Marmion Read online

  In which the wine and ale is good,

  ‘Twixt Newcastle and Holy-Rood.

  But that good man, as ill befalls,

  Hath seldom left our castle walls,

  Since, on the vigil of St. Bede,

  In evil hour, he cross’d the Tweed,

  To teach Dame Alison her creed.

  Old Bughtrig found him with his wife;

  And John, an enemy to strife,

  Sans frock and hood, fled for his life.

  The jealous churl hath deeply swore,

  That, if again he venture o’er,

  He shall shrieve penitent no more.

  Little he loves such risks, I know;

  Yet, in your guard, perchance will go.’

  XXII.

  Young Selby, at the fair hall-board,

  Carved to his uncle and that lord,

  And reverently took up the word.

  ‘Kind uncle, woe were we each one,

  If harm should hap to brother John.

  He is a man of mirthful speech,

  Can many a game and gambol teach;

  Full well at tables can he play,

  And sweep at bowls the stake away.

  None can a lustier carol bawl,

  The needfullest among us all,

  When time hangs heavy in the hall,

  And snow comes thick at Christmas tide,

  And we can neither hunt, nor ride

  A foray on the Scottish side.

  The vow’d revenge of Bughtrig rude,

  May end in worse than loss of hood.

  Let Friar John, in safety, still

  In chimney-corner snore his fill,

  Roast hissing crabs, or flagons swill:

  Last night, to Norham there came one,

  Will better guide Lord Marmion.’-

  ‘Nephew,’ quoth Heron, ‘by my fay,

  Well hast thou spoke; say forth thy say,’-

  XXIII

  ‘Here is a holy Palmer come,

  From Salem first, and last from Rome;

  One, that hath kiss’d the blessed tomb,

  And visited each holy shrine,

  In Araby and Palestine;

  On hills of Armenie hath been,

  Where Noah’s ark may yet be seen;

  By that Red Sea, too, hath he trod,

  Which parted at the Prophet’s rod;

  In Sinai’s wilderness he saw

  The Mount, where Israel heard the law,

  ‘Mid thunder-dint and flashing levin,

  And shadows, mists, and darkness, given.

  He shows Saint James’s cockle-shell,

  Of fair Montserrat, too, can tell;

  And of that Grot where Olives nod,

  Where, darling of each heart and eye,

  From all the youth of Sicily,

  Saint Rosalie retired to God.

  XXIV.

  ‘To stout Saint George of Norwich merry,

  Saint Thomas, too, of Canterbury,

  Cuthbert of Durham and Saint Bede,

  For his sins’ pardon hath he pray’d.

  He knows the passes of the North,

  And seeks far shrines beyond the Forth;

  Little he eats, and long will wake,

  And drinks but of the stream or lake.

  This were a guide o’er moor and dale;

  But, when our John hath quaff’d his ale,

  As little as the wind that blows,

  And warms itself against his nose,

  Kens he, or cares, which way he goes.’-

  XXV.

  ‘Gramercy!’ quoth Lord Marmion,

  ‘Full loth were I, that Friar John,

  That venerable man, for me,

  Were placed in fear or jeopardy.

  If this same Palmer will me lead

  From hence to Holy-Rood,

  Like his good saint, I’ll pay his meed,

  Instead of cockle-shell, or bead,

  With angels fair and good.

  I love such holy ramblers; still

  They know to charm a weary hill,

  With song, romance, or lay:

  Some jovial tale, or glee, or jest,

  Some lying legend, at the least,

  They bring to cheer the way.’-

  XXVI.

  ‘Ah! noble sir,’ young Selby said,

  And finger on his lip he laid,

  ‘This man knows much, perchance e’en more

  Than he could learn by holy lore.

  Still to himself he’s muttering,

  And shrinks as at some unseen thing.

  Last night we listen’d at his cell;

  Strange sounds we heard, and, sooth to tell,

  He murmur’d on till morn, howe’er

  No living mortal could be near.

  Sometimes I thought I heard it plain,

  As other voices spoke again.

  I cannot tell-I like it not-

  Friar John hath told us it is wrote,

  No conscience clear, and void of wrong,

  Can rest awake, and pray so long.

  Himself still sleeps before his beads

  Have mark’d ten aves, and two creeds.’-

  XXVII.

  -‘Let pass,’ quoth Marmion; ‘by my fay,

  This man shall guide me on my way,

  Although the great arch-fiend and he

  Had sworn themselves of company.

  So please you, gentle youth, to call

  This Palmer to the Castle-hall.’

  The summon’d Palmer came in place;

  His sable cowl o’erhung his face;

  In his black mantle was he clad,

  With Peter’s keys, in cloth of red,

  On his broad shoulders wrought;

  The scallop shell his cap did deck;

  The crucifix around his neck

  Was from Loretto brought;

  His sandals were with travel tore,

  Staff, budget, bottle, scrip, he wore;

  The faded palm-branch in his hand

  Show’d pilgrim from the Holy Land.

  XXVIII.

  When as the Palmer came in hall,

  Nor lord, nor knight, was there more tall,

  Or had a statelier step withal,

  Or look’d more high and keen;

  For no saluting did he wait,

  But strode across the hall of state,

  And fronted Marmion where he sate,

  As he his peer had been.

  But his gaunt frame was worn with toil;

  His cheek was sunk, alas the while!

  And when he struggled at a smile,

  His eye look ‘d haggard wild:

  Poor wretch! the mother that him bare,

  If she had been in presence there,

  In his wan face, and sun-burn’d hair,

  She had not known her child.

  Danger, long travel, want, or woe,

  Soon change the form that best we know-

  For deadly fear can time outgo,

  And blanch at once the hair;

  Hard toil can roughen form and face,

  And want can quench the eye’s bright grace,

  Nor does old age a wrinkle trace

  More deeply than despair.

  Happy whom none of these befall,

  But this poor Palmer knew them all.

  XXIX.

  Lord Marmion then his boon did ask;

  The Palmer took on him the task,

  So he would march with morning tide,

  To Scottish court to be his guide.

  ‘But I have solemn vows to pay,

  And may not linger by the way,

  To fair St. Andrews bound,

  Within the ocean-cave to pray,

  Where good Saint Rule his holy lay,

  From midnight to the dawn of day,

  Sung to the billows’ sound;

  Thence to Saint Fillan’s blessed well,

  Whose spring can frenzied dreams dispel,

  And the crazed brain restore:

>   Saint Mary grant, that cave or spring

  Could back to peace my bosom bring,

  Or bid it throb no more!’

  XXX.

  And now the midnight draught of sleep,

  Where wine and spices richly steep,

  In massive bowl of silver deep,

  The page presents on knee.

  Lord Marmion drank a fair good rest,

  The Captain pledged his noble guest,

  The cup went through among the rest,

  Who drain’d it merrily;

  Alone the Palmer pass’d it by,

  Though Selby press’d him courteously.

  This was a sign the feast was o’er;

  It hush’d the merry wassel roar,

  The minstrels ceased to sound.

  Soon in the castle nought was heard,

  But the slow footstep of the guard,

  Pacing his sober round.

  XXXI.

  With early dawn Lord Marmion rose:

  And first the chapel doors unclose;

  Then, after morning rites were done,

  (A hasty mass from Friar John,)

  And knight and squire had broke their fast,

  On rich substantial repast,

  Lord Marmion’s bugles blew to horse:

  Then came the stirrup-cup in course:

  Between the Baron and his host,

  No point of courtesy was lost;

  High thanks were by Lord Marmion paid,

  Solemn excuse the Captain made,

  Till, filing from the gate, had pass’d

  That noble train, their Lord the last.

  Then loudly rung the trumpet call;

  Thunder’d the cannon from the wall,

  And shook the Scottish shore;

  Around the castle eddied slow,

  Volumes of smoke as white as snow,

  And hid its turrets hoar;

  Till they roli’d forth upon the air,

  And met the river breezes there,

  Which gave again the prospect fair.

  INTRODUCTION TO CANTO SECOND.

  TO THE REV JOHN MARRIOTT, A. M.

  Ashestiel, Ettrick Forest.

  The scenes are desert now, and bare

  Where flourish’d once a forest fair,

  When these waste glens with copse were lined,

  And peopled with the hart and hind.

  Yon Thorn-perchance whose prickly spears

  Have fenced him for three hundred years,

  While fell around his green compeers-

  Yon lonely Thorn, would he could tell

  The changes of his parent dell,

  Since he, so grey and stubborn now,

  Waved in each breeze a sapling bough;

  Would he could tell how deep the shade

  A thousand mingled branches made;

  How broad the shadows of the oak,

  How clung the rowan to the rock,

  And through the foliage show’d his head,

  With narrow leaves and berries red;

  What pines on every mountain sprung,

  O’er every dell what birches hung,

  In every breeze what aspens shook,

  What alders shaded every brook!

  ‘Here, in my shade,’ methinks he’d say,

  ‘The mighty stag at noon-tide lay:

  The wolf I’ve seen, a fiercer game,

  (The neighbouring dingle bears his name,)

  With lurching step around me prowl,

  And stop, against the moon to howl;

  The mountain-boar, on battle set,

  His tusks upon my stem would whet;

  While doe, and roe, and red-deer good,

  Have bounded by, through gay green-wood.

  Then oft, from Newark’s riven tower,

  Sallied a Scottish monarch’s power:

  A thousand vassals muster’d round,

  With horse, and hawk, and horn, and hound;

  And I might see the youth intent,

  Guard every pass with crossbow bent;

  And through the brake the rangers stalk,

  And falc’ners hold the ready hawk,

  And foresters, in green-wood trim,

  Lead in the leash the gazehounds grim,

  Attentive, as the bratchet’s bay

  From the dark covert drove the prey,

  To slip them as he broke away.

  The startled quarry bounds amain,

  As fast the gallant greyhounds strain;

  Whistles the arrow from the bow,

  Answers the harquebuss below;

  While all the rocking hills reply,

  To hoof-clang, hound, and hunters’ cry,

  And bugles ringing lightsomely.’

  Of such proud huntings, many tales

  Yet linger in our lonely dales,

  Up pathless Ettrick and on Yarrow,

  Where erst the outlaw drew his arrow.

  But not more blithe that silvan court,

  Than we have been at humbler sport;

  Though small our pomp, and mean our game,

  Our mirth, dear Marriott, was the same.

  Remember’st thou my greyhounds true?

  O’er holt or hill there never flew,

  From slip or leash there never sprang,

  More fleet of foot, or sure of fang.

  Nor dull, between each merry chase,

  Pass’d by the intermitted space;

  For we had fair resource in store,

  In Classic and in Gothic lore:

  We mark’d each memorable scene,

  And held poetic talk between;

  Nor hill, nor brook, we paced along,

  But had its legend or its song.

  All silent now-for now are still

  Thy bowers, untenanted Bowhill!

  No longer, from thy mountains dun,

  The yeoman hears the well-known gun,

  And while his honest heart glows warm,

  At thought of his paternal farm,

  Round to his mates a brimmer fills,

  And drinks, ‘The Chieftain of the Hills!’

  No fairy forms, in Yarrow’s bowers,

  Trip o’er the walks, or tend the flowers,

  Fair as the elves whom Janet saw

  By moonlight dance on Carterhaugh;

  No youthful Baron’s left to grace

  The Forest-Sheriff’s lonely chase,

  And ape, in manly step and tone,

  The majesty of Oberon:

  And she is gone, whose lovely face

  Is but her least and lowest grace;

  Though if to Sylphid Queen ‘twere given,

  To show our earth the charms of Heaven,

  She could not glide along the air,

  With form more light, or face more fair.

  No more the widow’s deafen’d ear

  Grows quick that lady’s step to hear:

  At noontide she expects her not,

  Nor busies her to trim the cot;

  Pensive she turns her humming wheel,

  Or pensive cooks her orphans’ meal,

  Yet blesses, ere she deals their bread,

  The gentle hand by which they’re fed.

  From Yair,-which hills so closely bind,

  Scarce can the Tweed his passage find,

  Though much he fret, and chafe, and toil,

  Till all his eddying currents boil,-

  Her long descended lord is gone,

  And left us by the stream alone.

  And much I miss those sportive boys,

  Companions of my mountain joys,

  Just at the age ‘twixt boy and youth,

  When thought is speech, and speech is truth.

  Close to my side, with what delight

  They press’d to hear of Wallace wight,

  When, pointing to his airy mound,

  I call’d his ramparts holy ground!

  Kindled their brows to hear me speak;

  And I have smiled, to feel my cheek,

  Despite th
e difference of our years,

  Return again the glow of theirs.

  Ah, happy boys! such feelings pure,

  They will not, cannot long endure;

  Condemn’d to stem the world’s rude tide,

  You may not linger by the side;

  For Fate shall thrust you from the shore,

  And passion ply the sail and oar.

  Yet cherish the remembrance still,

  Of the lone mountain, and the rill;

  For trust, dear boys, the time will come,

  When fiercer transport shall be dumb,

  And you will think right frequently,

  But, well I hope, without a sigh,

  On the free hours that we have spent,

  Together, on the brown hill’s bent.

  When, musing on companions gone,

  We doubly feel ourselves alone,

  Something, my friend, we yet may gain,

  There is a pleasure in this pain:

  It soothes the love of lonely rest,

  Deep in each gentler heart impress’d.

  ‘Tis silent amid worldly toils,

  And stifled soon by mental broils;

  But, in a bosom thus prepared,

  Its still small voice is often heard,

  Whispering a mingled sentiment,

  ‘Twixt resignation and content.

  Oft in my mind such thoughts awake,

  By lone Saint Mary’s silent lake;

  Thou know’st it well,-nor fen, nor sedge,

  Pollute the pure lake’s crystal edge;

  Abrupt and sheer, the mountains sink

  At once upon the level brink;

  And just a trace of silver sand

  Marks where the water meets the land.

  Far in the mirror, bright and blue,