V.

“Let it pass round !" quoth He of Lorn, “And in good time--that winded horn

Must of the Abbot tell ;
The laggard monk is come at last.”.
Lord Ronald heard the bugle-blast,
And on the floor at random cast,

The untasted goblet fell.
But when the Warder in his ear
Tells other news, his blither cheer

Returns like sun of May,
When through a thunder-cloud it beams ;-
Lord of two hundred isles, he seems

As glad of brief delay,
As some poor criminal might feel,
When from the gibbet or the wheel

Respited for a day.

VI.

“ Brother of Lorn," with hurried voice
He said, “ and you, fair lords, rejoice!

Here, to augment our glee,
Come wandering knights from travel far,
Well proved, they say, in strife of war,

And tempest on the sea.
Ho! give them at your board such place
As best their présences may grace,

And bid them welcome free !"
With solemn step, and silver wand,
The Seneschal the presence scann'd
Of these strange guests; and well he knew.
How to assign their rank its due;

For, though the costly furs That erst had deck'd their caps were torn, And their gay robes were over-worn,

And soild their gilded spurs, Yet such a high commanding grace Was in their mien and in their face,

As suited best the princely dais,

And royal canopy ; And there he marshall’d them their place,

First of that company.

VII.

Then lords and ladies spake aside,
And
angry

looks the error chide, That gave to guests unnamed, unknown, A place so near their prince's throne;

But Owen Erraught said, « For forty years a seneschal, To marshal guests in bower and hall

Has been my honour'd trade.
Worship and birth to me are known,
By look, by bearing, and by tone,
Not by furr'd robe or broider'd zone ;

And 'gainst an oaken bough
I'll 'gage my silver wand of state,
That these three strangers oft have sate

In higher place than now.”_

VIII.

ye

“ I, too," the aged Ferrand said, “ Am qualified by minstrel trade

Of rank and place to tell ;Mark'd the

younger stranger's eye, My mates, how quick, how keen, how high,

How fierce its flashes fell,
Glancing among the noble rout
As if to seek the noblest out,
Because the owner might not brook

On

any save his

peers to look ?

And yet it moves me more,
That steady, calm, majestic brow,
With which the elder chief even now

Scann'd the gay presence o'er,
Like Being of superior kind,
In whose high-toned impartial mind
Degrees of mortal rank and state
Seem objects of indifferent weight.

The lady too-though closely tied

The mantle veil both face and eye, Her motions' grace it could not hide,

Nor could her form's fair symmetry.”

IX.

Suspicious doubt and lordly scorn
Lourd on the haughty front of Lorn.
From underneath his brows of pride,
The stranger guests he sternly eyed,

And whisper'd closely what the ear
Of Argentine alone might hear;

Then question'd, high and brief,
If, in their voyage, aught they knew
Of the rebellious Scottish crew,
Who to Rath-Erin's shelter drew,

With Carrick's out-law'd Chief?
And if, their winter's exile o'er,
They harbour'd still by Ulster's shore,
Or launch'd their galleys on the main,
To vex their native land again ?