Twinkling faint, and distant far, XVIII. The unearthly voices ceast, It died on the side of the hill- 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, The truncheon of a spear bestrode, Even bearded knights, in arms grown old, Albeit their hearts, of rugged mould, For the gray warriors prophesied, * Foray, a predatory inroad. † Alluding to the armorial bearings of the Scotts and Cars. XX. The Ladye forgot her purpose high, One moment gazed with a mother's eye, 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. Moonless midnight, or mattin prime. Steady of heart, and stout of hand, By England's king and Scotland's queen. XXII. "Sir William of Deloraine, good at need, Spare not to spur, nor stint to ride, Seek thou the Monk of St Mary's isle : Say, that the fated hour is come, 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. 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. |