He was passing onward, when the fourth Maiden, playing a harp, sang his song of triumph:

""Quake to your foundations deep,
Stately Towers and Banner'd Keep,
Bid your vaulted echoes moan,
As the dreaded step they own.

"Fiends, that wait on Merlin's spell,
Hear the foot-fall! mark it well!
Spread your dusky wings abroad,
Bourne ye for your homeward road!

"It is His, the first who e'er

Dared the dismal Hall of Fear;

His, who hath the snares defied

Spread by Pleasure, Wealth, and Pride.

"Quake to your foundations deep,

Bastion huge, and Turret steep!

Tremble, Keep, and totter, Tower!

This is Gyneth's waking hour.'"

While the harp-player sang this song, the adventurous Knight reached a truly lovely bower, marvellously beautifully lighted, and

there

"He saw King Arthur's child!
Doubt, and anger, and dismay,
From her brow had pass'd away,
Forgot was that fell tourney-day,

For, as she slept, she smiled:
It seem'd that the repentant Seer
Her sleep of many a hundred year
With gentle dreams beguiled.

"That form of maiden loveliness,

'Twixt childhood and 'twixt youth,
That ivory chair, that sylvan dress,
The arms and ankles bare, express
Of Lyulph's tale the truth."
"And the warder of command
Cumber'd still her sleeping hand;
Still her dark locks dishevell'd flow
From net of pearl o'er breast of snow.”

Trembling with joy he gazed,

"Doubtful how he should destroy

Long enduring spell;

Doubtful, too, when slowly rise
Dark-fringed lids of Gyneth's eyes,
What these eyes shall tell.-
'St. George! St. Mary! can it be,
That they will kindly look on me!'

"Gently, lo! the Warrior kneels,

Soft that lovely hand he steals.
Soft to kiss, and soft to clasp-
But the warder leaves his grasp;
Lightning flashes, rolls the thunder!
Gyneth startles from her sleep,
Totters Tower, and trembles Keep,
Burst the Castle-walls asunder!
Fierce and frequent were the shocks, -
Melt the magic halls away;
-But beneath their mystic rocks,
In the arms of bold De Vaux,
Safe the princess lay;

Safe and free from magic power,
Blushing like the rose's flower

Opening to the day;

And round the Champion's brows were bound

The crown that Druidess had wound,

Of the green laurel-bay.

And this was what remain'd of all

The wealth of each enchanted hall,

The Garland and the Dame:

But where should Warrior seek the meed,
Due to high worth for daring deed,

Except from LOVE and FAME!"

And thus, nobly and joyfully, ended "The Bridal of Triermain."

XII.

SCOTT IN 1814.

THE year 1814 was a memorable year in the life of Scott.

Already the successes of a splendid rival poet, Byron, had caused him to think of other styles of works than those in verse, and had thus partially induced the composition of perhaps the most renowned novel ever published, "Waverley," which appeared July 7th of this year. The topography of this novel, together with that of the brilliant series named from it, will be described after sketches of the last two considerable poems produced by Scott, "The Lord of the Isles," begun at Abbotsford, in the autumn, and finished at Edinburgh, December 16 (and published January 18, 1815); and "Harold the Dauntless" (published

in 1817). Other, and less imaginative literary works, were, as usual, all the while being prepared and made public by him. Eminent among these is his "Life and Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D.," in 19 vols. 8vo; one of the remarkable monuments of his editorial labors.

On the 29th of July, 1814. Scott sailed from Leith on board the yacht of the Commissioners of the Northern Lights (the beacons, and not the Boreal Aurora). In this vessel he made a voyage to Orkney, Shetland, the Hebrides, and a part of the Irish Coast, -a voyage lasting about six weeks, and second only in celebrity of its sort to that of Dr. Johnson to the Western Islands. A portion of Scott's observations then made appeared seven years afterward in “The Pirate" (chapter xxv.), a portion in his characteristically graphic and beautiful descriptions in the “Lord of the Isles." Visits to places associated with this latter work-in order of composition his next poem - will lead among coast, island, lake, and field scenery of extraordinary interest, that will be sketched in the following chapter.

Lockhart (in chapter xxxiv. of "The Life") impressively tells the story of Scott's literary achievements during 1814, — almost the whole of the "Life of Swift," "Waverley," the "Lord of the Isles," two essays (on Chivalry and the Drama) to the "Encyclopædia Supplement," an annotated “limited” reprint of “The Letting of Hvmors Blood In The Head-Vaine," etc., by S. Rowlands, 1611 (small 4to, now scarce), and the inimitable Memorie of the Somervilles," "with introduction and notes; one of the most curious pieces of family history ever produced to the world, on which he labored with more than usual zeal and diligence, from his warm affection for the noble representative of its author." Besides performing much professional duty, he maintained an extraordinarily large private correspondence, and "superintended from day to day, except during his Hebridean voyage, the still perplexed concerns of the Ballantynes (the publishers), with a watchful assiduity that might have done credit to the most diligent of tradesmen." And after a year thus occupied, Scott went to Abbotsford at Christmas, "to refresh the machine," as he wrote; and the "refreshment" was the composition, within about six weeks, of that long and delightful novel, "Guy Mannering," with its complicated plot!

XIII.

"THE LORD OF THE ISLES."

A PORTION of this work, as has been remarked, was written

at Abbotsford, in 1814, we are informed in the presence of Scott's family; and a portion, indeed, “in that of casual visitors, also; the original cottage which he then occupied not affording him any means of retirement. Neither conversation nor music seemed to disturb him." Quite correctly, he said: "I could hardly have chosen a subject more popular in Scotland, than any thing connected with the Bruce's history, unless I had attempted that of Wallace." The former hero is the hero of this poem, - a work containing noble passages, yet, as a whole, rivalled by his more dazzling earlier poems. Its scene "lies, at first, in the Castle of Artornish, on the coast of Argyleshire; and, afterwards, in the Islands of Skye and Arran, and upon the coast of Ayrshire. Finally, it is laid near Stirling. The story opens in the spring of the year 1307, when Bruce, who had been driven out of Scotland by the English, and the Barons who adhered to that foreign interest, returned from the Island of Rachrin on the coast of Ireland, again to assert his claims to the Scottish crown. Many of the personages

and incidents introduced are of historical celebrity." The poem begins spiritedly :

"Wake, Maid of Lorn!' the Minstrels sung.

Thy rugged halls, Artornish! rung,

And the dark seas, thy towers that lave,
Heaved on the beach a softer wave,

As 'mid the tuneful choir to keep

The diapason of the Deep."

Artornish, like most of the other scenes of this poem, is upon the western shore of Scotland, and can be readily and agreeably reached by travellers during summer. Along no other equal portion of the coasts of the British Isles (or those of eastern America) can so interesting sea-scenery be found-in good weather, that occasionally exists, even in Scotland. Travellers along this western shore, almost without exception, sometime find themselves at Oban, the focal point to and from which routes thereabouts radiate. It is a notable station for steamers. From it, two or three

times each week, by excellent vessels there is the readiest access either to Staffa and Iona, or to the Sounds of Mull and Sleat, and the Isle of Skye or the Hebrides.

The course towards all these places first crosses Loch Linnhe, and successively passes, to the north, a white light-house marking the southern end of Lismore Island, -a low, rocky point; and, farther on, to the southward, on green and not highly rising ground of Mull, Duart Castle, small and gray, and quite a pretty object in the landscape. The Sound of Mull is then entered. Its breadth is favorable to picturesqueness of effect, —-wide enough to give that of space, and not too wide to separate the shores so far as to dwarf the features of either. For many miles onward lies, to the southward or westward, the large, irregular island, Mull, perhaps generally more varied, more bold, and more pleasing in its hill forms and aspects than the opposite coasts, those of Morvern, the mainland, that are kept on the right during the whole voyage to Skye. Yet these latter coasts present an interesting variety of surfaces; at times, very long, extensive, gradual slopes attaining an elevated central point. These slopes are mostly bare and grassy, and relieved here and there, on the lower portions only, by dark, fresh, green trees. Not far westward, and prominent upon the northern shore, may be seen Artornish Castle, situated on a low, basaltic promontory, extending rather a long distance into the Sound from steep hill-slopes that, not far back and away from it, are broken by high cliffs rising from much steeper slopes of débris. The Castle is darkgray, and very ruinous. It is small now, consisting chiefly of a broken tower, around which appear slighter traces of outworks. Few travellers other than those with a wealth of leisure stop in this vicinity. The country is wild, lonely, weird-looking, and undoubtedly could interest those who fancy such a region. Not a few stories are associated with it; indeed, a portion of it was pronounced by Professor Wilson "an abyss of poetry."

Inconsiderable as Artornish may seem now, at the time of the action of the poem it was an important place. Not only chief seat of the Lords of the Isles, it was a meeting-place of their feudal parliaments, and was the scene of a league with Edward I. of England against the crown of Scotland. These celebrated Lords, of Scandinavian descent, held sway through all this region from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries; and indeed, in the Clan Macdonald, they were represented among the old Highland powers until these were