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In Hawick twinkled many a light;
Behind him soon they set in night;
And soon he spurr'd his courser keen
Beneath the tower of Hazeldean.*
XXVI.

The clattering hoofs the watchmen mark ;-
"Stand, ho! thou courier of the dark."-
"For Branksome, ho!" the knight rejoin'd.
And left the friendly tower behind.

He turn'd him now from Teviotside,

And, guided by the tinkling rill,
Northward the dark ascent did ride,
And gained the moor at Horsliehill;
Broad on the left before him lay,
For many a mile, the Roman way.t
XXVII.

A moment now he slack'd his speed,
A moment breathed his panting steed;
Drew saddle-girth and corslet-band,
And loosen'd in the sheath his brand.
On Minto-crags the moonbeams glint,+
Where Barnhill hew'd his bed of flint;
Who flung his outlaw'd limbs to rest,
Where falcons hang their giddy nest,
Mid cliffs, from whence his eagle eye
For many a league his prey could spy;
Cliffs, doubling, on their echoes borne,
The terrors of the robber's horn:
Cliffs, which, for many a later year,
The warbling Doric reed shall hear,
When some sad swain shall teach the grove,
Ambition is no cure for love!

XXVIII.

Unchallenged, thence pass'd Deloraine,
To ancient Riddel's fair domain,§

Where Aill, from mountains freed, Down from the lakes did raving come; Each wave was crested with tawny foam, Like the mane of a chestnut steed. In vain! no torrent, deep or broad, Might bar the bold moss-trooper's road. *The estate of Hazeldean, corruptly Hassendean, belonged for merly to a family of Scotts, thus commemorated by Satchells:"Hasendean came without a call,

The ancientest house among them all."

An ancient Roman road, crossing through part of Roxburghshire. I A romantic assemblage of cliffs, which rise suddenly above the vale of Teviot, in the immediate vicinity of the family-seat, from which Lord Minto takes his title. A small platform, on a projecting crag, commanding a most beautiful prospect, is termed Barnhill's Bed. This Bamhill is said to have been a robber, or outlaw. There are remains of a strong tower beneath the rocks, where he is supposed to have dwelt, and from which he derived his name. On the summit of the crags are the fragments of another ancient tower, in a picturesque situation. Among the houses cast down by the Earl of Hartforde, in 1545, occur the towers of Easter Barnhills, and of Minto-crag, with Minto town and place. Sir Gilbert Elliot, father to the present Lord Minto, was the author of a beautiful pastoral song, of which the following is a more correct copy than is usually published. The poetical mantle of Sir Gilbert Elliot has descended to his family, "My sheep I neglected, I broke my sheep-hook, And all the gay haunts of my youth I forsook: No more for Amynta fresh garlands I wove; Ambition, I said, would soon cure me of love. But what had my youth with ambition to do! Why left I Amynta! why broke I my vow! "Through regions remote in vain do I rove, And bid the wide world secure me from love. Ah, fool, to imagine, that aught could subdue A love so well founded, a passion so true! Ah, give me my sheep, and my sheep-hook restore And I'll wander from love and Amynta no more! "Alas! 'tis too late at thy fate to repine! Poor shepherd, Amynta no more can be thine ! Thy tears are all fruitless, thy wishes are vain, The moments neglected return not again. Ah! what had my youth with ambition to do! Why left I Amynta! why broke I my vow!" The family of Riddell have been very long in possession of the barony called Riddell, or Ryedale, a part of which still bears the latter name. Tradition carries their antiquity to a point extremely remote; and is, in some degree, sanctioned by the discovery of two stone coffins, one containing an earthen pot filled with ashes and arms, bearing a legible date. A. D. 727: the other dated 936, and filled with the bones of a man of gigantic size. These coffins were discovered in the foundations of what was, but has long ceased to be, the chapel of Riddell; and as it was argued, with plausibility, that they contained the remains of some ances tors of the family, they were deposited in the modern place of sepulture, comparatively so termed, though built in 1110. But the • Grandfather to the present Earl 1819.

XXIX.
At the first plunge the horse sunk low,
And the water broke o'er the saddlebow;
Above the foaming tide, I ween,

Scarce half the charger's neck was seen;
For he was barded from counter to tail,
And the rider was armed complete in mail;.
Never heavier man and horse
Stemm'd a midnight torrent's force.
The warrior's very plume, I say,
Was daggled by the dashing spray;

Yet, through good heart, and Our Ladye's grace,
At length he gain'd the landing place.

XXX.

Now Bowden Moor the march-man won,
And sternly shook his plumed head,
As glanced his eye o'er Halidon; T
For on his soul the slaughter red
Of that unhallow'd morn arose,
When first the Scott and Carr were foes;
When royal James beheld the fray.
Prize to the victor of the day;
When Home and Douglas, in the van,
Bore down Buccleuch's retiring clan,
Till gallant Cessford's heart-blood dear
Reek'd on dark Elliot's Border spear.

XXXI.
In bitter mood he spurred fast
And soon the hated heath was past;
And far beneath, in lustre wan,

Old Melros' rose, and fair Tweed ran:
Like some tall rock with lichens gray,
Seem'd dimly huge, the dark Abbaye.
When Hawick he pass'd, had curfew rung,

Now midnight lauds** were in Melrose sung.
The sound, upon the fitful gale,

In solemn wise did rise and fail,

Like that wild harp, whose magic tone

Is waken'd by the winds alone.

But when Melrose he reach'd, 'twas silence all; He meetly stabled his steed in stall, And sought the convent's lonely wall.tt following curious and authentic documents warrant most conclu sively the epithet of" ancient Riddell :" 1st, A charter by David 1. to Walter Rydale, Sheriff of Roxburgh, confirming all the estates of Liliesclive, &c., of which his father, Gervasius de Rydale, died possessed.-2dly, A bull of Pope Adrian IV, confirming the will of Walter de Rydale, knight, in favour of his brother Anschittil de Rydale, dated 8th April, 1155. 3dly, A bull of Pope Alexander III., confirming the said will of Walter de Ridale, bequeathing to his brother Anschittil the lands of Liliesclive, Whet tunes, &c., and ratifying the bargain betwixt Ansehittil and Huctredus, concerning the church of Liliesclive, in consequence of the mediation of Malcom II., and confirmed by a charter from that monarch. This bull is dated 17th June, 1160. 4thly. A bull of the same Pope, confirming the will of Sir Anschittil de Ridale, in favour of his son Walter, conveying the said lands of Liliesclive and others, dated 10th March, 1120. It is remarkable, that Liliesclive, otherwise Rydale, or Riddel, and the Whittunes, have descended, through a long train of ancestors, without ever passing into a collateral line, to the person of Sir John Buchanan Riddell, Bart, of Riddell, the lineal descendant and representative of Sir Anschittil.-These circumstances appeared worthy of notice in a Border work.t

Barded, or barbed,-applied to a horse accoutred with defensive armour.

Halidon was an ancient seat of the Kerrs of Cessford, now demolished. About a quarter of a mile to the northward lay the field of battle betwixt Buccleuch and Angus, which is called to this day the Skirmish Field.

**Lauds, the midnight service of the Catholic church.

The ancient and beautiful monastery of Melrose was founded by King David I. Its ruins afford the finest specimen of Gothie architecture and Gothic sculpture which Scotland can boast. The stone of which it is built, though it has resisted the weather for so many ages, retains a perfect sharpness, so that even the most minute ornaments seem as entire as when newly wrought. In some of the cloisters, as is hinted in the next Canto, there are representations of flowers, vegetables, &c. carved in stone, with accuracy and precision so delicate, that we almost distrust our senses, such intricate and exquisite modulation. This superb convent when we consider the difficulty of subjecting so hard a substance to was dedicated to St. Mary, and the monks were of the Cistertian order. At the time of the Reformation, they shared in the general reproach of sensuality and irregularity, thrown upon the Roman churchmen. The old words of Galashiels, a favourite Scottish air, ran thus:

O the monks of Melrose made gude kalet

On Fridays when they fasted:

They wanted neither beef nor ale,
As long as their neighbours' lasted.

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HERE paused the harp; and with its swell
The Master's fire and courage fell:
Dejectedly, and low, he bow a,
And, gazing timid on the crowd,
He seem'd to seek, in every eye,
If they approved his minstrelsy;
And, diffident of present praise,
Somewhat he spoke of former days,
And how old age, and wand'ring long,
Had done his hand and harp some wrong.
The Duchess, and her daughters fair,
And every gentle lady there,
Each after each, in due degree,
Gave praises to his melody;

His hand was true, his voice was clear,
And much they long'd the rest to hear.
Encouraged thus, the Aged Man,
After meet rest, again began.

CANTO SECOND.

I.

Ir thou would'st view fair Melrose aright,*
Go visit it by the pale moonlight;
For the gay beams of lightsome day
Gild, but to flout, the ruins gray.

When the broken arches are black in night,
And each shafted oriel glimmers white;
When the cold light's uncertain shower
Streams on the ruin'd central tower;
When buttress and buttress, alternately,
Seem framed of ebon and ivory;
When silver edges the imagery,

And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die;†
When distant Tweed is heard to rave,

And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man's grave,
Then go--but go alone the while-
Then view St. David's ruin'd pile ;
And, home returning, soothly swear,
Was never scene so sad and fair!

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Bold Deloraine his errand said;
The porter bent his humble head;
With torch in hand, and feet unshod,
And noiseless step, the path he trod :"
The arched cloister, far and wide,
Rang to the warrior's clanking stride;
Till, stooping low his lofty crest,

•["In the description of Melrose, which introduces the Second Canto, the reader will observe how skilfully the Author calls in the aid of sentimental associations to heighten the effect of the picture which he presents to the eye."-JEFFREY.]

* The buttresses, ranged along the sides of the ruins of Melrose Abbey, are, according to the Gothic style, richly carved and fret ted, containing niches for the statues of saints, and labelled with scrolls, bearing appropriate texts of Scripture. Most of these statues have been demolished

1 David I. of Scotland, purchased the reputation of sanctity, by founding, and liberally endowing, not only the monastery of Mel ose, but those of Kelso, Jedburgh, and many others; which led to the well-known observation of his successor, that he was a Bore saint for the crown.

The Buccleuch family were great benefactors to the Abbey of Melrose. As early as the reign of Robert II., Robert Scott, Baon of Murdieston and Rankleburn. (now Buccleuch,) gave to the monks the lands of Hinkery, in Ettrick Forest, pro salute anima sua-Chartulary of Meirose, 28th May, 1415.

Aventayle, visor of the helmet.

The Borderers were, as may be supposed, very ignorant about religious matters. Colville, in his Paranesis, or Admonition, states, that the reformed divines were so far from undertaking distant journeys to convert the Heathen, as I wold wis at God that ye wold only go bot to the Hielands and Borders of our own ealm, to gain our awin countreymen, who, for lack of preching

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V.

And strangely on the Knight look'd he, And his blue eyes gleam'd wild and wide 'And, darest thou, Warrior! seek to see What heaven and hell alike would hide? My breast, in belt of iron pent,

With shirt of hair and scourge of thorn; For threescore years, in penance spent,

My knees those flinty stones have worn'; Yet all too little to atone

For knowing what should ne'er be known. Would'st thou thy every future year

In ceaseless prayer and penance drie, Yet wait thy latter end with fear— Then, daring Warrior, follow me!"VI.

"Penance, father, will I none;
Prayer know I hardly one;

For mass or prayer can I rarely tarry,
Save to patter an Ave Mary,
When I ride on a Border foray.T
Other prayer can I none;

So speed me my errand, and let me be gone."

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Spreading herbs, and flowerets bright,
Glisten'd with the dew of night;

Nor herb, nor floweret, glisten'd there,
But was carved in the cloister-arches as fair.
The Monk gazed long on the lovely moon,

Then into the night he looked forth;
And red and bright the streamers light
Were dancing in the glowing north.
So had he seen, in fair Castile,

The youth in glittering squadrons start ;tt
Sudden the flying jennet wheel,

And hurl the unexpected dart.

and ministration of the sacraments, must, with tyme, becum either infidells, or atheists." But we learn, from Lesley, that, how ever deficient in real religion, they regularly told their beads, and never with more zeal than when going on a plundering expedition. ** The cloisters were frequently used as places of sepulture. An instance occurs in Dryburgh Abbey, where the cloister has an inscription, bearing, Hic jacet frater Archibaldus.

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"By my faith," said the Duke of Lancaster, (to a Portuguese squire,) of all the feates of armes that the Castellyans, and they of your countrey doth use, the castynge of their dertes best pleaseth me, and gladly I wolde se it: for, as I hear say, if they strike one aryghte, without he be well armed, the dart will pierce him thrughe."-"By my fayth, sir," sayd the squyer, ye say trouth; for I have seen many a grete stroke given with them, which at one time cost us derely, and was to us great displeasure; for, at the said skyrmishe, Sir John Laurence of Coygne was striken with a dart in such wise, that the head perced all the plates of his cote of mayle, and a sacke stopped with sylke, and passed thrughe his body, so that he fell down dead."-FROISSART, vol. ii. ch. 44. -This mode of fighting with darts was imitated in the military game called Jeugo de las canas, which the Spaniards borrowed from their Moorish invaders. A Saracen champion is thus decribed by Froissart: "Among the Sarazyns, there was a yonge knight called Agadinger Dolyferne; he was always wel mounted on a redy and a lyght horse; it seemed, when the horse ranne, that he did fly in the ayre. The knighte seemed to be a good man

He knew, by the streamers that shot so bright,
That spirits were riding the northern light.
IX.

By a steel-clenched postern door,
They enter'd now the chancel tall;
The darken'd roof rose high aloof

On pillars lofty and light and small.
The key-stone, that lock'd each ribbed aisle,
Was a fleur-de-lys, or a quatre-feuille;

The corbells ware carved grotesque and grim;
And the pillars, with cluster'd shafts so trim,
With base and with capital flourish'd around,t
Seem'd bundles of lances which garlands had
bound.

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XI.

The moon on the east oriel shone

Through slender shafts of shapely stone, of armes by his dedes; he bare always of usage three fethered dartes, and rychte well he could handle them; and, according to their custome, he was clene armed, with a long white towell about his head. His apparell was blacke, and his own colour browne, and a good horseman. The Crysten men say, they thoughte he dyd such deeds of armes for the love of some yonge ladye of his Countrey. And true it was, that he loved entirely the King of Thune's daughter, named the Lady Azala: she was inherytour to the realme of Thune, after the discease of the kyng, her father. This Agadinger was sone to the Duke of Olyferne. I can nat telle if they were married together after or nat; but it was shewed me, that this knyght, for love of the sayd ladye, during the siege, did many feates of armes. The knyghtes of France wold fayne have taken hym; but they colde never attrape nor inclose him; his horse was so swyft, and so redy to his hand, that alwaies he escaped."-Vol. ii. ch. 71.

Corbells, the projections from which the arches spring, usually

cut in a fantastic face, or mask.

["With plinth and with capital flourish'd around."

First Edition.] The famous and desperate battle of Otterburne was fought 15th August, 1388, betwixt Henry Percy, called Hotspur, and James, Earl of Douglas. Both these renowned champions were at the head of a chosen body of troops, and they were rivals in military fame; so that Froissart affirms, "Of all the battayles and encounteryngs that I have made mencion of here before in all this hystory, great or smalle, this battayle that I treat of nowe was one of the sorest and best foughten, without cowardes or faynte hertes: for there was neyther knyghte nor squyer but that dyde his devoyre, and foughte hande to hande. This batayle was lyke the batayle of Becherell, the which was valiauntly fought and endured." The issue of the conflict is well known: Percy was made prisoner, and the Scots won the day, dearly purchased by the death of their gallant general, the Earl of Douglas, who was slain in the action. He was buried at Melrose, beneath the high altar. His obsequye was done reverently, and on his bodye layde a tombe of stone, and his baner hangyng over hym."

FROISSART, vol. ii. p. 165.

William Douglas, called the Knight of Liddesdale, flourished during the reign of David H., and was so distinguished by his valour, that he was called the Flower of Chivalry. Nevertheless, he tarnished his renown by the cruel murder of Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie, originally his friend and brother in arms. The King had conferred upon Ramsay the sheriffdom of Teviot dale, to which Douglas pretended some claim. In revenge of this preference, the Knight of Liddesdale came down upon Ramsay, while he was administering justice at Hawick, seized and carried him off to his remote and inaccessible castle of Hermitage, where he threw his unfortunate prisoner, horse and man, into a dungeon, and left him to perish of hunger. It is said, the miserable captive prolonged his existence for several days by the corn which fell from a granary above the vault in which he was con fined* So weak was the royal authority, that David, although highly incensed at this atrocious murder, found himself obliged to appoint the Knight of Liddesdale successor to his victim, as SheThere is something affecting in the manner in which the old Prior of Lochleven turns from describing the death of the gallant Ramsay to the general

Borrow which it excited :

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By foliaged tracery combined; Thou would'st have thought some fairy's hand 'Twixt poplars straight the ozier wand,

In many a freakish knot, had twined;
Then framed a spell, when the work was done,
And changed the willow-wreaths to stone.
The silver light, so pale and faint,
Show'd many a prophet, and many a saint,
Whose image on the glass was dyed;
Full in the midst, his Cross of Red
Triumphant Michael brandished,

And trampled the Apostate's pride.
The moon-beam kiss'd the holy pane,
And threw on the pavement a bloody stain.

XII.

They sate them down on a marble stone,-T
(A Scottish monarch slept below;)

Thus spoke the Monk, in solemn tone:-
"I was not always a man of wo;
For Paynim countries I have trod,

And fought beneath the Cross of God:
Now, strange to my eyes thine arms appear,
And their iron clang sounds strange to my ear.
XIII.

"In these far climes it was my lot

To meet the wondrous Michael Scott;**

A wizard of such dreaded fame,

riff of Teviotdale. But he was soon after slain, while hunting in Ettrick Forest, by his own godson and chieftain, William, Earl of Douglas, in revenge, according to some authors, of Ramsay's murder; although a popular tradition, preserved in a ballad quoted by Godscroft, and some parts of which are still preserved, ascribes the resentment of the Earl to jealousy. The place where the Knight of Liddesdale was killed, is called, from his name, William-Cross, upon the ridge of a hill called William-hope, betwixt Tweed and Yarrow. His body, according to Godscroft, was car ried to Lindean church the first night after his death, and thence to Melrose, where he was interred with great pomp, and where his tomb is still shown.

It is impossible to conceive a more beautiful specimen of the lightness and elegance of Gothic architecture, when in its purity than the eastern window of Melrose Abbey. Sir James Hall of Dunglas, Bart. has, with great ingenuity and plausibility, traced the Gothic order through its various forms and seemingly eccen tric ornaments, to an architectural imitation of wicker work; of which, as we learn from some of the legends, the earliest Chris tian churches were constructed. In such an edifice, the original of the clustered pillars is traced to a set of round posts, begirt with slender rods of willow, whose loose summits were brought to meet from all quarters, and bound together artificially, so as to produce the frame-work of the roof: and the tracery of our Go thic windows is displayed in the meeting and interlacing of rods and hoops, affording an inexhaustible variety of beautiful forms of open work. This ingenious system is alluded to in the romance. Sir James Hall's Essay on Gothic Architecture is published in The Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions.

TA large marble stone, in the chancel of Melrose, is pointed out as the monument of Alexander II., one of the greatest of our early kings; others say, it is the resting place of Waldeve, one of the early abbots, who died in the odour of sanctity,

** Sir Michael Scott of Balwearie flourished during the 13th cen tury, and was one of the ambassadors sent to bring the Maid of Norway to Scotland upon the death of Alexander III. By a poeti cal anachronism, he is here placed in a later era. He was a man of much learning, chiefly acquired in foreign countries. He wrote a commentary upon Aristotle, printed at Venice in 1496; and several treatises upon natural philosophy, from which he appears to have been addicted to the abstruse studies of judicial astrology alchymy, physiognomy, and chiromancy. Hence he passed among his contemporaries for a skilful magician. Dempster informs us, that he remembers to have heard in his youth, that the magic books of Michael Scott were still in existence, but could not be opened without danger, on account of the malignant fiends who were thereby invoked. Dempsteri Historia Ecclesiastica, 1627, lib. xii. p. 495. Lesly characterizes Michael Scott as "singularie philosophia, astronomia, ac medicinæ laude prestans; dicebatur penitissimos magia recessus indagasse." Dante abo mentions him as a renowned wizard:

Quell' altro che ne' fianchi e cosi poco,
Michele Scotto fu, che veramente
Delle magiche frode seppe il giuoco."
Inferno, Canto xxmo.

A personage, thus spoken of by biographers and historians, loses little of his mystical fame in vulgar tradition. Accordingly, the memory of Sir Michael Scott survives in many a legend; and in the south of Scotland, any work of great labour and antiquity, is ascribed, either to the agency of Auld Michael, of Sir William Wallace, or of the devil. Tradition varies concerning the place of his burial; some contend for Home Coltrame, in Cumberland; others for Melrose Abbey. But all agree, that his books of magic were interred in his grave, or preserved in the convent where he died. Satchells, wishing to give some authority for his account of the origin of the name of Scott, pretends, that, in 1629, he chanced to be at Burgh under Bowness, in Cumberland, where a person, named Lancelot Scott, showed him an extract from Michael Scott's works, containing that story:

"He said the book which he gave me
Was of Sir Michael Scott's historie;
Which history was never yet read through,

That when, in Salamanca s cave,*
Him listed his magic wand to wave,

The bells would ring in Notre Daine!!
Some of his skill he taught to me;
And, Warrior, I could say to thee

The words that cleft Eildon hills in three,

And bridled the Tweed with a curb of stone:
But to speak them were a deadly sin;

And for having but thought them my heart within,
A treble penance must be done.

XIV.

"When Michael lay on his dying bed,
His conscience was awakened:

Nor never will, for no man dare it do.
Young scholars have pick'd out something
From the contents, that dare not read within.

He carried me along the castle then,

And shew'd his written book hanging on an iron pin.
His writing pen did seem to me to be

Of hardened metal, like steel, or accumie;
The volume of it did seem so large to me,
As the Book of Martyrs and Turks historie
Then in the church he let me see

A stone where Mr. Michael Scott did lie;

I asked at him how that could appear,

Mr. Michael had been dead above five hundred year?

He shew me none durst bury under that stone,
More than he had been dead a few years agone;
For Mr. Michael's name dos terrifle each one."

History of the Right Honourable Name of Scott.
Spain, from the relics, doubtless, of Arabian learning and su-
perstition, was accounted a favourite residence of magicians.
Pope Sylvester, who actually imported from Spain the use of the
Arabian numerals, was supposed to have learned there the magic,
for which he was stigmatized by the ignorance of his age.-WIL
LIAM of Malmsbury, lib. ii. cap 10. There were public schools,
where magic, or rather the sciences supposed to involve its mys-
teries, were regularly taught, at Toledo. Seville, and Salamanca.
In the latter city, they were held in a deep cavern; the mouth of
which was walled up by Queen Isabella, wife of King Ferdinand,
D'AUTON on Learned Incredulity, p. 45. These Spanish schools
of magic are celebrated also by the Italian poets of romance:--
"Questo citta di Tolleto solea

Tenere studio di negromanzia,
Quivi di magica arte si leggen
Pubblicamente, e di peromanzia;
E molti geomanti sempre avea,
Experimenti assai d' idromanzia
E' altre false opinion' di sciocchi
Come e fatture, o spesso batter gli occhi."

into its recesses.

He bethought him of his sinful deed,
And he gave me a sign to come with speed;
I was in Spain when the morning rose,
But I stood by his bed ere evening close.
The words may not again be said,
That he spoke to me, on death-bed laid;
They would rend this Abbaye's massy nave,
And pile it in heaps above his grave.

XV.

"I swore to bury his Mighty Book,
That never mortal might therein look;
And never to tell where it was hid,

Save at his Chief of Branksome's need:

the King of France satisfaction for certain piracies committed by his subjects upon those of Scotland. Instead of preparing a new equipage and splendid retinue, the ambassador retreated to his study, opened his book, and evoked a fiend in the shape of a huge black horse, mounted upon his back, and forced him to fly through the air towards France. As they crossed the sea, the devil insidiously asked his rider, What it was that the old women of Scotland muttered at bed-time? A less experienced wizard might have answered that it was the Pater Noster, which would have licensed the devil to precipitate him from his back. But Michael sternly replied, "What is that to thee?-Mount, Diabolus, and fly!" When he arrived at Paris, he tied his horse to the gate of the palace, entered, and bodily delivered his messago. An ambasador, with so little of the pomp and circumstance of diplomacy, was not received with much respect, and the King was about to return a contemptuous refusal to his demand, when Michael besought him to suspend his resolution till he had seen his horse stamp three times. The first stamp shook every steeple in Paris, and caused all the bells to ring; the second threw down three of the towers of the palace; and the infernal steed had lifted his hoof to give the third stamp, when the King rather chose to dismiss Michael, with the most ample concessions, than to stand to the probable consequences. Another time, it is said, that, when residing at the Tower of Oakwood, upon the Ettrick, about three miles above Selkirk, be heard of the fame of a sorceress, called the Witch of Falsehope, who lived on the opposite side of the river. Michael went one morning to put her skill to the test, but was disappointed, by her denying positively any knowledge of the necromantic art. In his discourse with her, he laid his wand inadvertently on the table. which the hag observing, suddenly snatched it up, and struck him with it Feeling the force of the charm, he rushed out of the house; but as it had conferred on him the external appearance of a hare, his servant, who waited without, halloo'd upon the discomfited wizard his own greyhounds, and pursued him so close, that in order to obtain a moment's breathing to reverse the charm, Michael, after a very fatiguing course, was fain to take refuge in his own jawhole (Anglice, common sewer.) In order to revenge himself of the witch of Falshope, Michael, one morning in the ensuing harvest, went to the bill above the house with his dogs, and sont down his servant to ask a bit of bread from the goodwife for his greyhounds, with instructions what to do if he met with a denial. Accordingly, when the witch had refused the boon with contumely, the servant, as his master had directed, laid above the door & paper which he had given him, containing amongst many cabalistical words, the well known rhyme,

Il Morgante Maggiore, Canto XIV. St. 250. The celebrated magician Maugis, cousin to Rinaldo of Montalban, called, by Ariosto, Malagigi, studied the black art at Toledo, we learn from L'Histoire de Maugis D'Aygremont. He even held a professor's chair in the necromantic university; for so I interpret the passage, qu'on tous les sept ars de enchantement, de charmes et conjurations, il n'y avoit meillieur maistre que bai; et en tel renom qu'on le laissoit en chaise, et l'appelloit on mature Maugis." This Salamancan Domdaniel is said to have been founded by Hercules. If the classic reader inquires where Hercules himself learned magic, he may consult Les faicts et res du noble et vaillant Hercules," where he will learn, that the fable, of his aiding Atlas to support the heavens, arose from the said Atlas having taught Hercules, the noble knighterrant, the seven liberal sciences, and in particular, that of judical astrology. Such, according to the idea of the middle ages, were the studies. maximus que docuit Atlas."-In a romantic history of Roderic, the last Gothic King of Spain, he is said to have entered one of those enchanted caverns. It was situated beneath an ancient tower near Toledo; and when the iron gates, which secured the entrance, were unfoided, there jushed forth so dreadful a whirlwind, that hitherto no one had dared to penetrate But Roderic, threatened with an invasion of the Moors, resolved to enter the cavern, where he expected to find Bome prophetic intimation of the event of the war. Accordingly, strain being furnished with torches, so artificially composed that the tempest could not extinguish them, the King, with great difficulty, penetrated into a square hall, inscribed all over with Araban characters. In the midst stood a colossal statue of brass, Representing a Saracen wielding a Moorish mace, with which it decharged farious blows on all sides, and seemed thus to excite the tempest which raged around. Being conjured by Roderic, it ceased from striking, until he read, inscribed on the right hand, Wretched Monarch, for thy coil hast thou come hither;" on the left hand," Thou shalt be dispossessed by a strange people;" on one shoulder, "I invoke the sons of Hagar" on the other, Ida mine office." When the King had deciphered these omi nous inscriptions, the statue returned to its exercise, the tempest menced anew, and Roderic retired, to mourn over the pre-chael Scott, like his predecessor Merlin, fell at last a victim to dicted evils which approached his throne. He caused the gates female art. His wife, or concubine, elicited from him the secret, of the cavern to be locked and barricaded; but, in the course of that his art could ward off any danger except the poisonous quali the night, the tower fell with a tremendous noise, and under its ties of broth, made of the flesh of a breme sow. Such a mess sha rains concealed for ever the entrance to the mystic cavern. The accordingly administered to the wizard, who died in consequence Conquest of Spain by the Saracens, and the death of the unfor- of eating it; surviving, however, long enough to put to death his tanate Don Roderic, fulfilled the prophecy of the brazen statue. treacherous contidant. Historia verdadera del Rey Don Rodrigo por el sabio Alcayde Abulcacim, traduzeda de la lengua Arabiga por Miquel de Luna, 1654, cap. vi.

Tantamne rem tam negligenter?" says Tyrwhitt, of his predecessor, Speight; who, in his commentary on Chaucer, had omitted, as trivial and fabulous, the story of Wade and his boat Gangelot, to the great prejudice of posterity, the memory of the hero and the boat being now entirely lost. That future antiqua ies may lay no such omission to my charge, I have noted one or wo of the most current traditions concerning Michael Scott. He was chosen, it is said, to go upon an embassy, to obtain from

"Maister Michael Scott's man Sought meat, and gat nane." Immediately the good old woman, instead of pursuing her domestic occupation, which was baking bread for the reapers, began to dance round the fire, repeating the rhyme, and continued this exercise till her husband sent the reapers to the house, one after another, to see what had delayed their provision; but the charm caught each as they entered, and, loosing all idea of returning, they joined in the dance and chorus. At length the old man himself went to the house; but as his wife's frolic with Mr. Michael, whom he had seen on the hill, made him a little cautious, he con tented himself with looking in at the window, and saw the reapers at their involuntary exercise, dragging his wife, now completely exhausted, sometimes round, and sometimes through, the fire. which was, as usual, in the midst of the house. Instead of entering, he saddled a horse, and rode up the hill, to humble himself before Michael, and beg a cessation of the spell; which the good-natured warlock immediately granted, directing him to enter the house backwards, and with his left hand, take the spell from above the door; which accordingly ended the superna tural dance. This tale was told less particularly in former editions, and I have been censured for inaccuracy in doing so.-A similar charm occurs in Huon de Bourdeaux, and in the ingenious Oriental tale, called the Caliph Vathek.

Notwithstanding his victory over the witch of Falschope. Mi

I Michael Scott was, once upon a time, much embarrassed by a spirit for whom he was under the necessity of finding constant employment. He commanded him to build a cauld, or dam head. across the Tweed at Kelso; it was accomplished in one night, and still does honour to the infernal architect. Michael next or dered, that Eildon hill, which was then a uniform cone, should be divided into three. Another night was sufficient to part its summit into the three picturesque peaks which it now bears. At length the enchanter conquered this indefatigable demon, by employing him in the hopeless and endless task of making ropes out of sea sand.

And when that need was past and c'er,
Again the volume to restore.

I buried him on St. Michael's night,
When the bell toll'd one, and the moon was bright,
And I dug his chamber among the dead,

When the floor of the chancel was stained red,
That his patron's cross might over him wave,
And scare the fiends from the Wizard's grave.
XVI.

"It was a night of wo and dread,
When Michael in the tomb I laid!

Strange sounds along the chancel pass'd,
The banners waved without a blast"--

-Still spoke the Monk, when the bell toll'd one!

I tell you, that a braver man

Than William of Deloraine, good at need,
Against a foe ne'er spurr'd a steed;

Yet somewhat was he chill'd with dread,
And his hair did bristle upon his head.

XVII.

"Lo, Warrior! now, the Cross of Red
Points to the grave of the mighty dead;
Within it burns a wondrous light,

To chase the spirits that love the night:
That lamp shall burn unquenchably,
Until the eternal doom shall be.".

Slow moved the Monk to the broad flag-stone,
Which the bloody Cross was traced upon:
He pointed to a secret nook;

An iron bar the Warrior took ;+

And the Monk made a sign with his wither'd hand, The grave's huge portal to expand.

XVIII.

With beating heart to the task he went;

His sinewy frame o'er the grave-stone bent;
With bar of iron heaved amain,

Till the toil-drops fell from his brows, like rain.
It was by dint of passing strength,
That he moved the massy stone at length.

I would you had been there, to see

How the light broke forth so gloriously,
Stream'd upward to the chancel roof,
And through the galleries far aloof!
No earthly flame blazed e'er so bright:
It shone like heaven's own blessed light,
And, issuing from the tomb,

Show'd the Monk's cowl, and visage pale,

* Baptista Porta, and other authors who treat of natural magic, talk much of eternal lamps, pretended to have been found burning in ancient sepulchres. Fortunius Licetus investigates the subject in a treatise. De Lucernis Antiquorum Reconditis, pub lished at Venice, 1621. One of these perpetual lamps is said to have been discovered in the tomb of Tulliola, the daughter of Cicero. The wick was supposed to be composed of asbestos. Kircher enumerates three different recipes for constructing such lamps; and wisely concludes, that the thing is nevertheless impossible.-Mundus Subterranneus, p. 72. Delrio imputes the fabrication of such lights to magical skill.-Disquisitiones Magi cæ, p. 59. In a very rare romance, which "treateth of the life of Virgilius, and of his deth, and many marvayles that he dyd in his lyfe-time, by wyche-crafte and nygramancye, throughé the helpe of the devyls of hell," mention is made of a very extraor dinary process, in which one of these mystical lamps was em ployed. It seems that Virgil, as he advanced in years, became desirous of renovating his youth by magical art. For this purpose he constructed a solitary tower, having only one narrow portal, in which he placed twenty-four copper figures, armed with iron flails, twelve on each side of the porch. These enchanted statues struck with their flails incessantly, and rendered all entrance impossible, unless when Virgil touched the spring, which stopped their motion. To this tower he repaired privately, attended by one trusty servant, to whom he communicated the secret of the entrance, and hither they conveyed all the magician's treasure. "Then sayde Virgilius, my dere beloved frende, and he that I above alle men truste and knowe mooste of my secret;" and then he led the man into a cellar, where he made a fayer lamp at all seasons burnynge. And then sayd Virgilius to the Inan, 'Se you the barrel that standeth here?' and he sayd, yea: Therein must thou put me: fyrst ye must slee me, and hewe me smalle to pieces, and cut my hed in iii pieces, and salte the heed under in the bottom, and then the pieces there after, and my herte in the myddel, and then set the barrel under the lampe, that nyghte and day the fat therein may droppe and leake; and ye shall ix dayes long, ones in the day, fyll the lampe, and fayle nat. And when this is all done, then shall I be renued, and made yonge agen." At this extraordinary proposal, the confidant was sore abashed, and made some scruple of obeying his master's commands. At length, however, he complied, and Virgil was slain, pickled, and barrelled up, in all respects according to his own direction. The servant then left the tower, taking care to

Danced on the dark-brow'd Warrior's mail And kiss'd his waving plume.

XIX. Before their eyes the Wizard lay, As if he had not been dead a day. His hoary beard in silver roll'd, He seem'd some seventy winters old; A palmer's amice wrapp'd him round, With a wrought Spanish baldric bound, Like a pilgrim from beyond the sea: His left hand held his Book of Might; A silver cross was in his right;

The lamp was placed beside his knee : High and majestic was his look, At which the fellest fiends had shook, And all unruffled was his face: They trusted his soul had gotten grace.

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put the copper thrashers in motion at his departure. tinued daily to visit the tower with the same precaution. while, the emperor, with whom Virgil was a great favourite, missed him from the court, and demanded of his servant where he was. The domestic pretended ignorance, till the emperor threatened him with death, when at length he conveyed him to the enchanted tower. The same threat extorted a discovery of the mode of stopping the statues from wielding their flails. "And then the emperour entered into the castle with all his folke, and sought all aboute in every corner after Virgilius; and at the laste they soughte so longe, that they came into the seller, where they sawe the lampe hang over the barrell, where Virgilius lay in deed. Then asked the emperour the man, who had made hym so herdy to put his mayster Virgilius so to dethe; and the man answered no worde to the emperour. And then the emperour, with great anger, drewe out his sworde, and slewe be there Virgilius' man. And when all this was done, then sawe the emperour, and all his folke, a naked child iii tymes rennynge about the barrell, saynze these wordes, Cursed be the tyme that ye ever came here.' And with those words vanyshed the chylde awaye, and was never sene ageyn; and thus abyd Virgilius in the barrell deed."-Virgilius, bl. let, printed at Antwerpe by John Doesborcke. This curious volume is in the valuable library of Mr. Douce; and is spposed to be a translation from the French, printed in Flanders for the English market. See Goujet Biblioth. Frane ix. 25. Catalogue de la Bibliotheque Nationale, tom. ii. p. 5. De Bure, No. 3857. [Orig.-A bar from thence the warrior took.]

[The agitation of the monk at the sight of the man, whom he had loved with brotherly affection-the horror of Deloraine. and his belief that the corpse frowned, as he withdrew the magic volume from its grasp, are, in a succeeding part of the narra tive, circumstances not more happily conceived than exquisitely wrought "-Critical Review.

William of Deloraine might be strengthened in this belief by the well-known story of the Cid Ruy Diaz. When the body of that famous Christian champion was sitting in state by the high altar of the cathedral church of Toledo, where it remained for ten years, a certain malicious Jew attempted to pull him by the beard; but he had no sooner touched the formidable whiskers, than the corpse started up, and half unsheathed his sword. Israelite fled; and so permanent was the effect of his terror, that he became Christian. HEYWOOD's Hierarchie, p. 480, quoted from Sebastian Cobarruvias Crozee.

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