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XXIII.

"What he gives thee, see thou keep ;
Stay not thou for food or sleep.
Be it scroll, or be it book,

Into it, knight thou must not look;
If thou readest, thou art lorn!
Better had'st thou ne'er been born !"

XXIV.

"O swiftly can speed my dapplegray steed, Which drinks of the Teviot clear

;

Ere break of day," the warrior 'gan say,'
"Again will I be here :

And safer by none may thy errand be done,
Than, noble dame, by me;

Letter nor line know I never a one,

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Soon in his saddle sate he fast,

And soon the steep descent he passed;
Soon crossed the sounding barbacan,f
And soon the Teviot side he won.

*Hairibee, the place of executing the border marauders at Carlisle. The neckverse is the beginning of the fifty first psalm, Miserere mei, &c. anciently read by criminals, claiming the benefit of clergy.

† Barbacan, the defence of the outer gate of a feudal castle.

Eastward the wooded path he rode;
Green hazels o'er his basnet nod:
He passed the peel* of Goldiland,

And crossed old Borthwick's roaring strand;
Dimly he viewed the Moathill's mound,
Where Druid shades still flitted round:
In Hawick twinkled many a light;
Behind him soon they set in night;
And soon he spurred his courser keen
Beneath the tower of Hazeldean.

XXVI.

The clattering hoofs the watchmen mark ;
"Stand ho! thou courier of the dark."
"For Branksome, ho!" the knight rejoined,
And left the friendly tower behind.

He turned him now from Teviot side,
And, guided by the tinkling rill,
Northward the dark ascent did ride,

And gained the moor at Horseliehill;

Broad on the left before him lay,
For many a mile, the Roman way.†

*Peel, a Border tower.

† An ancient Roman road, crossing through part of Roxburghshire.

XXVII.

A moment now he slacked his speed,
A moment breathed his panting steed;
Drew saddlegirth and corsletband,
And loosened in the sheath his brand.
On mintocrags the moonbeams glint,
Where Barnhill hewed his bed of flint
;
Who flung his outlawed limbs to rest,
Where falcons hang their giddy nest,
Mid cliffs, from whence his eagle eye
For many a league, his prey could spy;
Cliffs, doubling, on their echoes borne,
The terrors of the robbers horn;
Cliffs, which, for many a latter year,
The warbling Doric reed shall hear,
When some sad swain shall teach the

Ambition is no cure for love.

grove,

XXVIII.

Unchallenged, thence past Deloraine
To ancient Riddell's fair domain,
Where Aill from mountains freed,
Down from the lakes did raving come;
Each wave was crested with tawny foam,
Like the mane of a chesnut steed.

In vain! no torrent, deep or broad,
Might bar the bold moșstrooper's road.

XXIX.

At the first plunge the horse sunk low,
And the water broke o'er the saddlebow;
Above the foaming tide, I ween,

Scarce half the charger's neck was seen;
For he was barded from counter to tail,
And the rider was armed complete in mail;
Never heavier man and horse

Stemmed a midnight torrent's force.
The warrior's very plume, I say,

Was daggled by the dashing spray ;'

Yet, through good heart, and our ladye's grace,
At length he gained the landing place.

XXX.

Now Bowden Moor the marchman won,

And sternly shook his plumed head, As glanced his eye o'er Halidon ;†

For on his soul the slaughter red

Of that unhallowed morn arose,

When first the Scott and Car were foes;

Barded, or barbed, applied to a horse accoutred with defensive armour.

Halidonhill, on which the battle of Melrose was fought

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When royal James beheld the fray,
Prize to the victor of the day;

When Home and Douglass, in the van,
Bore down Buccleuch's retiring clan,
Till gallant Cessford's heartblood dear
Reeked on dark Elliott's Border spear.

XXXI.

In bitter mood he spurred fast,
And soon the hated heath was past;
And far beneath, in lustre wan,

Old Melrose rose, and fair Tweed ran;
Like some tall rock, with lichens gray,
Seemed, dimly huge, the dark Abbaye.
When Hawick he passed, had curfew rung,
Now midnight lauds were in Melrose sung.
The sound, upon the fitful gale,

In solemn wise, did rise and fail,

Like that wild harp, whose magic tone

Is wakened by the winds alone.

But when Melrose he reached, 'twas silence all;

He meetly stabled his steed in stall,

And sought the convent's lonely wall.

* Lauds, the midnight service of the Catholic church;

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