XIV.

1815."THE FIELD OF WATERLOO."

DURING this year, Scott went by sea to London with his wife

and daughter. He was received with much attention; for he was already famous, at a time when famous men abounded. He was presented to the Prince Regent, with whom he was, and continued to be, decidedly a favorite. Soon afterward he made a tour to the continent, during which he visited Bergen-op-Zoom, Antwerp, Brussels, Waterloo, and Paris.

The decisive victory of June 17th and 18th could but have great effect upon Scott as it did on all Europe. The immediate manifestation of effect upon him was his poem entitled "The Field of Waterloo," dedicated to Her Grace the Duchess of Wellington. The advertisement of this, one of his minor and less celebrated, and perhaps attractive, works, informs that: "It may be some apology for the imperfections of this poem, that it was composed hastily during a short tour on the Continent, when the Author's labors were liable to frequent interruption; but its best apology is, that it was written for the purpose of assisting the Waterloo Subscription." Whatever critics think or say concerning the work as poetry, its author's generosity gives it charms compensating for demerits that may have been attributed to it. The profits of the first edition formed Scott's contribution to this "subscription,”. a fund "for the relief of widows and children of the soldiers slain in the battle;" and thus he, as poet, a second time, was by no means among the smaller donors to a patriotic provision. Persons who visit that now most visited of European battle-fields, Waterloo, and thus, usually, many places in its vicinity, grand, old, picturesque, and storied Flemish cities, and who thus see many objects associated with some of the most stirring incidents of modern or late middle-age history, may rather regret that the genius of the great poet of place and romantic picturesqueness did not give us some composition from the abundant and intensely interesting materials that are everywhere presented. But he was, with all his power, a mortal man; and his labors could but be finite. We had best be quiet, and thankful for the immensity

of richness and enjoyment he has actually provided for us, and be abundantly satisfied since the brilliant pages of Prescott and of Motley present to us so much of these materials with the truth of history invested with the fascinations of romance. Each to his own work; and each of these three authors has been nobly true to his

Own.

During this same year Scott was introduced to many distinguished men; among these, to the Emperor Alexander of Russia, and to the Duke of Wellington. The Duke's kind attention then, and afterwards, Scott often said he considered "the highest distinction of his life." And he further said, that he "had seen and conversed with all classes of society, from the palace to the cottage, and including every conceivable shade of science and ignorance; but that he had never felt awed or abashed except in the presence of one man, -the Duke of Wellington."

XV.

"HAROLD THE DAUNTLESS."

THIS HIS poem, the last of the greater poems by Scott, was published in January, 1817, although it had been begun years previously. It appeared almost simultaneously with some of his renowned romances, that, by their more brilliant fame have tended to obscure it. In bookseller's phrase it met with "considerable success," yet it has never been considered, as a whole, equal to the "Bridal." The first of its six Cantos begins, by at once introducing the subject:

"List to the valorous deeds that were done

By Harold the Dauntless, Count Witikind's son !"
"Count Witikind came of a regal strain,

And roved with his Norsemen the land and the main.
Woe to the realms which he coasted! for there

Was shedding of blood, and rending of hair,
Rape of maiden, and slaughter of priest,
Gathering of ravens and wolves to the feast:

When he hoisted his standard black,
Before him was battle, behind him was wrack,
And he burn'd the churches, that heathen Dane,
To light his band to their barks again."

He flourished before the reign of William I., and was one of those fierce pagan sea-rovers, the scourge and terror of long extents of European coasts, during many generations.

"He liked the wealth of fair England so well,

That he sought in her bosom as native to dwell.
He enter'd the Humber in fearful hour,

And disembark'd with his Danish power."

In this respect, he acted as the sea-kings were wont; and, as frequently occurred, his hostility was appeased, his forbearance bought, "And the Count took upon him the peaceable style

Of a vassal and liegeman of Britain's broad isle."

After years of peace, he gradually became old and feeble, until, on the principle pithily set forth in the old lines, —

"When the Devil was sick

The Devil a monk would be,"

he endeavored to make reconciliation with the church he had often robbed, and to atone for his sins when, at last, he would lose nothing temporally by repentance. The result was one not infrequently produced by tardy contrition and priestly influence, especially during the Middle Ages.

"Saint Cuthbert's Bishop" induced the Count to make a change of faith, and the Count changed it in such a manner, that,

"Broad lands he gave him on Tyne and Wear,
To be held by the church by bridle and spear;
Part of Monkwearmouth, of Tynedale part,
To better his will, and to soften his heart."

In "the high church of Durham,"

"He kneel'd before Saint Cuthbert's shrine,
With patience unwonted at rites divine;
He abjured the gods of heathen race."

But the Count had a son, "Young Harold," with "strength of frame and ""fury of mood," who deemed that he had something to say and to decide in the bestowal of the paternal estate. And he undutifully addressed his father in this wise:

"What priest-led hypocrite art thou,

With thy humbled look and thy monkish brow,
Like a shaveling who studies to cheat his vow?
Canst thou be Witikind the Waster known,

Royal Eric's fearless son,

Haughty Gunhilda's haughtier lord,

Who won his bride by the axe and sword !'"

But this, and more similar talk, aroused the aged man's native spirit:

"Ireful waxed old Witikind's look,

His faltering voice with fury shook: 'Hear me, Harold of harden'd heart! Stubborn and wilful ever thou wert.'

'Just is the debt of repentance I've paid,

Richly the Church has a recompense made.'"

The son, however, was little appeased by such a strain. Disdain-
ful and angry, vowing ruth and ruin, flinging down a cross, — symbol
of his own disinheriting he seems to have deemed it,
paternal presence, for ever, he declared.

"Thus in scorn and in wrath from his father is gone
Young Harold the Dauntless, Count Witikind's son."

- he left the

While there was feasting in Witikind's hall, this son wandered, "accursed by the Church, and expell'd by his sire." But, "heeding full little of ban or of curse," he robbed the Prior of Jorvaux of his purse, and an abbot of his robe, and a bishop of a gay palfrey, and set forth afresh, accompanied by "flaxen-hair'd Gunnar," who had been brought up in his train, and who now persisted in accompanying him as his page. Years passed away, and with them, prelate and count, and the latter,

"All his gold and his goods hath he given
To holy Church for the love of Heaven."

Of his son it is said:

"Harold is tameless, and furious, and bold;
Ever Renown blows a note of fame,

And a note of fear, when she sounds his name.'

So the Chapter pronounced "their doom:

That the Church should the lands of Saint Cuthbert resume."

Thus begins the Second Canto, introducing the heroine of the

poem:

"Yet had this fierce and dreaded pair,
So Heaven decreed, a daughter fair;"
"naught of fraud or ire or ill,
Was known to gentle Metelill,-

A simple maiden she;

The spells in dimpled smile that lie,

And a downcast blush, and the darts that fly

With the sidelong glance of a hazel eye,

Were her arms and witchery."

And, "array'd in kirtle green," this very pretty girl, braiding “with flowers her locks of jet,” was one morning sitting by a forest fountain, singing a bright and pleasant song, when a mailed knight, whose accent was stern, appeared; and, unbarring his helmet visor, and laying his gauntleted hand upon her "shrinking shoulder," bluntly accosted her:

"Damsel,' he said, 'be wise and learn

Matters of weight and deep concern:
From distant realms I come,

And, wanderer long, at length have plann'd
In this my native Northern land

To seek myself a home.

Nor that alone, - a mate I seek;

She must be gentle, soft, and meek, –

No lordly dame for me;

Myself am something rough of mood,
And feel the fire of royal blood,
And therefore do not hold it good
To match in my degree.'"

His proposals became very definite and personal, and thus also his attentions, particularly when he attempted to kiss the pretty Metelill, who, at that juncture, contrived to escape him and to dash home. There, though she did not tell her adventure, her observant and formidable parents prepared for any emergencies, and quite wisely; for soon the house-door flew open, and the knight- Harold the Dauntless-strode in. To the parents he repeated his offer, but with no more success; whereupon, he ominously departed. The unfortunate girl, for being innocently the cause of disturbance made and portended, was summarily sent to bed, while her severe parents savagely scolded each other. Succeeding this domestic scene was an unlawful magic and pagan incantation by the old witch Jutta, who thus invoked the evil spirit Zernebock to ruin Harold. This summoned spirit bade her her "arts of malice whet,” and to "involve him with the Church in strife." The dame, incensed