And then, he said, he would full fain
He could recall an ancient strain,
He never thought to sing again.
It was not framed for village churls,
But for high dames and mighty earls;

He had play'd it to King Charles the Good,
When he kept court in Holyrood;

And much he wish'd, yet fear'd, to try

The long-forgotten melody.

Amid the strings his fingers stray'd,
And an uncertain warbling made,
And oft he shook his hoary head.

But when he caught the measure wild,
The old man raised his face, and smiled;
And lighten'd up his faded eye,
With all a poet's ecstasy!

In varying cadence, soft or strong,
He swept the sounding chords along:
The present scene, the future lot,
His toils, his wants, were all forgot:
Cold diffidence, and age's frost,
In the full tide of song were lost;
Each blank, in faithless memory void,
The poet's glowing thought supplied;
And, while his harp responsive rung,
'Twas thus the LATEST MINSTREL sung.

THE

LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL.

CANTO FIRST.

L

THE feast was over in Branksome tower,'
And the Ladye had gone to her secret bower;
Her bower that was guarded by word and by spell
Deadly to hear, and deadly to tell-

Jesu Maria, shield us well!

No living wight, save the Ladye alone,
Had dared to cross the threshold stone.

II.

The tables were drawn, it was idlesse all;
Knight, and page, and household squire,
Loiter'd through the lofty hall,

Or crowded round the ample fire:
The stag-hounds, weary with the chase,
Lay stretch'd upon the rushy floor,
And urged, in dreams, the forest race,
From Teviot-stone to Eskdale-moor.

'See Appendix, Note A.

B

III.

Nine-and-twenty knights of fame

Hung their shields in Branksome-Hall;' Nine-and-twenty squires of name

Brought them their steeds to bower from stall; Nine-and-twenty yeomen tall

Waited, duteous, on them all:

They were all knights of mettle true,
Kinsmen to the bold Buccleugh.

IV.

Ten of them were sheathed in steel,
With belted sword, and spur on heel:
They quitted not their harness bright,
Neither by day, nor yet by night:
They lay down to rest,

With corselet laced,

Pillow'd on buckler cold and hard;

They carved at the meal

With gloves of steel,

And they drank the red wine through the helmet

barr'd.

V.

Ten squires, ten yeomen, mail-clad men,
Waited the beck of the warders ten;
Thirty steeds, both fleet and wight,
Stood saddled in stable day and night,
Barbed with frontlet of steel, I trow,
And with Jedwood-axe at saddle-bow;?

'See Appendix, Note B.

"Of a truth," says Froissart, "the Scottish cannot boast great skill with the bow, but rather bear axes, with which, in time of

A hundred more fed free in stall:

Such was the custom of Branksome-Hall.

VI.

Why do these steeds stand ready dight?
Why watch these warriors, arm'd, by night?
They watch to hear the bloodhound baying;
They watch, to hear the war-horn braying;
To see Saint George's red cross streaming;
To see the midnight beacon gleaming;
They watch against Southron force and guile,
Lest Scrope, or Howard, or Percy's powers,
Threaten Branksome's lordly towers,

From Warkworth, or Naworth, or merry Carlisle.'

VII.

Such is the custom of Branksome-Hall.
Many a valiant knight is here;

But he, the chieftain of them all,

His sword bangs rusting on the wall,

Beside his broken spear.

Bards long shall tell,

How Lord Walter fell! 2

When startled burghers fled, afar,

The furies of the Border war;

When the streets of high Dunedin 3

Saw lances gleam, and falchions redden,

need, they give heavy strokes." The Jedwood-axe was a sort of partisan, used by horsemen, as appears from the arms of Jed burgh, which bear a cavalier mounted, and armed with this wea. pon. It is also called a Jedwood or Jeddart staff.

1

See Appendix, Note C.

'See Appendix, Note D.

'Edinburgh.