And passion, erst unknown, could gain
The breast of blunt Sir Satyrane;
Nor durst light Paridell advance,

Bold as he was, a looser glance.

She charm'd, at once, and tamed the heart, Incomparable Britomart!

So thou, fair City! disarray'd
Of battled wall, and rampart's aid,
As stately seem'st, but lovelier far
Than in that panoply of war.

Nor deem that from thy fenceless throne
Strength and security are flown ;

Still as of yore, Queen of the North!
Still canst thou send thy children forth.
Ne'er readier at alarm-bell's call
Thy burghers rose to man thy wall,
Than now, in danger, shall be thine,
Thy dauntless voluntary line;
For fosse and turret proud to stand,
Their breasts the bulwarks of the land.
Thy thousands, train'd to martial toil,
Full red would stain their native soil,
Ere from thy mural crown there fell
The slightest knosp, or pinnacle.
And if it come,—as come it may,
Dun-Edin! that eventful day,-
Renown'd for hospitable deed,

That virtue much with Heaven may plead,
In patriarchal times whose care

Descending angels deigned to hare;
That claim may wrestle blessings down
On those who fight for The Good Town,
Destined in every age to be

Refuge of injured royalty;

Since first, when conquering York arose,
To Henry meek she gave repose,1

1 Henry VI., with his Queen, his heir, and the chiefs of his family, fled to Scotland after the fatal battle of Towton. In this note, a doubt was formerly expressed, whether Henry VI. came to Edinburgh, though his Queen certainly did, Mr. Pinkerton inclining to believe that he remained at Kirkcudbright. But my noble friend, Lord Napier, has pointed out to me a grant by Henry, of an annuity of forty marks to his Lordship's ancestor, John Napier, subscribed by the King himself, at Edinburgh, the 28th day of August, in the thirtyninth year of his reign, which corresponds to the year of God, 1461. This grant, Douglas, with his usual neglect of accuracy, dates in 1368. But this error being corrected from the copy in Macfarlane's MSS., p. 119, 20, removes all skepticism on the subject of Henry VI. being really at Edinburgh. John Napier was son and heir of Sir Alexander Napier, and about this time was Provost of Edinburgh. The hospitable reception of the distressed monarch and his family, called forth on Scotland the encomium of Molinet, a contemporary poet. The English people, he says:

"Ung nouveau roy créerent,

Par despiteux vouloir,

Le vieil en deboutérent,

Et son legitime hoir,
Qui fuytyf alla prendre

D' Escossé le garand,

De tous siècles le mendre,

Et le plus tollerant."

Recollections des Avantures

Till late, with wonder, grief, and awe,
Great Bourbon's relics, sad she saw.1

Truce to these thoughts!-for, as they rise, How gladly I avert mine eyes,

Bodings, or true or false, to change,
For Fiction's fair romantic range,
Or for Tradition's dubious light,
That hovers 'twixt the day and night:
Dazzling alternately and dim,

Her wavering lamp I'd rather trim,
Knights, squires, and lovely dames to see,
Creation of my fantasy,

Than gaze abroad on reeky fen,
And make of mists invading men.—
Who loves not more the night of June
Than dull December's gloomy noon?
The moonlight than the fog of frost?
And can we say, which cheats the most?

But who shall teach my harp to gain A sound of the romantic strain,

1 [In January, 1796, the exiled Count d'Artois, afterwards Charles X. of France, took up his residence in Holyrood, where he remained until August, 1799. When again driven from his country by the Revolution of July, 1830, the same unfortunate Prince, with all the immediate members of his family, sought refuge once more in the ancient palace of the Stuarts, and remained there until 18th September, 1832.]

2 [MS." Than gaze out on the foggy fen."]

Whose Anglo-Norman tones whilere
Could win the royal Henry's ear,1
Famed Beauclerk call'd, for that he loved
The minstrel, and his lay approved?
Who shall these lingering notes redeem,
Decaying on Oblivion's stream;
Such notes as from the Breton tongue
Marie translated, Blondel sung?—
O! born, Time's ravage to repair,
And make the dying Muse thy care;
Who, when his scythe her hoary foe
Was poising for the final blow,
The weapon from his hand could wring,
And break his glass, and shear his wing,
And bid, reviving in his strain,

The gentle poet live again;

Thou, who canst give to lightest lay
An unpedantic moral gay,

Nor less the dullest theme bid flit
On wings of unexpected wit;

1 Mr. Ellis, in his valuable Introduction to the "Specimens of Romance," has proved, by the concurring testimony of La Ravaillere, Tressan, but especially the Abbé de la Rue, that the courts of our Anglo-Norman Kings, rather than those of the French monarch, produced the birth of Romance literature. Marie, soon after mentioned, compiled from Armorican originals, and translated into Norman-French, or romance language, the twelve curious Lays, of which Mr. Ellis has given us a precis in the Appendix to his Introduction. The story of Blondel, the famous and faithful minstrel of Richard I., needs no commentary.

In letters as in life approved,
Example honour'd, and beloved,-
Dear ELLIS! to the bard impart
A lesson of thy magic art,

To win at once the head and heart,-
At once to charm, instruct, and mend,
My guide, my pattern, and my friend! 1

Such minstrel lesson to bestow Be long thy pleasing task,-but, O! No more by thy example teach,

-What few can practise, all can preach,—

With even patience to endure
Lingering disease, and painful cure,

And boast affliction's pangs subdued

By mild and manly fortitude.
Enough, the lesson has been given:
Forbid the repetition, Heaven!

Come listen, then! for thou hast known,
And loved the Minstrel's varying tone,
Who, like his Border sires of old,
Waked a wild measure rude and bold,
Till Windsor's oaks, and Ascot plain,
With wonder heard the northern strain.2

1 ["Come then, my friend, my genius, come along, Oh master of the poet and the song!"

Pope to Bolingbroke.]

2 [At Sunning-hill, Mr. Ellis's seat, near Windsor, part of the first two cantos of Marmion were written.]