And now the veffel skirts the strand
Of mountainous Northumberland ;
Towns, towers, and halls fucceffive rife,
And catch the nuns' delighted eyes.
Monk-Wearmouth foon behind them lay,
And Tynemouth's priory and bay;
They marked, amid her trees, the hall
Of lofty Seaton-Delaval ;

They faw the Blythe and Wanfbeck floods,
Rufh to the fea through founding woods;
They paft the tower of Widderington,
Mother of many a valiant fon;

At Coquet-ifle their beads they tell,
To the good Saint who owned the cell;
Then did the Alne attention claim,

And Warkworth, proud of Percy's name ;
And next, they croffed themselves, to hear
The whitening breakers found so near,
Where, boiling through the rocks, they roar
On Dunftanborough's caverned fhore ;

Thy tower, proud Bamborough, marked they there,
King Ida's caftle, huge and fquare,
From its tall rock look grimly down,
And on the fwelling ocean frown;
Then from the coaft they bore away,

And reached the Holy Iland's bay. p. 24-86.

The picture of Constance before her judges, though more laboured, is not, to our taste, so pleasing; though it has beauty of a kind fully as popular.

• When thus her face was given to view,
(Although fo pallid was her hue,

It did a ghaftly contrast bear,

To thofe bright ringlets glittering fair,)
Her look compofed, and fteady eye,
Bespoke a matchlefs conftancy;
And there fhe ftood fo calm and pale,
That, but her breathing did not fail,
And motion flight of eye and head,
And of her bofom, warranted,
That neither sense nor pulse the lacks,
You might have thought a form of wax,
Wrought to the very life, was there;
So ftill fhe was, fo pale, fo fair.' p. 100.

•Twice the effayed, and twice, in vain,
Her accents might no utterance gain;
Nought but imperfect murmurs flip

From

From her convulfed and quivering lip:
"Twixt each attempt all was so ftill,
You seemed to hear a diftant rill-
'Twas ocean's fwells and falls;
For though this vault of fin and fear
Was to the founding furge so near,
A tempeft there you scarce could hear,
So maffive were the walls.
At length, an effort fent apart
The blood that curdled to her heart,
And light came to her eye,
And colour dawned upon her cheek,
A hectic and a fluttered ftreak,
Like that left on the Cheviot peak,
By autumn's ftormy sky;

And when her filence broke at length,
Still as the spoke she gathered ftrength,

And arm'd herself to bear.

It was a fearful fight to fee

Such high refolve and conftancy,

In form fo foft and fair.' p. 104, 105.

The sound of the knell that was rung for the parting soul of this victim of seduction, is described with great force and solemnity.

Slow o'er the midnight wave it fwung,
Northumbrian rocks in anfwer rung;
To Warkworth cell the echoes rolled,
His beads the wakeful hermit told;
The Bamborough peasant raised his head,
But flept ere half a prayer he faid;
So far was heard the mighty knell,
The ftag fprung up on Cheviot Fell,
Spread his broad noftril to the wind,
Lifted before, afide, behind;

Then couched him down befide the hind,

And quaked among the mountain fern,

To hear that found fo dull and ftern.' p. 112, 113.

The following introduction to the squire's song is sweet and tender.

A deep and mellow voice he had,

The air he chofe was wild and fad
Such have I heard, in Scottish land,
Rife from the busy harvest band,
When falls before the mountaineer,
On lowland plains, the ripened ear.
Now one fhrill voice the notes prolong,
Now a wild chorus fwells the fong :

Oft

Oft have 1 liftened, and food till,
As it came foftened up the hill,
And deemed it the lament of men
Who languished for their native glen;
And thought, how fad would be fuch found,
On Sufquehana's fwampy ground,,
Kentucky's wood-encumbered brake,
Or wild Ontario's boundless lake,
Where heart fick exiles, in the ftrain,
Recalled fair Scotland's hills again!'

P. 140, 141.

The view of the camp and city from the top of Blackford Hill, is very striking; but we cannot make room for the whole of it. • Marmion might hear the mingled hum Of myriads up the mountain come; The horfes' tramp, and tingling clank, Where chiefs reviewed their vaffal rank And charger's fhrilling neigh; And fee the fhifting line's advance, While frequent flashed, from fhield and lance, The fun's reflected ray.

Still on the fpot Lord Marmion stayed,
For fairer fcene he ne'er furveyed.

When fated with the martial fhow
That peopled all the plain below,
The wandering eye could o'er it go,
And mark the diftant city glow
With gloomy fplendour red;

For on the fmoke-wreaths, huge and flow,
That round her fable turrets flow,

The morning beams were shed,

And tinged them with a luftre proud

Like that which ftreaks a thunder-cloud.

Such dufky grandeur clothed the height,
Where the huge caftle holds its ftate,
And all the steep flope down,
Whofe ridgy back heaves to the fky,
Piled deep and maffy, clofe and high,
Mine own romantic town!
B

VOL. XII. NO. 23.

But

But northward far, with purer blaze,
On Ochil mountains fell the rays,
And as each heathy top they kiffed,
It gleamed a purple amethyft.

Yonder the fhores of Fife you faw;
Here Pretton-Bay, and Berwick Law

And, broad between them rolled,
The gallant Frith the eye might note,
Whofe iflands on its bofom float,

Like emeralds chafed in gold.
Fitz-Euftace' heart felt closely pent;
As if to give his rapture vent,
The fpur he to his charger lent,

And raised his bridle hand,

And, making demi-volte in air,

Cried, "Where's the coward that would not dare

To fight for fuch a land!"

p. 218-220.

The picture of the court, and the person of the prince, is very

spirited and lively.

The dazzling lamps, from gallery gay,
Caft on the court a dancing ray;
Here to the harp did minstrels fing;
There ladies touched a fofter ftring
With long-eared cap and motley veft,
The licensed fool retailed his jeft;
His magic tricks the juggler plied;
At dice and draughts the gallants vied;
While fome, in close recefs apart,
Courted the ladies of their heart,
Nor courted them in vain ;
For often, in the parting hour,
Victorious love afferts his power
O'er coldness and difdain;
And finty is her heart, can view
To battle march a lover true,—
Can hear, perchance, his laft adieu,
Nor own her fhare of pain.

Through this mixed crowd of glee and game,
The King to greet Lord Marmion came,

While, reverend, all made room.

An eafy task it was, I trow,
King James's manly form to know,
Although, his courtefy to fhow,
He doffed, to Marmion bending low,
His broidered cap and plume.
For royal were his garb and mien,

His cloak, of crimfon velvet piled,
Trimmed with the fur of martin wild
His veft, of changeful fatin fheen,
The dazzled eye beguiled;
His gorgeous collar hung adown,
Bearing the badge of Scotland's crown,
The thistle brave, of old renown;
His trufty blade, Toledo right,
Defcended from a baldric bright;
White were his bufkins, on the heel
His fpurs inlaid of gold and fteel;
His bonnet, all of crimson fair,
Was buttoned with a ruby rare:
And Marmion deemed he ne'er had seen
A prince of fuch a noble mien.

The Monarch's form was middle fize;

For feat of ftrength, or exercife,
Shaped in proportion fair;
And hazel was his eagle eye,
And auburn of the darkest dye,

His fhort curled beard and hair.
Light was his footstep in the dance,
And firm his ftirrup in the lifts;
And, oh! he had that merry glance,
That feldom lady's heart refifts.
Lightly from fair to fair he flew,
And loved to plead, lament, and sue ;—
Suit lightly won, and fhort-lived pain!

For monarchs feldom figh in vain.' p. 251-254.

The description of Lady Heron, the favourite of this amorous monarch, and the very lively and characteristic ballad she sings, afford so pleasing a proof of Mr Scott's talents for lighter composition, that we insert the whole of it, at the risk of extending this article to a length which our severer readers may think insuf ferable.

Fair was her rounded arm, as o'er

The ftrings her fingers flew ;

And as the touched, and tuned them all,

Ever her bofom's rife and fall

Was plainer given to view ;

For, all for heat, was laid afide

Her wimple, and her hood untied.

And firft the pitched her voice to fing,
Then glanced her dark eye on the King,
And then around the filent ring;

And laughed, and blushed, and oft did say
Her pretty oath, by Yea, and Nay,

She could not, would not, durft not play!

B 2

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