St Mary! but we'll light a brand,

Shall warm your hearths in Cumberland."

XXIII.

A wrathful man was Dacre's lord,

But calmer Howard took the word :

May't please thy Dame, Sir Seneschal,

To seek the castle's outward wall,

Our pursuivant-at-arms shall shew,

Both why we came, and when we go.”— The message sped, the noble Dame

To the wall's outward circle came;

Each chief around leaned on his spear,

To see the pursuivant appear.

All in Lord Howard's livery dressed,

The lion argent decked his breast;

He led a boy of blooming hue-
O sight to meet a mother's view!
It was the heir of great Buccleuch.
Obeisance meet the herald made,
And thus his master's will he said.

XXIV.

"It irks, high Dame, my noble Lords,

'Gainst ladye fair to draw their swords;
But yet they may not tamely see,
All through the western wardenry,
Your law-contemning kinsmen ride,
And burn and spoil the Border-side;
And ill beseems your rank and birth
To make your towers a flemens-firth.*
We claim from thee William of Deloraine,
That he may suffer march-treason pain: +
It was but last St Cuthbert's even

He pricked to Stapleton on Leven,
Harried the lands of Richard Musgrave,
And slew his brother by dint of glaive.
Then, since a lone and widowed Dame

These restless riders may not tame,

* An asylum for outlaws.
+ Plundered.

† Border treason.

Either receive within thy towers

Two hundred of my master's powers,
Or straight they sound their warrison,*

And storm and spoil thy garrison;

And this fair boy, to London led,

Shall good King Edward's page be bred.”—

XXV.

He ceased-and loud the boy did cry,
And stretched his little arms on high;
Implored for aid each well-known face,
And strove to seek the Dame's embrace.
A moment changed that Ladye's cheer,
Gushed to her eye the unbidden tear;
She gazed upon the leaders round,

And dark and sad each warrior frowned;
Then, deep within her sobbing breast
She locked the struggling sigh to rest;

*Note of assault.

And drew the bow-string to his ear

Each minstrel's war-note loud was blown ;

But, e'er a gray-goose shaft had flown,

A horseman galloped from the rear.

XXVIII.

"Ah! noble Lords!" he, breathless, said, "What treason has your march betrayed?

What make you here, from aid so far,

Before you walls, around you war?

Your foemen triumph in the thought,

That in the toils the lion's caught.

Already on dark Ruberslaw

The Douglas holds his weapon-schaw;

The lances, waving in his train,

*

Clothe the dun heath like autumn grain;

And on the Liddle's northern strand,

To bar retreat to Cumberland,

津

Weapon-schaw, the military array of a county.

www.ww

Lord Maxwell ranks his merry-men good,

Beneath the eagle and the rood;

And Jedwood, Eske, and Teviotdale,

Have to proud Angus comé;

And all the Merse and Lauderdale

Have risen with haughty Home.

An exile from Northumberland,

In Liddisdale I've wandered long;
But still my heart was with merry England,
And cannot brook my country's wrong;

And hard I've spurred all night, to shew
The mustering of the coming foe."-

XXIX.

"And let them come!" fierce Dacre cried;

"For soon yon crest, my father's pride,

That swept the shores of Judah's sea,

And waved in gales of Galilee,

From Branksome's highest towers displayed,

Shall mock the rescue's lingering aid!