And then, he said, he would full fain He had play'd it to King Charles the good, When he kept court in Holy-rood; And much he wish'd, yet fear'd, to try The long-forgotten melody. Amid the strings his fingers stray'd, And oft he shook his hoary head. The old man raised his face, and smiled; With all a poet's ecstasy! In varying cadence, soft or strong, He swept the sounding chords along : 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 Hirst. I. HE 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. II. HE tables were drawn, it was idlesse all; Knight, and page, and household squire, Or crowded round the ample fire: The stag-hounds, weary with the chase, III. INE-AND-TWENTY knights of fame Nine-and-twenty squires of name Brought them their steeds to bower from stall; Nine-and-twenty yeomen tall Waited, duteous, on them all : IV. EN of them were sheathed in steel, They lay down to rest, With corslet laced, Pillow'd on buckler cold and hard; They carv'd at the meal With gloves of steel, And they drank the red wine through the helmet barr'd. V. EN squires, ten yeomen, mail-clad men, Thirty steeds, both fleet and wight, VI. -- HY do these steeds stand ready dight? Why watch these warriors, arm'd, by They watch, to hear the blood-hound baying: |