must not, sing of love.

XXXI.

Beneath an oak, moss'd o'er by eld,
The baron's Dwarf his courser held, (17)
And held his crested helm and spear:
That Dwarf was scarcely an earthly man,
If the tales were true that of him ran

Through all the Border, far and near.
'T was said, when the baron a-hunting rode
Through Redesdale's glens, but rarely trod,
He heard a voice cry, Lost! lost! lost!"
And, like tennis-ball by racquet toss'd,
A leap of thirty feet and three,
Made from the

this elfin shape,
gorse
Distorted like some dwarfish ape,

And lighted at Lord Cranstoun's knee.
Lord Cranstoun was some whit dismay'd;
'T is said that five good miles he rade,
To rid him of his company;

But where he rode one mile, the Dwarf ran four,
And the Dwarf was first at the castle door.

XXXII.

Use lessens marvel, it is said:

This elfish Dwarf with the baron staid;

Little he ate, and less he spoke,
Nor mingled with the menial flock:
And oft apart his arms he toss'd,

And often mutter'd, « Lost! lost! lost!"

He was waspish, arch, and litherlie, But well Lord Cranstoun served he : And he of his service was full fain; For once he had been ta'en or slain, An it had not been his ministry. All between Home and Hermitage Talk'd of Lord Cranstoun's goblin-page.

XXXIII.

For the baron went on pilgrimage, And took with him this elvish page, To Mary's chapel of the Lowes: For there, beside Our Lady's lake, An offering he had sworn to make, And he would pay his vows.

9

But the Ladye of Branksome gather'd a band
Of the best that would ride at her command; (18)
The trysting-place was Newark Lee.

Wat of Harden came thither amain,
And thither came John of Thirlestane,
And thither came William of Deloraine;
They were three hundred spears
and three.
Through Douglas-burn, up Yarrow stream,
Their horses prance, their lances gleam.
They came to St Mary's lake ere day;
But the chapel was void, and the baron away.
They burn'd the chapel for very rage,
And cursed Lord Cranstoun's goblin-page.

XXXIV.

And now, in Branksome's good green-wood,
As under the aged oak he stood,
The baron's courser pricks his ears,
As if a distant noise he hears;

The Dwarf waves his long lean arm on high,
And signs to the lovers to part and fly;
No time was then to vow or sigh.
Fair Margaret, through the hazel grove,
Flew like the startled cushat-dove: 1
The Dwarf the stirrup held, and rein;
Vaulted the knight on his steed amain,
And, pondering deep that morning's scene,
Rode eastward through the hawthorns green.

age

WHILE thus he pour'd the lengthen'd tale,
The Minstrel's voice began to fail :
Full slyly smiled the observant page,
And gave the wither'd hand of
A goblet, crown'd with mighty wine,
The blood of Velez' scorched vine.
He raised the silver cup on high,
And, while the big drop fill'd his eye,
Pray'd God to bless the duchess long,
And all who cheer'd a son of song.
The attending maidens smiled to see
How long, how deep, how zealously,
The precious juice the Minstrel quaff'd ;
And he, embolden'd by the draught,
Look'd gaily back to them, and laugh'd.
The cordial nectar of the bowl

Swell'd his old veins, and cheer'd his soul;
A lighter, livelier prelude ran,
Ere thus his tale again began.

Wood-pigeon.

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So thought Lord Cranstoun, as I ween,
While, pondering deep the tender scene,
Ile rode through Branksome's hawthorn green.
But the page shouted wild and shrill-
And scarce his helmet could he don,

When downward from the shady hill
A stately knight came pricking on.
That warrior's steed, so dapple-gray,

Was dark with sweat, and splash'd with clay;
His armour red with many a stain:

He seem'd in such a weary plight,
As if he had ridden the livelong night;
For it was William of Deloraine.

IV.

But no whit weary did he seem,

When, dancing in the sunny beam,

He mark'd the crane on the baron's crest; (1)

For his ready spear was in his rest.

Few were the words, and stern and high,
That mark'd the foemen's feudal hate,

For question fierce and proud reply
Gave signal soon of dire debate.
Their
very coursers seem'd to know
That each was other's mortal foe,

And snorted fire, when wheel'd around,
To give each knight his vantage ground.'
V.

In rapid round the baron bent;

He sigh'd a sigh, and pray'd a prayer; prayer was to his patron saint,

The

The sigh was to his ladye fair.

Stout Deloraine nor sigh'd nor pray'd,

. Nor saint nor ladye call'd to aid;

But he stoop'd his head, and couch'd his spear,
And spurr'd his steed to full career.
The meeting of these champions proud
Seem'd like the bursting thunder-cloud.

VI.

Stern was the dint the Borderer lent;

The stately baron backwards bent;
Bent backwards to his horse's tail,

And his plumes went scattering on the gale;
The tough ash spear, so stout and true,
Into a thousand flinders flew.

But Cranstoun's lance, of more avail,

Pierced through, like silk, the Borderer's mail;
Through shield, and jack, and acton past,
Deep in his bosom broke at last.-
Still sate the warrior saddle-fast,
Till, stumbling in the mortal shock,
Down went the steed, the girthing broke,
Hurl'd on a heap lay man and horse.
The baron onward pass'd his course;
Nor knew-so giddy roll'd his brain-
His foe lay stretch'd upon the plain.

VII.

But when he rein'd his courser round,
And saw his foeman on the ground
Lie senseless as the bloody clay,
He bade his page to staunch the wound,
And there beside the warrior stay,
And tend him in his doubtful state,
And lead him to Branksome castle-gate :
His noble mind was inly moved

For the kinsman of the maid he loved.

This shalt thou do without delay; No longer here myself may stay: Unless the swifter I speed away, Short shrift will be at my dying day.»>

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The iron band, the iron clasp,
Resisted long the elfin grasp;
For when the first he had undone,
It closed as he the next begun.
Those iron clasps, that iron band,
Would not yield to unchristen'd hand,
Till he smear'd the cover o'er
With the Borderer's curdled gore;
A moment then the volume spread,
And one short spell therein he read.
It had much of glamour might, (3)
Could make a ladye seem a knight;
The cobwebs on a dungeon wall
Seem tapestry in lordly hall;

A nut-shell seem a gilded barge,
A sheeling seem a palace large,

Magical delusion.

2 A shepherd's hut.

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Unwillingly himself he address'd
To do his master's high behest:
He lifted up the living corse,
And laid it on the weary horse;
He led him into Branksome-ball,
Before the beards of the warders all;
And each did after swear and say,
There only pass'd a wain of hay.
He took him to Lord David's tower,
Even to the Ladye's secret bower;

And, but that stronger spells were spread,
And the door might not be opened,
He had laid him on her very bed.
Whate'er he did of gramarye,'
Was always done maliciously;
He flung the warrior on the ground,

And the blood well'd freshly from the wound.

XII.

As he repass'd the outer court,

He spied the fair young child at sport:
He thought to train him to the wood;
For, at a word, be it understood,

He was always for ill, and never for good.
Seem'd to the boy, some comrade gay
Led him forth to the woods to play;
On the draw-bridge the warders stout
Saw a terrier and lurcher passing out.

XIII.

He led the boy o'er bank and fell,

Until they came to a woodland brook;
The running stream dissolved the spell, (5)
And his own elvish shape he took.
Could he have had his pleasure vilde,
He had crippled the joints of the noble child;
Or, with his fingers long and lean,
Had strangled him in fiendish spleen.
But his awful mother he had in dread,
And also his power was limited;

So he but scowl'd on the startled child,
And darted through the forest wild;

1 Magic.

The woodland brook he bounding cross'd, And laugh'd, and shouted << Lost! lost! lost!»

XIV.

Full sore amazed at the wond'rous change,
And frighten'd, as a child might be,
At the wild yell and visage strange,

And the dark words of gramarye,
The child, amidst the forest bower,
Stood rooted like a lily flower,
And when at length, with trembling pace,
He sought to find where Branksome lay,
Ile fear'd to see that grisly face

Glare from some thicket on his way.
Thus, starting oft, he journey'd on,
And deeper in the wood is gone,―
For aye the more he sought his way,
The farther still he went astray,—
Until he heard the mountains round
Ring to the baying of a hound.

XV.

And hark! and hark! the deep-mouth'd bark
Comes nigher still, and nigher;
Bursts on the path a dark blood-hound,
His tawny muzzle track'd the ground,
And his red eye shot fire.
Soon as the wilder'd child saw he,
He flew at him right furiouslie.

I ween you would have seen with joy
The bearing of the gallant boy,
When, worthy of his noble sire,

His wet cheek glow'd 'twixt fear and ire!
Ile faced the blood-hound manfully,
And held his little bat on high;
So fierce he struck, the dog, afraid,
At cautious distance hoarsely bay'd,,

But still in act to spring,

When dash'd an archer through the glade, And when he saw the hound was stay'd, He drew his tough bow-string;

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The speaker issued from the wood,
And check'd his fellow's surly mood,
And quell'd the ban-dog's ire:
He was an English yeoman good,
And born in Lancashire.
Well could he hit a fallow-deer

Five hundred feet him fro;

With hand more true, and eye more clear,

No archer bended bow.

His coal-black hair, shorn round and close,
Set off his sunburnt face;

Old England's sign, St George's cross,
His barret-cap did grace;

His bugle-horn hung by his side,
All in a wolf-skin baldric tied;

And his short falchion, sharp and clear,
Had pierced the throat of many a deer.

XVII.

His kirtle, made of forest green, Reach'd scantly to his knee;

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XX.

Gramercy, for thy good will, fair boy!
My mind was never set so high;

But if thou art chief of such a clan,
And art the son of such a man,
And ever comest to thy command,

Our wardens had need to keep good order: My bow of yew to a hazel wand,

Thou 'It make them work upon the Border. Meantime, be pleased to come with me, For good Lord Dacre shalt thou see: I think our work is well begun, When we have taken thy father's son.>>

XXI.

Although the child was led away,
In Branksome still he seem'd to stay,
For so the Dwarf his part did play;
And, in the shape of that young boy,
He wrought the castle much annoy.
The comrades of the young Buccleuch
He pinch'd, and beat, and overthrew;
Nay, some of them he well nigh slew.
He tore Dame Maudlin's silken tire,
And, as Sym Hall stood by the fire,
He lighted the match of his bandelier,'
And woefully scorch'd the hackbutteer.2
It may be hardly thought or said,

The mischief that the urchin made,
Till of the castle guess'd
many
That the young baron was possess'd!

1 Bandelier, belt for carrying ammunition. 2 Hackbaueer, musketeer.

XXII.

Well I ween, the charm he held
The noble Ladye had soon dispell'd;
But she was deeply busied then
To tend the wounded Deloraine.
Much she wonder'd to find him lie,

On the stone threshold stretch'd along; She thought some spirit of the sky

Had done the bold moss-trooper wrong; Because, despite her precept dread, Perchance he in the book had read; But the broken lance in his bosom stood, And it was earthly steel and wood.

XXIII.

She drew the splinter from the wound,
And with a charm she staunch'd the blood; (7)
She bade the gash be cleansed and bound:
No longer by his couch she stood;
But she has ta'en the broken lance,
And wash'd it from the clotted gore,
And salved the splinter o'er and o'er. (8)
William of Deloraine, in trance,
Whene'er she turn'd it round and round,
Twisted as if she gall'd his wound.

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.
'T was near the time of curfew bell;
The air was mild, the wind was calm,
The stream was smooth, the dew was balm;
E'en the rude watchman, on the tower,
Enjoy'd and bless'd the lovely hour;
Far more fair Margaret loved and bless'd
The hour of silence and of rest.

On the high turret sitting lone,

She waked at times the lute's soft tone;
Touch'd a wild note, and, all between,
Thought of the bower of hawthorns green.
Her golden hair stream'd free from band,
Her fair cheek rested on her hand,
Her blue eyes sought the west afar,
For lovers love the western star.

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Far downward, in the castle-yard,

Full many a torch and cresset glared;

And helms and plumes, confusedly toss'd, Were in the blaze half seen, half lost; And spears in wild disorder shook, Like reeds beside a frozen brook.

XXVII.

The seneschal, whose silver hair
Was redden'd by the torches' glare,
Stood in the midst, with gesture proud,
And issued forth his mandates loud.-
« On Penchryst glows a bale1 of fire,

And three are kindling on Priesthaugh-swire; (9)
Ride out, ride out,

The foe to scout!

Mount, mount for Branksome, every man!
Thou, Todrig, warn the Johnstone clan,

That ever are true and stout.

Ye need not send to Liddesdale;
For, when they see the blazing bale,
Elliots and Armstrongs never fail.—
Ride, Alton, ride, for death and life!
And warn the warden of the strife.-
Young Gilbert, let our beacon blaze,

Our kin, and clan, and friends to raise.»>—(10)
XXVIII.

Fair Margaret, from the turret-head,
Heard, far below, the coursers' tread,

While loud the harness rang,

As to their seats, with clamour dread,
The ready horsemen sprang;
And trampling hoofs, and iron coats,
And leaders' voices, mingled notes,
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's3 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;
Each from each the signal caught;
Each after each they glanced to sight,

As stars arise upon the night.

They gleam'd on many a dusky tarn,4
Haunted by the lonely earn ;5

On many a cairn's gray pyramid,

Where urns of mighty chiefs lie hid; (11)

Till high Dunedin the blazes saw,

From Soltra and Dumpender Law;

Bale, beacon-fagot.

2 Mount for Branksome was the gathering word of the Scotts.

3 Need-fire, beacon.

4 Tarn, a mountain lake.

5 Earn, a Scottish eagle.

6 Cairn, a pile of stones.

And Lothian heard the regent's order,

That all should bowne' them for the Border.

XXX.

The livelong night in Branksome rang
The ceaseless sound of steel;
The castle-bell, with backward clang,
Sent forth the larum peal;
Was frequent heard the heavy jar,
Where massy stone and iron bar
Were piled on echoing keep and tower,
To whelm the foe with deadly shower;
Was frequent heard the changing guard,
And watchword from the sleepless ward;
While, wearied by the endless din,
Blood-hound and ban-dog yell'd within.

XXXI.

The noble dame, amid the broil,

Shared the gray seneschal's high toil,
And spoke of danger with a smile;

Cheer'd the young knights, and council sage
Held with the chiefs of riper age.

No tidings of the foe were brought,
Nor of their numbers knew they aught,
Nor in what time the truce he sought.

Some said, that there were thousands ten,
And others ween'd that it was nought
But Leven Clans, or Tynedale men,
Who came to gather in black-mail;2
And Liddesdale, with small avail,

Might drive them lightly back agen.
So pass'd the anxious night away,
And welcome was the peep of day.

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