Their clanging bowls old warriors quaffed, Loudly they spoke, and loudly laughed; Whispered young knights, in tone more mild, To ladies fair, and ladies smiled.

The hooded hawks, high perched on beam, The clamour joined with whistling scream, And flapped their wings, and shook their bells, In concert with the stag-hounds' yells.

Round go the flasks of ruddy wine,

From Bourdeaux, Orleans, or the Rhine;

Their tasks the busy sewers ply,

And all is mirth and revelry.

VII.

The Goblin Page, omitting still

No opportunity of ill,

Strove now, while blood ran hot and high,

To rouse debate and jealousy;

Till Conrad, lord of Wolfenstein,

By nature fierce, and warm with wine,

And now in humour highly crossed,

About some steeds his band had lost,

High words to words succeeding still,

Smote, with his gauntlet, stout Hunthill ;

A hot and hardy Rutherford,

Whom men call Dickon Draw-the-Sword,

He took it on the Page's saye,

Hunthill had driven these steeds away.

Then Howard, Home, and Douglas rose,

The kindling discord to compose:

Stern Rutherford right little said,

But bit his glove, and shook his head.—

A fortnight thence, in Inglewood,

Stout Conrad, cold, and drenched in blood, His bosom gored with many a wound,

Was by a woodman's lyme-dog found;

Unknown the manner of his death,

Gone was his brand, both sword and sheath;

But ever from that time, 'twas said,

That Dickon wore a Cologne blade.

VIII.

The Dwarf, who feared his master's eye

Might his foul treachery espie,

Now sought the castle buttery,

Where many a yeoman, bold and free,

Revelled as merrily and well

As those that sat in lordly selle.

Watt Tinlinn, there, did frankly raise
The pledge to Arthur Fire-the-Braes;

And he, as by his breeding bound,
To Howard's merry-men sent it round.

To quit them, on the English side,
Red Roland Forster loudly cried,

"A deep carouse to yon fair bride !"

At every pledge, from vat and pail,

Foamed forth, in floods, the nut-brown ale;

While shout the riders every one,

Such day of mirth ne'er cheered their clan,

Since old Buccleuch the name did gain,

When in the cleuch the buck was ta'en.

IX.

The wily Page, with vengeful thought,
Remembered him of Tinlinn's yew,

And swore, it should be dearly bought,
That ever he the arrow drew.

First, he the yeoman did molest,

With bitter gibe and taunting jest ;

Told, how he fled at Solway strife,

And how Hob Armstrong cheered his wife:
Then, shunning still his powerful arm,
At unawares he wrought him harm;
From trencher stole his choicest cheer,
Dashed from his lips his can of beer;

Then, to his knee sly creeping on,

With bodkin pierced him to the bone:

The venomed wound, and festering joint,

Long after rued that bodkin's point.

The startled yeoman swore and spurned,
And board and flaggons overturned.

Riot and clamour wild began;

Back to the hall the Urchin ran;

Took in a darkling nook his post,

And grinned, and muttered, "Lost! lost! lost!"

X.

By this, the Dame, lest further fray
Should mar the concord of the day,
Had bid the Minstrels tune their lay.
And first stept forth old Albert Græme,

The Minstrel of that ancient name:

Was none who struck the harp so well,

Within the Land Debateable;

Well friended too, his hardy kin,

Whoever lost, were sure to win; ;