PART SECOND. ALTERED FROM ANCIENT PROPHECIES. [Corspatrick (Comes Patrick), earl of March, but more commonly taking his title from his castle of Dunbar, acted a noted part during the wars of Edward I in Scotland. As Thomas of Erceldoune is said to have delivered to him his fam us prophecy of king Alexander's death, the author has chosen to introduce him into the following ballad. All the prophetic verses are selected from Hart's publication of the Rhymer's predictions printed at Edinburgh A.D. 1615.] WHEN seven years were come and gane, Like one awaken'd from a dream. He heard the trampling of a steed, Says "Well met, well met, true Thomas! "A storm shall roar, this very hour, For the sun shines sweet on fauld and lea." He put his hand on the earlie's head; He shew'd him a rock, beside the sea, Where a king lay stiff, beneath his steed,* And steel-dight nobies wip'd their e'e. King Alexander; killed by a fall from his horse, near King horn, "The neist curse lights on Branxton Hills: And chieftains throng wi' meikle pride. Shall make him wink and warre to see. Enough, enough, of curse and ban; Or, by the faith o' my bodie," Corspatrick said, "Ye shall rue the day ye e'er saw me!" "The first of blessings I shall thee shew, Is by a burn, that's called of bread;+ Where Saxon men shall tine the bow, And find their arrows lack the head. "Beside that brigg, out-ower that burn, Where the water bickereth bright and sheen, Shall many a falling courser spurn, And knights shall die in battle keen. The uncertainty which long prevailed in Scotland concerning the fate of James IV, is well known. + One of Thomas's rhymes, preserved by tradition, runs thus: "The burn of brid Shall run fow reid." Bannock-burn is the brook here meant. The Scots give the nam of bannock, to a thick round cake of unleavened bread. "Beside a headless cross of stone, The libbards there shall lose the gree: "A French queen shall bear the son, PART THIRD. MODERN. WHEN seven years more had come and gone, Then all by bonny Coldingknow, They rous'd the deer from Caddenhead, The feast was spread in Ercildoune, • Ensensie.-War-ery, or gathering word And there were knights of great renown, Nor lack'd they, while they sat at dine, The music, nor the tale, Nor goblets of the blood-red wine, True Thomas rose, with harp in hand, Hush'd were the throng, both limb and tongue, And hearken'd to the tale. In numbers high, the witching tale No after bard might e'er avail Yet fragments of the lofty strain years, As, buoyant on the stormy main, A parted wreck appears. He sung King Arthur's table round: How courteous Gawaine met the wound, But chief, in gentle Tristrem's praise, For Marke, his cowardly uncle's right, When fierce Morholde he slew in fight, No art the poison might withstand; No med'cine could be found, Quaighs.- Wooden cups, composed of staves hooped together Alluding to Thomas the Rhymer's celebrated romance of Su Tristrem. Till lovely Isolde's lily hand Had prob'd the rankling wound. With gentle hand and soothing tongue, And, while she o'er his sick-bed hung, O fatal was the gift, I ween! The maid must be rude Cornwall's queen, Their loves, their woes, the gifted bard In fairy tissue wove: Where lords, and knights, and ladies bright, In gay confusion strove. The Garde Joyeuse, amid the tale, Brengwain was there, and Segramore, Through many a maze the winning song Till bent at length the list'ning throng His ancient wounds their scars expand; O where is Isolde's lily hand, And where her soothing tongue? She comes, she comes! like flash of flame She comes, she comes! she only came She saw him die: her latest sigh Join'd in a kiss his parting breath: The gentlest pair that Britain hare United are in death. |