The Lay of the Last Minstrel

“ Of the lingering sunset, whose beauties were thine,
And the motionless figures were blazoned in blood.
But an undertone rose thro' the chords like a wail,
'Twas thy elegy mourning thee deep in the sound,
Soon, soon did that something of sadness prevail,
And the minors commingled and fell to the ground.
Rest peacefully, Minstrel, He took thee who gave,
That passion is still that once swelled in thy lay,
Thy notes are departed, thy fame is thy grave,
For the angels descended and bore thee away. ”

“ Had wept o'er Monmouth's bloody tomb!
When kindness had his wants supplied,
And the old man was gratified,
Began to rise his minstrel pride.
And he began to talk, anon,
Of good Earl Francis [2] , dead and gone,
And of Earl Walter [3] , rest him God!
A braver ne'er to battle rode:
And how full many a tale he knew,
Of the old warriors of Buccleuch;
And, would the noble Duchess deign
To listen to an old man's strain,
Though stiff his hand, his voice though weak,
He thought even yet, the sooth to speak,
That, if she loved the harp to hear,
He could make music to her ear. ”

“ XVII.
"Lo, warrior! now, the cross of red
Points to the grave of the mighty dead;
Within it burns a wondrous light,
To chase the spirits that love the night:
That lamp shall burn unquenchably,
Until the eternal doom shall be."
Slowly moved the Monk to the broad flag-stone,
Which the bloody cross was traced upon:
He pointed to a secret nook;
A bar from thence the warrior took;
And the Monk made a sign with his withered hand,
The grave's huge portal to expand. ”

“ Of chiefs, who, guided through the gloom
By the pale death-lights of the tomb,
Ransacked the graves of warriors old,
Their faulchions wrenched from corpses' hold,
Waked the deaf tomb with war's alarms,
And bade the dead arise to arms! ”

“ And July's eve, with balmy breath,
Waved the blue-bells on Newark heath;
When throstles sung in Harehead-shaw,
And grain waved green on Carterhaugh,
And flourished, broad, Blackandro's oak,
The aged Harper's soul awoke!
Then would he sing achievements high,
And circumstance of Chivalry,
Till the rapt traveller would stay,
Forgetful of the closing day;
And noble youths, the strain to hear,
Forsook the hunting of the deer ”

“ Low is the grave of the Minstrel—
Ungraced by the chissel of art;
Yet his name will be blazoned for ever
On the best of all 'scutcheons—the heart!
Strong is the soul of the Minstrel—
He rules in a realm of his own ”

“ Lie senseless as the bloody clay,
He bade his page to stanch the wound,
And there beside the warrior stay,
And tend him in his doubtful state,
And lead him to Branksome castle-gate:
His noble mind was inly moved
For the kinsman of the maid he loved.
"This shalt thou do without delay:
No longer here myself may stay:
Unless the swifter I speed away,
Short shrift will be at my dying day." ”

“ A personage, thus spoken of by biographers and historians, loses little of his mystical fame in vulgar tradition. Accordingly, the memory of Sir Michael Scott survives in many a legend; and in the south of Scotland, any work of great labour and antiquity is ascribed, either to the agency of Auld Michael, of Sir William Wallace, or of the devil. Tradition varies concerning the place of his burial: some contend for Holme Coltrame, in Cumberland; others for Melrose abbey. But all agree, that his books of magic were interred in his grave, or preserved in the convent where he died. ”

“ In youth might tame his rage for arms;
And still in age he spurned at rest,
And still his brows the helmet pressed;
Albeit the blanched locks below
Were white as Dinlay's spotless snow;
Five stately warriors drew the sword
Before their father's band;
A braver knight than Harden's lord
Ne'er belted on a brand.
X.
Whitslade the Hawk, and Headshaw came,
And warriors more than I may name;
But better hearts o’er Border sod
To siege or rescue never rode. ”

“ Were it meet with sacred strain
To close my lay so light and vain,
Thus the holy fathers sung.
XXXII.
Hymn for the Dead.
That day of wrath, that dreadful day,
When heaven and earth shall pass away,
What power shall be the sinner's stay?
How shall he meet that dreadful day?
When, shrivelling like a parched scroll,
The flaming heavens together roll;
When louder yet, and yet more dread,
Swells the high trump that wakes the dead;
O! on that day, that wrathful day,
When man to judgment wakes from clay,
Be Thou the trembling sinner's stay,
Though heaven and earth shall pass away! ”

“ And voices unlike the voice of man;
As if the fiends kept holiday,
Because these spells were brought to day.
I cannot tell how the truth may be;
I say the tale as 'twas said to me.
XXIII.
"Now hie thee hence," the father said,
"And when we are on death-bed laid,
O may our dear Ladye, and sweet St John,
Forgive our souls for the deed we have done!"
The Monk returned him to his cell,
And many a prayer and penance sped;
When the convent met at the noontide bell—
The Monk of St Mary's aisle was dead! ”

“ But when the laird of Cessfoord was slain, the chase ceased. The earl of Angus returned again with great merriness and victory, and thanked God that he saved him from that chance, and past with the king to Melross, where they remained all that night. On the morn they past to Edinburgh with the king, who was very sad and dolorous of the slaughter of the laird of Cessfoord, and many other gentlemen and yeomen slain by the laird of Buccleugh, containing the number of fourscore and fifteen, which died in defence of the king, and at the command of his writing. ”

“ They say that an apparition, called, in the Mankish language, the Mauthe Doog, in the shape of a large black spaniel, with curled shaggy hair, was used to haunt Peel-castle; and has been frequently seen in every room, but particularly in the guard-chamber, where, as soon as candles were lighted, it came and lay down before the fire, in presence of all the soldiers, who, at length, by being so much accustomed to the sight of it, lost great part of the terror they were seized with at its first appearance. ”

“ Barbed with frontlet of steel, I trow,
And with Jedwood-axe at saddlebow.
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, armed, by night?—
They watch to hear the blood-hound baying;
They watch to hear the war-horn braying;
To see St. George's red cross streaming,
To see the midnight beacon gleaming;
⁠They watch against Southern force and guile,
⁠Lest Scroope, or Howard, or Percy's powers,
⁠Threaten Branksome's lordly towers,
⁠From Warkwork, or Naworth, or merry Carlisle. ”

“ Stay not thou for food or sleep.
Be it scroll, or be it book,
Into, knight, thou must not look;
If thou readest thou art lorn!
Better hadst thou ne'er been born."
XXIV.
"O swiftly can speed my dapple-gray 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,
Wer't my neck-verse at Hairibee [5] ." ”

“ There is a man yet alive, who knew old men who had been baptized by these Book-a-bosomes, and who says one of them, called Hair, used this parish for a very long time."—Account of Parish of Ewes, apud Macfarlane's MSS.
It had much of glamour might.—St. IX. p. 71.
Glamour, in the legends of Scottish superstition, means the magic power of imposing on the eye-sight of spectators, so that the appearance of an object shall be totally different from the reality. To such a charm the ballad of Johnie Fa' imputes the fascination of the lovely Countess, who eloped with that gypsey leader. ”

“ Each with warlike tidings fraught;
Each from each the signal caught;
Each after each they glanced to sight,
As stars arise upon the night.
They gleamed on many a dusky tarn [9] ,
Haunted by the lonely earn [10] ;
On many a cairn's gray pyramid, [11]
Where urns of mighty chiefs lie hid;
Till high Dunedin the blazes saw,
From Soltra and Dumpender Law;
And Lothian heard the Regent's order,
That all should bowne [12] them for the Border.
XXX.
The livelong night in Branksome rang
The ceaseless sound of steel ”

“ The king, descending from the hill, embraced Sir William, and bestowed on him the lands of Kirkton, Loganhouse, Earncraig, &c. in free forestrie. Sir William, in acknowledgment of Saint Katherine's intercession, built the chapel of St Katherine in the Hopes, the churchyard of which is still to be seen. The hill, from which Robert Bruce beheld this memorable chace, is still called the King's Hill, and the place where Sir William hunted is called the Knight's Field [3] .—MS. History of the Family of St Clair, by Richard Augustin Hay, Canon of St Genevieve. ”

“ Branksome Castle continued to be the principal seat of the Buccleuch family, while security was any object in the choice of a mansion. It has been since the residence of the commissioners or chamberlains of the family. From the various alterations which the building has undergone, it is not only greatly restricted in its dimensions, but retains little of the castellated form, if we except one square tower of massy thickness, being the only part of the original building which now remains. ”

“ Where the Minstrel [1] may find his own semblance pourtray'd;
The red fires that gleam on the summit are those
That first on his own inmost spirit have preyed.
Ah, deeply the Minstrel has felt all he sings,
Every passion he paints his own bosom has known ”

“ Nine following eves the beasts take up their station,
And seem to mourn after their speechless fashion;
The sea, the plain, the winds, thereover blowing,
Echo nine days with melancholy lowing,—
"Poor Master Ambroi!" Vincen wandered on,
"Thou wilt weep heavy tears over thy son!
And now, good Santen, one last wish is mine,—
Bury me with my love, below the brine;
Scoop in the oozy sand a crib for two:
Tears for so great a mourning will not do. ”

“ The earl did not refuse, you may be sure, and the next morning there was a quiet, solemn marriage in the sick-room, where Lady Edith Chilton gave heart and hand to Douglas North, and so ended the Minstrel’s Curse. Old Katharine was there, weeping for blended joy and sorrow—joy that the curse was void forever, sorrow that bonny Douglas North must die and leave his young bride desolate.
But physicians are not always infallible, or perhaps love has some potent power that can conquer death. ”

“ This adventurous huntsman married Elizabeth, daughter of Malice Spar, Earl of Orkney and Stratherne, in whose right their son Henry was, in 1879, created Earl of Orkney, by Haco, king of Norway. His title was recognised by the kings of Scotland, and remained with his successors until it was annexed to the crown, in 1471, by act of parliament. In exchange for this earldom, the castle and domains of Ravenscraig, or Ravensheuch, were conferred on William Saintclair, Earl of Caithness. ”

“ I replyed, "Since then that you feel already so good effect of my medicament, I. advise you to cast away all your playsters; only keep the wound clean, and in a moderate temper betwixt heat and cold." This was presently reported to the Duke of Buckingham, and a little after to the king, who were both very curious to know the circumstance of the businesse, which was, that after dinner I took the garter out of the water, and put it to dry before a great fire. It was scarce dry, but Mr Howel's servant came running, that his master felt as much burning as ever he had done, if not more ”

“ They, being transported with fury one against the other, strugled to rid themselves of the hindrance their friend made that they should not kill one another; and one of them roughly drawing the blade of his sword, cuts to the very bone the nerves and muscles of Mr Howel's hand; and then the other disengaged his hilts, and gave a crosse blow on his adversarie's head, which glanced towards his friend, who heaving up his sore hand to save the blow, he was wounded on the back of his hand as he had been before within. ”

“ No son to be his father's stay,
And guide him on the rugged way?—
"Aye! once he had—but he was dead!"—
Upon the harp he stooped his head,
And busied himself the strings withal,
To hide the tear that fain would fall.
In solemn measure, soft and slow,
Arose a father's notes of woe.
↑ Magical delusion. ↑ A shepherd's hut. ↑ Magic. ↑ Bandelier, belt for carrying ammunition. ↑ Hackbutteer, musketeer. ↑ Bale, beacon-faggot. ↑ Mount for Branksome was the gathering word of the Scotts. ↑ Need-fire, beacon. ↑ Tarn, a mountain lake. ↑ Earn, a Scottish eagle. ↑ Cairn, a pile of stones. ”

“ Sir Walter Scott, of Buccleugh, succeeded to his grandfather, Sir David, in 1492. He was a brave and powerful baron, and warden of the west marches of Scotland. His death was the consequence of a feud betwixt the Scotts and Kerrs, the history of which is necessary to explain repeated allusions in the romance. ”

“ They never wanted beef nor ale
As long as their neighbour's lasted.
↑ Branxholm is the proper name of the barony; but Branksome has been adopted as suitable to the pronunciation, and more proper for poetry. ↑ There are no vestiges of any building at Buccleuch, except the site of a chapel, where, according to a tradition current in the time of Scott of Satchells, many of the ancient barons of Buccleuch lie buried. There is also said to have been a mill near this solitary spot; an extraordinary circumstance, as little or no corn grows within several miles of Buccleuch. ”

“ Two gentlemen to be appointed on the field to view both the parties, to see that they both be equal in arms and weapons, according to this indenture; and being so viewed by the gentlemen, the gentlemen to ride to the rest of the company, and to leave them but two boys viewed by the gentlemen, to be under 16 years of age, to hold their horses. ”