II. FROM GUY MANNERING. THE NATIVITY CHANT. (BY MEG MERRILIES.) Sign wi' cross, and sain wi' mass. Trefoil, vervain, John's-wort, dill, Saint Bride and her brat, THE SPINDLE SONG. TWIST ye, twine ye! even so Hope, and fear, and peace, and strife, While the mystic twist is spinning, Passions wild, and follies vain, Now they wax, and now they dwindle, THE GIPSY'S DIRGE. (BY MEG MERRILIES.) WASTED, weary, wherefore stay, Wrestling thus with earth and clay? From the body pass away; Hark! the mass is singing. From thee doff thy mortal weed Fear not snowdrift driving fast, That shall ne'er know waking. Haste thee, haste thee, to be gone, Open locks, end strife, Chap. xxvII. THE PROPHECY. (BY MEG MERRILIES.) THE dark shall be light, And the wrong made right, When Bertram's right and Bertram's might Shall meet on Ellangowan's height. Chap. XLI. GLOSSIN sings: GIN by pailfuls, wine in rivers, And three wild lads were we ; Chap. XXXIV. 'Before my breath, like blazing flax, Man and his marvels pass away! And changing empires wane and wax, Are founded, flourish, and decay. 'Redeem mine hours-the space is brief While in my glass the sand-grains shiver, And measureless thy joy or grief When TIME and thou shall part for ever!' Chap. x. ΑΝ ΕΡΙΤΑΡΗ. HEIR lyeth John o' ye Girnell; He deled a boll o' bear in firlottis fyve, Four for ye halie kirke and ane for pure mennis wyvis. Chap. XI. 'THE herring loves the merry moonlight, The mackerel loves the wind, But the oyster loves the dredging sang, For they come of a gentle kind.' Now haud your tongue, baith wife and carle, And listen, great and sma', The cronach 's cried on Bennachie, And hieland and lawland may mournfu' be For the sair field of Harlaw. They saddled a hundred milk-white steeds, They hae bridled a hundred black, With a chafron of steel on each horse's head, And a good knight upon his back. They hadna ridden a mile, a mile, Wi' twenty thousand men. Their tartans they were waving wide, Their glaives were glancing clear, The pibrochs rung frae side to side, Would deafen ye to hear. The great Earl in his stirrups stood, That Highland host to see; Now here a knight that's stout and good May prove a jeopardie : 'What would'st thou do, my squire |