And, oh! he had that merry glance, That seldom lady's heart resists. If, in a sudden turn, he felt That bound his breast in penance-pain, Thus, dim-seen object of affright Startles the courser in his flight, And half he halts, half springs aside, X. O'er James's heart, the courtiers say, Sir Hugh the Heron's wife held sway: To be a hostage for her lord, Who Cessford's gallant heart had gored, Had sent his lovely dame. Nor to that lady free alone Did the gay-King allegiance own; For the fair Queen of France Sent him a Turquois ring, and glove, And charged him, as her knight and love, For her to break a lance; And strike three strokes with Scottish brand, And march three miles on English land, And bid the banners of his band In English breezes dance. And thus, for France's Queen, he drest His manly limbs in mailed vest; And thus admitted English fair, His inmost counsels still to share; And thus, for both, he madly planned And yet, the sooth to tell, Nor England's fair, nor France's Queen, His own Queen Margaret, who, in Lithgow's bower, XI. The queen sits lone in Lithgow pile, And weeps the weary day, The war against her native soil, Her monarch's risk in battle broil; And in gay Holy-Rood the while Dame Heron rises with a smile Upon the harp to play. Fair was her rounded arm, as o'er The strings her fingers flew; And as she touched, and tuned them all, Was plainer given to view; For, all for heat, was laid aside And first she pitched her voice to sing, And laughed, and blushed, and oft did say Her pretty oath, by Yea, and Nay, She could not, would not, durst not play! A soft, yet lively, air she rung, XII. LOCHIN VAR. Lady Heron's Song. O, young Lochinvar is come out of the west, He staid not for brake, and he stopped not for stone; He swam the Eske river where ford there was none; But, ere he alighted at Netherby gate, The bride had consented, the gallant came late : For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war, Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar. So boldly he entered the Netherby Hall, and all : |