Scott.

Page 3.

That, if she loved the harp to hear,

He could make music to her ear.

The humble boon was soon obtained;
The Aged Minstrel audience gained.
But, when he reached the room of state,
Where she, with all her ladies, sate,
Perchance he wished his boon denied:
For, when to tune his harp he tried,
His trembling hand had lost the ease,
Which marks security to please;
And scenes, long past, of joy and pain,
Came wildering o'er his aged brain-
He tried to tune his harp in vain.
The pitying Duchess praised its chime,
And gave him heart, and gave him time,
Till every string's according glee
Was blended into harmony.

And then, he said, he would full fain

He could recall an ancient strain,

He never thought to sing again.

It was not framed for village churls,
But for high dames and mighty earls;

He had played it to King Charles the Good,
When he kept court at Holyrood;

And much he wished, yet feared, to try
The long-forgotten melody.

Amid the strings his fingers strayed,

And an uncertain warbling made—

And oft he shook his hoary head:

But when he caught the measure wild,

The old man raised his face, and smiled;

And lightened up his faded eye,

With all a poet's ecstasy!

In varying cadence, soft or strong,

He swept the sounding chords along:

The present scene, the future lot,
His toils, his wants, were all forgot:
Cold diffidence, and age's frost,
In the full tide of song were lost:
Each blank, in faithless memory void,
The poet's glowing thought supplied;
And, while his harp responsive rung,
'Twas thus the LATEST MINSTREL sung.

CANTO FIRST.

1. THE feast was over in Branksome tower,

And the Ladye had gone to her secret bower;
Her bower, that was guarded by word and by spell,
Deadly to hear, and deadly to tell-

Jesu Maria, shield us well!

No living wight save the Ladye alone,
Had dared to cross the threshold stone.
2. The tables were drawn, it was idlesse all;
Knight, and page, and household squire.
Loitered through the lofty hall,

Or crowded round the ample fire.
The stag-hounds, weary with the chase
Lay stretched upon the rushy floor,
And urged, in dreams, the forest race,
From Teviot-stone to Eskdale-moor.

3. Nine-and-twenty knights of fame

Hung their shields in Branksome Hall;
Nine-and-twenty squires of name

Brought them their steeds from bower to stall;
Nine-and-twenty yeomen tall,

Waited, duteous, on them all:
They were all knights of metal true,
Kinsmen to the bold Buccleuch.

4. Ten of them were sheathed in steel,
With belted sword and spur on heel;
They quitted not their harness bright,
Neither by day, nor yet by night:
They lay down to rest

With corslet laced,

Pillowed on buckler cold and hard;

They carved at the meal

With gloves of steel,

And they drank the red wine through the helmet

barred.

5. Ten squires, ten yeomen, mail-clad men,
Waited the beck of the warders ten :
Thirty steeds, both fleet and wight,
Stood saddled in stable day and night,
Barbed with frontlet of steel, I trow,
And with Jedwood-axe at saddle-bow:
A hundred more fed free in stall:-
Such was the custom of Branksome Hall.
6. Why do these steeds stand ready dight?
Why watch these wariors, armed, by night?
They watch, to hear the blood-hound baying;
They watch to hear the war-horn braying;
To see St George's red cross streaming,
To see the midnight beacon gleaming;
They watch, against Southern force and guile,

Lest Scroop, or Howard, or Percy's powers,
Threaten Branksome's lordly towers,
From Warkworth, or Naworth, or merry Carlisle.
7. Such is the custom of Branksome Hall.
Many a valiant knight is here;
But he, the Chieftain of them all,