And plaided youth, with jest and jeer,
Which snooded maiden would not hear;
And children, that, unwitting why,
Lent the gay shout their shrilly cry;
And minstrels, that in measures vied
Before the young and bonny bride,
Whose downcast eye and cheek disclose
The tear and blush of morning rose.
With virgin step, and bashful hand,
She held the kerchief's snowy band;
The gallant bridegroom, by her side,
Beheld his prize with victor's pride,
And the glad mother in her ear
Was closely whispering word of cheer.

Who meets them at the church-yard gate?
The messenger of fear and fate!
Haste in his hurried accent lies,
And grief is swimming in his eyes,
All dripping from the recent flood,
Panting and travel-soiled he stood,
The fatal sign of fire and sword
Held forth, and spoke the appointed word;
"The muster-place is Lanrick-mead.
Speed forth the signal! Norman, speed!"-
And must he change so soon the hand,
Just linked to his by holy band,

For the fell Cross of blood and brand?
And must the day, so blithe that rose,
And promised rapture in the close,
Before its setting hour, divide

The bridegroom from the plighted bride?
O fatal doom!-it must! it must!
Clan-Alpine' cause, her Chieftain's trust,
Her summons dread, brooks no delay;
Stretch to the race-away! away!

Yet slow he laid his plaid aside,
And, lingering, eyed his lovely bride,
Until he saw the starting tear
Speak woe he might not stop to cheer;
Then, trusting not a second look,
In haste he sped him up the brook,
Nor backward glanced till on the heath
Where Lubnaig's lake supplies the Teith.
-What in the racer's bosom stirred?
The sickening pang of hope deferred,
And memory, with a torturing train
Of all his morning visions vain.

Mingled

Mingled with love's impatience, came
The manly thirst for martial fame;
The stormy joy of mountaineers,
Ere yet they rush upon the spears;
And zeal for clan and chieftain burning,
And hope, from well-fought field returning,
With war's red honours on his crest,

To clasp his Mary to his beast.

Stung by such thoughts, o'er bank and brae,
Like fire from flint he glanced away,
While high resolve, and feeling strong,
Burst into voluntary song.

SONG.

The heath this night must be my bed,
The bracken* curtain for my head,
My lullaby the warder's tread,

Far, far, from love and thee, Mary;
To-morrow eve, more stilly laid,
My couch may be my bloody plaid,
My vesper song, thy wail, sweet maid!
It will not waken me, Mary!

I

may not, dare not, fancy now The grief that clouds thy lovely brow, I dare not think upon thy vow,

And all it promised me, Mary.
No fond regret must Norman know;
When bursts Clan-Alpine on the foe,
His heart must be like bended bow,
His foot like arrow free, Mary.

A time will come with feeling fraught!
For, if I fall in battle fought,
Thy hapless lover's dying thought

Shall be a thought on thee, Mary.
And if returned from conquered foes,
How blithely will the evening close,
How sweet the linnet sing repose,

To my young bride and me, Mary!

Eracken.- Fern.

ADIEU TO THE MINSTREL HARP.

[From the same.]

[ARP of the North, farewell! The hills grow dark,
On purple peaks a deeper shade descending;
In twilight copse the glow-worm lights her spark,
The deer, half-seen, are to the covert wending.
Resume thy wizard elm! the fountain lending,
And the wild breeze, thy wilder minstrelsy;
Thy numbers sweet with Nature's vespers blending,
With distant echo from the fold and lea,
And herd-boy's evening pipe, and hum of housing bee.

Yet, once again, farewell, thou Minstrel Harp!
Yet once again, forgive my feeble sway,
And little reck I of the censure sharp

May idly cavil at an idle lay.

Much have I owed thy strains on life's long way,
Through secret woes the world has never known,
When on the weary night dawned wearier day,
And bitterer was the grief devoured alone,
That I o'erlive such woes, Enchantress! is thine own,

Hark! as my lingering footsteps slow retire,
Some Spirit of the Air has waked thy string!
'Tis now a Seraph bold, with touch of fire,
'Tis now the brush of Fairy's frolic wing.
Receding now, the dying numbers ring

Fainter and fainter down the rugged dell,
And now the mountain breezes scarcely bring
A wandering witch-note of the distant spell-
And now, tis silent all!-Enchantress, fare thee well!

Wherever minstrel at high feast
With monarchs sat, an honour'd guest,
Where'er before a nation's eyes

Beauty to valour gave the prize,

His Heralds far and wide around,

Had spread, from realm to realm, the sound:
The voice went forth, to tow'r and hall,
That Bourdeaux' solemn festival,

Throughout the moon's whole course should view,
Day and night their sports renew;
Each day be tilt and banqueting,
Each night be mirth and caroling,
Mask and dance, and choral song,
And mysteries that delight prolong,
Till Aurora, blushing red,

Or bright suns, light the guests to bed.

Hail! barons bold, who liege-men wait
On Aquitaine's superior state,
Lords of Guyenne and Gascony,
Of Poictou and fair Angoumois,
Saintonge, along whose pastures wide
Swift Charente's silver waters glide,
And fiefs, where Adour, winding down,
Joins distant Tarbe to fair Bayonne.

And ye! the pride of Albion's coast,
High chieftains of th' heroic host:
Warwick, whose far-fam'd puisance led
The van when routed Poitiers bled:
Fitzwalter, foremost in the field,
Spenser, unknowing how to yield,
Manny, who, wading deep in gore,
Onward the flag of conquest bore,
And terror of the northern bounds,
Earl Percy, grac'd with glorious wounds.

IV. Brave

IV.

Brave Gallia's high-born chieftains came,
Free bomagers to Edward's fame.
Proud Bourbon, Anjou there behold,
Young Burgundy, belov'd, and bold.
Tonnere, whose mail, of verdant stain,
Was died with blood on Auray's plain:
Lo! Chatillon, whose eagle shield
Marshals the bowmen to the field,
Heroic Vienne, whose deathless name
Thy sons, proud Calais, yet proclaim,
And Ribaumont, the bold, the brave,
Crown'd with the wreath that Edward gave,
When, thrice, the King, beneath his blow
Bow'd, ere his prowess fell'd the foe.
From Brittany brave Montfort led
Fam'd peers, who in his quarrel bled,
(His falchion flaming in the van)
Knight, Seneschal, and Castellan.