Twinkling faint, and distant far,
Shimmers through mist each planet star;
Ill may I read their high decree :
But no kind influence deign they shower
On Teviot's tide, and Branksome's tower,
Till pride be quelled, and love be free."

XVIII.

The unearthly voices ceast,
And the heavy sound was still;
It died on the river's breast,

It died on the side of the hill-
But round Lord David's tower
The sound still floated near;
For it rung in the Ladye's bower,
And it rung in the Ladye's ear.

She raised her stately head,

And her heart throbbed high with pride: "Your mountains shall bend,

And your streams ascend,

Ere Margaret be our foeman's bride!"

XIX.

The Ladye sought the lofty hall,
Where many a bold retainer lay,
And, with jocund din, among them all,
Her son pursued his infant play.
A fancied moss-trooper, the boy

The truncheon of a spear bestrode,
And round the hall, right merrily,
In mimic foray* rode.

Even bearded knights, in arms grown old,
Share in his frolic gambols bore,

Albeit their hearts, of rugged mould,
Were stubborn as the steel they wore.

For the gray warriors prophesied,
How the brave boy, in future war,
Should tame the Unicorn's pride,
Exalt the Crescents and the Start.

* Foray, a predatory inroad.

† Alluding to the armorial bearings of the Scotts and Cars.

XX.

The Ladye forgot her purpose high,
One moment, and no more;

One moment gazed with a mother's eye,
As she paused at the arched door.

Then, from amid the armed train,

She called to her William of Deloraine.

XXI.

A stark moss-trooping Scott was he,

As e'er couched border lance by knee.
Through Solway sands, through Tarras moss,
Blindfold, he knew the paths to cross;
By wily turns, by desperate bounds,
Had baffled Percy's best blood-hounds;
In Eske, or Liddell, fords were none,
But he would ride them one by one;
Alike to him was time, or tide,
December's snow, or July's pride;
Alike to him was tide, or time,

Moonless midnight, or mattin prime.

Steady of heart, and stout of hand,
As ever drove prey from Cumberland ;
Five times outlawed had he been,

By England's king and Scotland's queen.

XXII.

"Sir William of Deloraine, good at need,
Mount thee on the wightest steed;

Spare not to spur, nor stint to ride,
Until thou come to fair Tweedside;
And in Melrose's holy pile

Seek thou the Monk of St Mary's isle :
Greet the father well from me;

Say, that the fated hour is come,
And to night he shall watch with thee,
To win the treasure of the tomb :

For this will be St Michael's night,

And though stars be dim, the moon is bright; And the cross of bloody red

Will point to the grave of the mighty dead."

XXIII.

“What he gives thee, see thou keep ;

Stay not thou for food or sleep.
Be it scroll, or be it book,

Into, knight, thou must not look ;

If thou readest thou art lorn!

Better hadst thou ne'er been born."

66

XXIV.

“O swiftly can speed my dapple-gray steed, Who drinks of the Teviot clear;

Ere break of day,” the warrior 'gan say,

And safer by none may thy errand be done,

Than, noble dame, by me;

Letter nor line know I never a one,

Wer't my neck-verse at Hairibee*."

* Hairibee, the place of executing the Border marauders at Carlisle. The neck-verse is the beginning of the 51st psalm, Miserere mei, &c. anciently read by criminals claiming benefit of clergy.