He spurs his horse, he winds his horn, And horse and man, and horn and hound, Wild gazed the affrighted Earl around ; He listens for his trusty hounds, No distant baying reached his ears; His courser, rooted to the ground, The quickening spur unmindful bears. Still dark and darker frown the shades, Dark as the darkness of the grave; And not a sound the still invades, Save what a distant torrent gave. High o'er the sinner's humbled head At length the solemn silence broke; And from a cloud of swarthy red The awful voice of thunder spoke. 'Oppressor of creation fair! Apostate Spirits' hardened tool! Scorner of God! Scourge of the poor! The measure of thy cup is full. 'Be chased forever through the wood, Forever roam the affrighted wild; And let thy fate instruct the proud, God's meanest creature is His child.' 150 160 170 Scott followed his translations from Bürger with other efforts in the same direction. The first book, indeed, which bore his name, was a prose rendering of Goethe's tragedy of Goetz von Berlichingen, published in 1799, and he translated near the same time, but did not publish till thirty years later, the House of Aspen, a free adaptation of Der Heilige Vehmé, by a pseudonymous German author of the day. The Germanic influence was curiously blended with an antiquarian zeal which had an early birth and now sent him eagerly abroad among Scottish legends and half-mythical tales for subjects. Moreover, he was drawn into the service of Monk Lewis, who persuaded him to contribute to his collection of Tales of Wonder, themselves touched with the prevailing temper of eeriness imported freely from Germany. But the most substantial result of his labors in these experimental years was the publica THE VIOLET These slight verses have an interest derived from the fact that they were written by Scott in 1797 in connection with that suppressed passion for Williamina Stuart which never found direct expression to her, but remained deep in the poet's heart long after her mar 20C tion in 1802 and 1803 of the three volumes of Minstrelsy of The Scottish Border. Scott had now become so enamored of the native legends, so skilful as an imitator, and, much more, so informed with the spirit of the old ballads, that his own contributions harmonized with the antiquities he had gathered, and these showed in every line, as well as in the rich apparatus of notes with which they were illustrated, a mastery of the ballad literature, and a mind thoroughly at home in material which was soon to be the quarry for the author and editor's most noble edifices in verse. The present group contains, in as nearly exact chronological order as is practicable, Scott's experiments and performances in original verse, with scattered translations and imitations, before he leaped into fame with The Lay of the Last Minstrel. riage to Sir William Forbes, and Scott's to Miss Carpenter; so that thirty years later Scott could write in his Journal, just after waiting on Lady Jane Stuart, the aged mother of Williamina: 'I went to make another visit. and fairly softened myself like an old fool, with recalling old stories, till I was fit for nothing but shedding tears and repeating verses care. for the whole night. This is sad work. The very grave gives up its dead, and time rolls back thirty years to add to my perplexities. I don't Yet what a romance to tell, and told I fear it will one day be. And then my three years of dreaming and my two years of wakening will be chronicled, doubtless. But the dead will feel no pain.' The story of this disappointment is told without names in the eighth chapter of Lockhart's Life, and has recently been repeated with greater explicitness by Miss Skene in The Century for July, 1899. THE violet in her green-wood bower, Where birchen boughs with hazels mingle, May boast itself the fairest flower In glen or copse or forest dingle. Though fair her gems of azure hue, Beneath the dewdrop's weight reclining; I've seen an eye of lovelier blue, More sweet through watery lustre shin- The summer sun that dew shall dry Remained the tear of parting sorrow. In 1797 Scott's ardor led to the formation of the Royal Edinburgh Light Dragoons, and he served in it as quartermaster. In 1798, when a French invasion was threatened, Mr. Skene was one day reciting the German Kriegslied 'Der Abschied's Tag ist Da,' and the next morning Scott showed the following piece which was adopted as the troop-song. To horse! to horse! the standard flies, From high Dunedin's towers we come, Our casques the leopard's spoils surround, Though tamely crouch to Gallia's frown mourn; Though gallant Switzers vainly spurn, And, foaming, gnaw the chain; Oh! had they marked the avenging call Their brethren's murder gave, Disunion ne'er their ranks had mown, Nor patriot valor, desperate grown, Shall we, too, bend the stubborn head, Or brook a victor's scorn? No! though destruction o'er the land For gold let Gallia's legions fight, If ever breath of British gale Or footstep of invader rude, |