Such have I heard, in Scottish land,
Rise from the busy harvest band,
When falls before the mountaineer,
On lowland plains, the ripened car.
Now one shrill voice the notes prolong,
Now a wild chorus swells the song:
Oft have I listened, and stood still,
As it came softened up the hill,
And deemed it the lament of men
Who languished for their native glen;

And thought, how sad would be such sound,
On Susquehana's swampy ground,
Kentucky's wood-encumbered brake,
Or wild Ontario's boundless lake,
Where heart-sick exiles, in the strain,
Recalled fair Scotland's hills again!

X.

SONG.

Where shall the lover rest,

Whom the fates sever

From his true maiden's breast,

Parted for ever?

Where, through groves deep and high,

Sounds the far billow,

Where early violets die,

Under the willow.

CHORUS.

Eleu loro, &c.

Soft shall be his pillow.

There, through the summer day,
Cool streams are laving;
There, while the tempests sway,

Scarce are boughs waving;

There, thy rest shalt thou take,
Parted for ever,

Never again to wake,

Never, O never.

CHORUS.

Eleu loro, &c.

Never, O never.

XL

Where shall the traitor rest,

He, the deceiver,

Who could win maiden's breast,
Ruin, and leave her?

In the lost battle,

Borne down by the flying,

Where mingles war's rattle,

With groans of the dying.

Eleu loro, &c.

CHORUS.

There shall he be lying.

Her wing shall the eagle flap

O'er the false-hearted;

His warm blood the wolf shall lap,

Ere life be parted.

Shame and dishonour sit

By his grave ever;

Blessing shall hallow it,-
Never, O never.

CHORUS.

Eleu loro, &c. Never, O never.

XIL

It ceased, the melancholy sound;
And silence sunk on all around.

The air was sad; but sadder still
It fell on Marmion's ear,
And plained as if disgrace and ill,
And shameful death, were near.
He drew his mantle past his face,
Between it and the band,

And rested with his head a space,
Reclining on his hand.

His thoughts I scan not; but I ween,

That, could their import have been seen,

The meanest groom in all the hall,

That e'er tied courser to a stall,

Would scarce have wished to be their prey,

For Lutterward and Fontenaye.

XIII.

High minds, of native pride and force,

Most deeply feel thy pangs, Remorse!

Fear for their scourge, mean villains have

Thou art the torturer of the brave;

Yet fatal strength they boast to stcel
Their minds to bear the wounds they feel;
Even while they writhe beneath the smart
Of civil conflict in the heart.

For soon Lord Marmion raised his head,
And, smiling, to Fitz-Eustace said:-
"Is it not strange, that, as ye sung,
Seemed in mine ear a death-peal rung,
Such as in nunneries they toll
For some departing sister's soul?
Say, what may this portend?"

Then first the Palmer silence broke,
(The livelong day he had not spoke,)
"The death of a dear friend."

XIV.

Marmion, whose steady heart and eye
Ne'er changed in worst extremity;

Marmion, whose soul could scantly brook,
Even from his king, a haughty look;
Whose accent of command controlled

In camps the boldest of the bold

Thought, look, and utterance, failed him now,
Fallen was his glance, and flushed his brow;
For either in the tone,

Or something in the Palmer's look,
So full upon his conscience strook,
That answer he found none.
Thus oft it haps, that when within
They shrink at sense of secret sin,
A feather daunts the brave:
A fool's wild speech confounds the wise,
And proudest princes vail their eyes
Before their meanest slave.

XV.

Well might he falter!-by his aid
Was Constance Beverley betrayed;
Not that he augur'd of the doom,
Which on the living closed the tomb,
But tired to hear the desperate maid
Threaten by turns, beseech, upbraid;
And wroth, because, in wild despair,
She practised on the life of Clare;
Its fugitive the church he gave,
Though not a victim, but a slave;

And deemed restraint in convent strange
Would hide her wrongs, and her revenge.
Himself, proud Henry's favourite peer,
Held Romish thunders idle fear,
Secure his pardon he might hold,
For some slight mulct of penance-gold.
Thus judging, he gave secret way,

When the stern priests surprised their prey:

His train but deemed the favourite page

Was left behind, to spare his age;

Or other if they deemed, none dared

To mutter what he thought and heard:

Woe to the vassal, who durst pry
Into Lord Marmion's privacy!

XVI

His conscience slept-he deemed her well,
And safe secured in distant cell;

But wakened by her favourite lay,

And that strange Palmer's boding say,

That fell so ominous and drear,

Full on the object of his fear,

To aid remorse's venomed throes,

Dark tales of convent vengeance rose;

And Constance, late betrayed and scorned,

All lovely on his soul returned:

Lovely as when, at treacherous call,

She left her convent's peaceful wall,

Crimsoned with shame, with terror mute,

Dreading alike escape, pursuit,

Till love, victorious o'er alarms,

Hid fears and blushes in his arms.

XVIL

"Alas!" he thought," how changed that men} How changed these timid looks have been,

Since years of guilt, and of disguise,

Have steeled her brow, and armed her eyes!

No more of virgin terror speaks

The blood that mantles in her checks;
Fierce, and unfeminine, are there,
Frenzy for joy, for grief despair;

And I the cause-for whom were given
Her peace on earth, her hopes in heaven!-
Would," thought he, as the picture grows,
"I on its stalk had left the rose?

Oh why should man's success remove
The very charms that wake his love!
Her convent's peaceful solitude
Is now a prison harsh and rude;
And, pent within the narrow cell,
How will her spirit chafe and swell!
How brook the stern monastic laws!
The penance how--and I the cause!
Vigil and scourge-perhaps even worse!"
And twice he rose to cry "to horse!”
And twice his sovereign's mandate came,
Like damp upon a kindling flame;

And twice he thought, "Gave I not charge
She should be safe, though not at large?
They durst not, for their island, shred
One golden ringlet from her head.”—

XVIII.

While thus in Marmion's bosom strove
Repentance and reviving love,

Like whirlwinds, whose contending sway

I've seen Loch Vennachar obey,

Their Host the Palmer's speech had heard,

And, talkative, took up the word:

“Ay, reverend Pilgrim, you, who stray
From Scotland's simple land away,
To visit realms afar,

Full often learn the art to know,
Of future weal, or future woe,

By word, or sign, or star;
Yet might a knight his fortune hear,
If, knight-like, he despises fear,
Not far from hence;-if fathers old
Aright our hamlet legend told."-

These broken words the menials move.
(For marvels still the vulgar love;)
And, Marmion giving licence cold,

His tale the host thus gladly told.

XIX.

THE HOST'S TALE.

"A clerk could tell what years have flown Since Alexander filled our throne,

(Third monarch of that warlike name,) And eke the time when here he came