She mounted on her milk-white steed!
She's ta'en true Thomas up behind:
And aye, whene'er her bridle rung,
The steed flew swifter than the wind.

O they rade on, and farther on ;

The steed gaed swifter than the wind; Until they reach'd a desert wide,

And living land was left behind.

"Light down, light down, now, truc Thomas, And lean your head upon my knee;

Abide and rest a little space,

And I will show you ferlies three.

"O see ye not yon narrow road,

So thick beset with thorns and briers?

That is the path of righteousness,

Though after it but few inquires.

"And see ye not that braid, braid road,
That lies across that lily leven?
That is the path of wickedness,

Though some call it the road to heaven.

"And see ye not that bonny road, That winds about the fernie brae !

That is the road to fair Elfland,

Where thou and I this night maun gae.

"But, Thomas, ye maun hold your tongue, Whatever ye may hear or see;

For, if ye speak word in Elflyn land,

Ye'll ne'er get back to your ain countrie."

O they rade on, and farther on,

And they waded through rivers aboon the knee, And they saw neither sun nor moon,

But they heard the roaring of the sea.

It was mirk mirk night, and there was nae stern light,

And they waded through red blude to the knee, For a' the blude that's shed on earth

Rins through the springs o' that countrie.

Syne they came on to a garden green,

And she pu'd an apple frae a tree"Take this for thy wages, true Thomas;

It will give thee the tongue that can never lie!"

"My tongue is mine ain," true Thomas said;
"A gudely gift ye wad gie to me !

I neither dought to buy nor sell,
At fair or tryst where I may be.

"I dought neither speak to prince or peer,
Nor ask of grace from fair ladye."-
"Now hold thy peace! the lady said,
"For as I say, so must it be."-

He has gotten a coat of the even cloth,
And a pair of shoes of velvet green;
And till seven years were gane and past,

True Thomas on earth was never seen.

We

PART SECOND.-ALTERED FROM ANCIENT PROPHECIES. THE prophecies, ascribed to Thomas of Ercildoune, have been the principal means of securing to him remembrance "amongst the sons of his people." The author of Sir Tristram would long ago have joined, in the vale of oblivion, "Clerk of Tranent, who wrote the adventure of Schir Gawain," if, by good hap, the same current of ideas respecting antiquity, which causes Virgil to be regarded as a magician by the Lazaroni of Naples, had not exalted the bard of Ercildoune to the prophetic character. Perhaps, indeed, he himself affected it during his life. know, at least, for certain, that a belief in his supernatural knowledge was current soon after his death. His prophecies are alluded to by Barbour, by Winton, and by Henry the Minstrel, or Blind Harry, as he is usually termed. None of these authors, however, give the words of any of the Rhymer's vaticinations, but merely narrate, historically, his having predicted the events of which they speak. The earliest of the prophecies ascribed to him, which is now extant, is quoted by Mr. Pinkerton from a MS. It is supposed to be a response from Thomas of Ercildoune to a question from the heroic Countess of March, renowned for the defence of the Castle of Dunbar against the English, and termed, in the familiar dialect of her time, Black Agnes of Dunbar. This prophecy is remarkable, in so far as it bears very little resemblance to any verses published in the printed copy of the Rhymer's supposed prophecies.

WHEN seven years were come and gane,

The sun blink'd fair on pool and stream;
And Thomas lay on Huntlie Bank,
Like one awaken'd from a dream.

He heard the trampling of a steed,
He saw the flash of armour flee,
And he beheld a gallant knight
Come riding down by the Eildon-tree.
He was a stalwart knight, and strong;
Of giant make he 'peared to be:
He stirr'd his horse, as he were wode,
Wi' gilded spurs, of faushion free.

Says "Well met, well met, true Thomas!
Some uncouth ferlies show to me.".

Says " "Christ thee save, Corspatrick brave!
Thrice welcome, good Dunbar, to me!

"Light down, light down, Corspatrick brave!
And I will show thee curses three,
Shall gar fair Scotland greet and grane,
And change the green to the black livery.

"A storm shall roar this very hour,
From Ross's hills to Solway sea."
"Ye lied, ye lied, ye warlock hoar,

For the sun shines sweet on fauld and lea."

He put his hand on the Earlie's head;
He show'd him a rock beside the sea,
Where a king lay stiff beneath his steed,
And steel-dight nobles wiped their e'e.

"The neist curse lights on Branxton hills:
By Flodden's high and heathery side,
Shall wave a banner red as blude,

And chieftains throng wi' meikle pride.

"A Scottish King shall come full keen,
The ruddy lion beareth he;
A feather'd arrow sharp, I ween,

Shall make him wink and warre to see.

"When he is bloody, and all to bledde,
Thus to his men he still shall say—
'For God's sake, turn ye back again,
And give yon southern folk a fray!
Why should I lose, the right is mine!
My doom is not to die this day.'

"Yet turn ye to the eastern hand,
And woe and wonder ye sall see;
How forty thousand spearmen stand,
Where yon rank river meets the sea.
"There shall the lion lose the gylte,
And the libbards bear it clean away;
At Pinkyn Cleuch there shall be spilt
Much gentil bluid that day.”-

'Enough, enough, of curse and ban; Some blessings show thou now to me,

Or, by the faith o' my bodie," Corspatrick said, "Ye shall rue the day ye e'er saw me!"

"The first of blessings I shall thee show
Is by a burn, that's call'd of bread;
Where Saxon men shall tine the bow,
And find their arrows lack the head.

"Beside that brigg, out ower that burn,
Where the water bickereth bright and sheen.

Shall many a fallen courser spurn,

And knights shall die in battle keen.

"Beside a headless cross of stone,

The libbards there shall lose the gree: The raven shall come, the erne shall go, And drink the Saxon bluid sae free. The cross of stone they shall not know, So thick the corses there shall be."

"But tell me now," said brave Dunbar, "True Thomas, tell now unto me,

What man shall rule the isle Britain,

Even from the north to the southern sea?"