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AND WHILE HIS HARP RESPONSIVE RUNG,
'TWAS THUS THE LATEST MINSTREL SUNG.

introduction.

PUBLISHED BY HURST, ROBINSON, & CLONDON, 1823.

THE

LAY

OF

THE LAST MINSTREL.

CANTO FIRST.

I.

THE feast was over in Branksome tower,

And the Ladye had gone to her secret bower;

Her bower, that was guarded by word and by spell, Deadly to hear, and deadly to tell,

Jesu Maria, shield us well!

No living wight, save the Ladye alone,
Had dared to cross the threshold stone.

II.

The tables were drawn, it was idlesse all;

Knight, and page, and household squire, Loiter'd through the lofty hall,

Or crowded round the ample fire.

The stag-hounds, weary with the chace,
Lay stretch'd upon the rushy floor,

And urged, in dreams, the forest-race,
From Teviot-stone to Eskdale-moor.

III.

Nine-and-twenty knights of fame

Hung their shields in Branksome-Hall;

Nine-and-twenty squires of name

Brought them their steeds from bower to stall;

Nine-and-twenty yeomen tall

Waited, duteous, on them all :

They were all knights of mettle true,

Kinsmen to the bold Buccleuch.

IV.

Ten of them were sheathed in steel,
With belted sword, and spur on heel :
They quitted not their harness bright,

Neither by day, nor yet by night :

They lay down to rest,

With corslet laced,

Pillow'd on buckler cold and hard;

They carved at the meal,

With gloves of steel,

And they drank the red wine through the helmet

barr'd.

V.

Ten squires, ten yeomen, mail-clad men,

Waited the beck of the warders ten;

Thirty steeds, both fleet and wight,

Stood saddled in stable day and night,
Barb'd with frontlet of steel, I trow,

And with Jedwood-axe at saddle-bow;

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