"O I sleep saft,1 and I wake aft;

2

It's lang since sleeping was fleyed 2 frae me. Gie my service back to my wife and bairns, And a' gude fellows that speir3 for me."

Then Red Rowan has hente him up,
The starkest man in Teviotdale
“Abide, abide now Red Rowan,

Till of my Lord Scroope I take farewell.

"Farewell, farewell, my gude Lord Scroope! My gude Lord Scroope, farewell!" he cried "I'll pay you for my lodging maill,*

When first we meet on the Border side:

Then shoulder high with shout and cry,

We bore him down the ladder lang;

At every stride Red Rowan made,

I wot the Kinmont's airns 5 played clang!

“O mony a time," quo' Kinmont Willie,

"I have ridden horse baith wild and wood; But a rougher beast than Red Rowan

I ween my legs have ne'er bestrode.

"And mony a time," quo' Kinmont Willie, "I've pricked a horse out ower the furrs; But since the day I backed a steed,

I never wore sic cumbrous spurs !”

We scarce had won the Staneshaw-bank,
When a' the Carlisle bells were rung,
And a thousand men on horse and foot,
Cam wi' the keen Lord Scroope along.

Buccleuch has turned to Eden Water,
Even where it flowed frae bank to brim,
And he has plunged in wi' a' his band,
And safely swam them through the stream.

He turned him on the other side,

And at Lord Scroope his glove flung he "If ye like na my visit in merry England, In fair Scotland come visit me !"

All sore astonished stood Lord Scroope,
He stood as still as rock of stane;

He scarcely dared to trew 2 his eyes,
When through the water they had gane.

1 Furrs,-furze, or furrows?

2 Trew, -trust.

1

"He is either himsell a devil frae hell,
Or else his mother a witch maun be;
I wadna have ridden that wan 1 water
For a' the gowd in Christentie."

SCOTT'S MINSTRELSY OF THE SCOTTISH Border.

1 Wan, - pale, black, dark.

"HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD

NEWS FROM GHENT TO AIX."

[16-]

I SPRANG to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;

I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three ; "Good speed!" cried the watch, as the gate-bolts

66

undrew ;

Speed!" echoed the wall to us galloping through; Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, And into the midnight we galloped abreast.

Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace, Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place;

I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight, Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique

right,

Rebuckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit, Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit.

'Twas moonset at starting; but while we drew near Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned

clear;

At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see ;
At Düffeld, 't was morning as plain as could be;
And from Mecheln church-steeple we heard the
half-chime,

So Joris broke silence with, "Yet there is time!"

At Aerschot, up leaped of a sudden the sun,
And against him the cattle stood black every one,
To stare through the mist at us galloping past,
And I saw my stout galloper Roland at last,
With resolute shoulders, each butting away

The haze, as some bluff river headland its spray.

And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent back

For my voice, and the other pricked out on his track;

And one eye's black intelligence,

glance

ever that

O'er its white edge at me, his own master, askance ! And the thick heavy spume-flakes which aye and

anon

His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on.