VII.

Behind him rode two gallant squires,
Of noble name, and knightly sires;
They burned the gilded spurs to claim;
For well could each a war-horse tame,
Could draw the bow, the sword could sway,
And lightly bear the ring away;
Nor less with courteous precepts stored,
Could dance in hall, and carve at board,
And frame love-ditties passing rare,
And sing them to a lady fair."

VIII.

Four men-at-arins came at their backs,
With halbert, bill, and battle-axe :

They bore Lord Marmion's lance so strong,*
And led his sumpter-mules along,
And ambling palfrey, when at need
Him listed ease his battle-steed.
The last and trustieth of the four,
On high his forky pennon bore;
Like swallow's tail, in shape and hue,
Fluttered the streamer glossy blue,
Where, blazoned sable, as before,
The towering falcon seemed to soar.
Last, twenty yeomen, two and two,
In hosen black, and jerkins blue,
With falcons broidered on each breast,
Attended on their lord's behest.
Each, chosen for an archer good,
Knew hunting-craft by lake or wood;
Each one a six foot bow could bend,
And far a cloth-yard shaft could send;
Each held a boar-spear tough and strong
And at their belts their quivers rung.
Their dusty palfreys, and array,

Showed they had marched a weary way.

"I bear a pie picking at a piece,

Whoso picks at her, I shall pick at his nese,
In faith."

This affront could only be expiated by a just with sharp lances. In the course, Dalzell left his helmet unlaced, so that it gave way at the touch of his antagonist's lance, and he thus avoided the shock of the encounter. This happened twice:-in the third encounter, the handsome Courtenay lost two of his front teeth. As the Englishman complained bitterly of Dalzell's fraud in not fastening his helmet, the Scottishman agreed to run six courses more, each champion staking in the hands of the king two hundred pounds, to be forfeited, if on entering the lists. any unequal advantage should be detected. This being agreed to, the wily Scot demanded that Sir Piers, in addition to the loss of his teeth, should consent to the extinction of one of his eyes, he himself having lost an eye in the fight of Otterburn. As Cour tenay demurred to this equalization of optical powers, Dalzell demanded the forfeit; which, after much altercation, the king appointed to be paid to him, saying, he surpassed the Englishman both in wit and valour. This must appear to the reader a singu lar specimen of the humour of that time. I suspect the Jockey Club would have given a different decision from Henry IV. [MS.-" One bore Lord Marmion s lance so strong, Too led his sumpter-mules along,

The third his palfrey, when at need."]

+ [MS.-" And when he enter'd, such a clang, As through the echoing turrets rang."

["The most picturesque of all poets, Homer, is frequently minute, to the utmost degree, in the description of the dresses and accoutrements of his personages. These particulars, often inconsiderable in themselves, have the effect of giving truth and identity to the picture, and assist the mind in realizing the scenes, in a degree which no general description could suggest; nor could we so completely enter the Castle with Lord Marmion, were any circumstances of the description omitted. "-British Critic.)

Lord Marmion, the principal character of the present romance, is entirely a fictitious personage. In earlier times, indeed, the fa mily of Marmion, lords of Fontenay, in Normandy, was highly distinguished. Robert de Marmion, lord of Fontenay, a distinguished follower of the conqueror, obtained a grant of the castle and town of Tamworth, and also of the manor of Scrivelby, in Lincolnshire. One, or both, of these noble possessions was held by the honourable service of being the royal champion, as the ancestors of Marmion had formerly been to the dukes of Normandy. But after the castle and demesne of Tamworth had passed through four successive barons from Robert, the family became • Prepared. † Armour. 1 Nese.

IX.

'Tis meet that I should tell you now,
How fairly armed, and ordered how,
The soldiers of the guard,
With musket, pike, and morion,
To welcome noble Marmion,

Stood in the castle-yard;
Minstrels and trumpeters were there,
The gunner held his linstock yare,
For welcome-shot prepared-
Entered the train, and such a clang,†
As then through all his turrets rang,
Old Norham never heard.

X.

The guards their morrice-pikes advanced,
The trumpets flourished brave,
The cannon from the ramparts glanced,
And thundering welcome gave.

A blithe salute, in martial sort,
The minstrels well might sound,
For, as Lord Marmion crossed the court,
He scattered angels round.
"Welcome to Norham, Marmion,
Stout heart, and open hand!

Well dost thou brook thy gallant roan,
Thou flower of English land!"

XI.

Two pursuivants, whom tabards deck,
With silver scutcheon round their neck,
Stood on the steps of stone,

By which you reach the donjon gate,
And there, with herald pomp and state,
They hailed Lord Marmion :
They hailed him Lord of Fontenaye,
Of Lutterward and Scrivelbaye,

Of Tamworth tower and town;S

extinct in the person of Philip de Marmion, who died in 20th Edward I., without issue male. He was succeeded in his castle of Tamworth by Alexander de Freville, who married Mazera, his grand-daughter. Baldwin de Freville, Alexander's descendant, in the reign of Richard I., by the supposed tenure of his castle of Tamworth, claimed the office of royal champion, and to do the service appertaining; namely on the day of coronation, to ride completely armed, upon a barbed horse, into Westminster ball, and there to challenge the combat against any who would gainsay the king's title. But this office was adjudged to Sir John Dyinoke, to whom the manor of Scrivelby had descended by another of the co-heiresses of Robert de Marmion, and it remains in that family, whose representative is hereditary champion of England at the present day. The family and possessions of Freville have merged in the Earls of Ferrars: I have not, therefore, created a new family, but only revived the titles of an old one in an imaginary personage

It was one of the Marmion family who, in the reign of Edward II., performed that chivalrous feat before the very castle of Nor ham, which Bishop Percy has woven into his beautiful ballad, "The Hermit of Warkworth." The story is thus told by Leland:

The Scottes came yn to the marches of England, and de stroyed the castles of Werk and Herbotel, and overran much of Northumberland marches.

At this tyme Thomas Gray and his friends defended Norham from the Scottes.

"It were a wonderful processe to declare, what mischiefs cam by hungre and asseges, by the space of xi yers in Northumber land; for the Scottes became so proude after they had got Berwick, that they nothing esteemed the Englishmen.

About this tyme there was a great feste made yn Lineonshir, to which came many gentlemen and ladies; and amonge them one lady brought a heanime for a man of were, with a very riche creste of gold, to William Marmion, knight, with a letter of commandment of her lady, that he should go into the daun gerest place in England, and ther to let the heaulme be seene and known as famous. So be went to Norham; whither within 4 days of cumming cam Philip Maubray, guardian of Berwicke, having yn his bande 40 men of armes, the very flour of men of the Scottish marches.

"Thomas Gray, capitayne of Norham, seynge this, brought his garison afore the barriers of the castle. behind whom cam William, richly arrayed, as al glittering in gold, and wearing the heaulme, his lady's present.

"Then said Thomas Gray to Marmion, Sir knight, ye be cum hither to fame your helmet: mount upon yor horse, and ryde like a valiant man to yor foes even bere at hand, and I forsake God if I rescue not thy body deade or alyve, or I myself will dye for it.'

Whereupon he took his cursere, and rode among the throng of ennemyes; the which layed sore stripes on hym, and pulled hym at the last out of his sadel to the grounde

Then Thomas Gray, with al the hole garison, lette prick yn among the Scottes, and so wondid them and their horses, that they were overthrowan; and Marmion, sore beten, was horsid azayn, and, with Gray, persewed the Scottes yn chase. There were taken 50 horse of price: and the women of Norham brought them to the foote men to follow the chase."

They marshalled him to the castle-hall, Where the guests stood all aside,

And loudly flourished the trumpet-call, And the heralds loudly cried,

-" Room, lordings, room for Lord Marmion, With the crest and helm of gold!

Full well we know the trophies won
In the lists at Cottiswold:

There vainly Ralph de Wilton strove
'Gainst Marmion's force to stand;
To him he lost his lady-love,
And to the king his land.
Ourselves beheld the listed field,
A sight both sad and fair;

We saw Lord Marmion pierce his shield,t
And saw his saddle bare;

We saw the victor win the crest

He wears with worthy pride;
And on the gibbet tree, reversed,
His foeman's scutcheon tied.
Place, nobles, for the Falcon-knight!
Room, room, ye gentles gay,
For him who conquered in the right,
Marmion of Fontenaye !"-
XIII.

Then stepped to meet that noble lord,
Sir Hugh the Heron bold,
Baron of Twisell, and of Ford,
And captain of the Hold.t

He led Lord Marmion to the deas,
Raised o'er the pavement high,
And placed him in the upper place-
They feasted full and high:

The whiles a northern harper rude
Chanted a rhyme of deadly feud,

How the fierce Thirwalls, and Ridleys all,
Stout Willimondswick,

And Hard-riding Dick,

And Hughie of Hawdon, and Will o' the Wall,
Hare set on Sir Albany Featherstonhaugh
And taken his life at the Deadman's shaw."§-
Scantly Lord Marmion's ear could brook
The harper's barbarous lay;

Yet much he praised the pains he took,
And well those pains did pay:

For lady's suit, and minstrel's strain,

By knight should ne'er be heard in vain.

'Now, good Lord Marmion," Heron says. Of your fair courtesy,

I pray you bide some little space

In this poor tower with me.

Here

may you keep your arms from rust, May breathe your war-horse well;

*This was the ery with which heralds and pursuivants were wont to acknowledge the bounty received from the knights. Steward of Lorn distinguishes a ballad, in which he satirizes the Barrowness of James V., and his courtiers, by the ironical burdenLergez, lerges, lerges, hay, Lerges of this new-yeir day. First leges of the King, my chief, Qululk come als quiet as a thief,

And in my hand slid schillingis tway,"

To put his lergnes to the preif, f
For lerges of this new-yeir day."

The heralds, like the minstrels, were a race allowed to have great claims upon the liberality of the knights, of whose feats they kept a record, and proclaimed them aloud, as in the text, apon suitable occasions.

At Berwick, Norham, and other border fortresses of importance, pursuivants usually resided, whose inviolable character rendered them the only persons that could, with perfect assurance of safety, be sent on necessary embassies into Scotland. This is alluded to in stanza XXI.

(MS-" Cleave his shield."]

Were accuracy of any consequence in a fictitious narrative, this castellan's name ought to have been William; for William Heron of Ford was husband to the famous Lady Ford, whose syren charms are said to have cost our James IV. so dear. More† Proof.

• Two.

Seldom hath passed a week, but giust

Or feat of arms befell:
The Scots can rein a mettled steed,
And love to couch a spear;-
St. George! a stirring life they lead,
That have such neighbours near.
Then stay with us a little space,
Our northern wars to learn;

I pray you for your lady's grace,"
Lord Marmion's brow grew stern.
XV.

The captain marked his altered look,
And gave a squire the sign;

A mighty wassail bowl he took,
And crown'd it high with wine.
"Now pledge me here, Lord Marmion:
But first, pray thee fair,||

Where hast thou left that page of thine,
That used to serve thy cup of wine,
Whose beauty was so rare?

When last in Raby towers we met,
The boy I closely eyed,

And often marked his cheeks were wet
With tears he fain would hide:

His was no rugged horse-boy's hand,
To burnish shield, or sharpen brand, T
Or saddle battle-steed;

But meeter seemed for lady fair,
To fan her cheek, or curl her hair,
Or through embroidery, rich and rare,
The slender silk to lead :

His skin was fair, his ringlets gold,
His bosom-when he sighed,
The russet doublet's rugged fold
Could scarce repel its pride!

Say, hast thou given that lovely youth
To serve in lady's bower?

Or was the gentle page, in sooth,
A gentle paramour?"

XVI.

Lord Marmion ill could brook such jest ;** He rolled his kindling eye,

With pain his rising wrath suppressed,

แ

Yet made a calm reply:

That boy thou thought'st so goodly fair, He might not brook the northern air. More of his fate if thou would'st learn, I left him sick in Lindisfarn :†† Enough of him; but, Heron say, Why dost thy lovely lady gay Disdain to grace the hall to-day? Or has that dame, so fair and sage, Gone on some pious pilgrimage ?"He spoke in covert scorn, for fame Whispered light tales of Heron's dame.‡‡ XVII.

Unmarked, at least unrecked, the taunt,
Careless the knight replied,$$

"No bird, whose feathers gayly flaunt,
Delights in cage to bide:
Norham is grim, and grated close,
Hemmed in by battlement and fosse,

over, the said William Heron was, at the time supposed, a pri soner in Scotland, being surrendered by Henry VIII., on account of his share in the slaughter of Sir Robert Ker of Cessford. His wife, represented in the text as residing at the court of Scotland, was, in fact, living in her own castle at Ford.-See Sir RICHARD HERON'S curious Genealogy of the Heron family.

The rest of this old ballad, given as a note in the former editions of Marmion, may be found in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.

[MS.-" And let me pray thee fair."]

TIMS.-"To rub a shield, or sharp a brand."]

** [MS.-"Lord Marmion ill such jest could brook, He roll'd his kindling eye;

Fix'd on the Knight his dark haught look,

And answer'd stern and high:

That page thou did'st so closely eye,

So fair of hand and skin,

Is come. I ween, of lineage high,
And of thy lady's kin.

That youth, so like a paramour,
Who wept for shame and pride,
Was erst, in Wilton's lordly bower,
Sir Ralph de Wilton's bride.'"]

+ [See Note, canto ii. stanza 1.]

!! (MS.-" Whisper'd strange things of Heron's dame." SS [MS.-"The Captain gay replied."]

And many a darksome tower; And better loves my lady bright To sit in liberty and light,

In fair Queen Margaret's bower.
We hold our greyhound in our hand,
Our falcon on our glove;

But where shall we find leash or band,
For dame that loves to rove?
Let the wild falcon soar her swing,

She'll stoop when she has tired her wing."

XVIII.

"Nay, if with royal James's bride,
The lovely Lady Heron bide,
Behold me here a messenger,

Your tender greetings prompt to bear;
For, to the Scottish court addressed,
I journey at your king's behest,
And pray you, of your grace, provide
For me, and mine, a trusty guide.
I have not ridden in Scotland since

James backed the cause of that mock prince,
Warbeck, that Flemish counterfeit,
Who on the gibbet paid the cheat.
Then did I march with Surrey's power,
What time we razed old Ayton tower,'

XIX.

"For such like need, my lord, I trow,
Norham can find you guides enow;
For here be some have pricked as far,
On Scottish ground, as to Dunbar;
Have drunk the monks of St. Bothan's ale,
And driven the beeves of Lauderdale;
Harried the wives of Greenlaw's goods,
And given them light to set their hoods."
XX.

"Now, in good sooth," Lord Marmion cried,
"Were I in warlike-wise to ride,
A better guard I would not lack,
Than your stout forayers at my back:
But, as in form of peace I go,
A friendly messenger, to know,

Why, through all Scotland, near and far,
Their king is mustering troops for war,
The sight of plundering border spears
Might justify suspicious fears,
And deadly feud, or thirst of spoil,
Break out in some unseemly broil:
A herald were my fitting guide;
Or friar, sworn in peace to bide;
Or pardoner, or travelling priest,
Or strolling pilgrim, at the least."
XXI.

The captain mused a little
space,
And passed his hand across his face.
"Fain would I find the guide you want,
But ill may spare a pursuivant,

* [MS.-" She'll stoop again when tired her wing."]

The story of Perkin Warbeck, or Richard, Duke of York, is well known. In 1496, he was received honourably in Scotland; and James IV., after conferring upon him in marriage his own relation, the lady Catharine Gordon, made war on England in behalf of his pretensions. To retaliate an invasion of England, Surrey advanced into Berwickshire at the head of considerable forces, but retreated after taking the inconsiderable fortress of Ayton. Ford, in his Dramatic Chronicle of Perkin Warbeck, makes the most of this inroad :

"SURREY.

"Are all our braving enemies shrunk back,
Hid in the fogges of their distemper'd climate,
Not daring to behold our colours wave
In spight of this infected ayre ? Can they
Looke on the strength of Candrestine defac't;
The glorie of Heydonhall devasted; that
Of Edington cast downe; the pile of Fulden
Orethrowne: And this, the strongest of their forts,
Old Ayton Castle, yeelded and demolished,
And yet not peepe abroad? The Scots are bold,
Hardie in battayle, but it seems the cause
They undertake considered, appearea
Unjoynted in the frame on't.

The garrisons of the English castles of Wark, Norham, and Berwick, were, as may be easily supposed, very troublesome neighbours to Scotland. Sir Richard Maitland of Ledington wrote a poem, called "The Blind Baron's Comfort;" when his barony of Blythe, in Lauderdale, was harried by Rowland Foster, the English captain of Wark, with his company, to the num ber of 300 men. They spoiled the poetical knight of 5000 sheep. 200 nolt, 30 horses and mares; the whole furniture of his house of Blythe, worth 100 pounds Scots, (81.: 6: 8,) and every thing else that was portable. "This spoil was committed the 16th day

1

The only men that safe can ride
Mine errands on the Scottish side:
And though a bishop built this fort,
Few holy brethren here resort;
Even our good chaplain, as I ween,
Since your last siege, we have not seen:
The mass he might not sing or say,
Upon one stinted meal a day;

So, safe he sat in Durham aisle,
And prayed for our success the while.
Our Norham vicar, wo betide,

Is all too well in case to ride.

The priest of Shoreswood,§-he could rein
The wildest war-horse in your train;

But then, no spearman in the hall
Will sooner swear, or stab, or brawl.
Friar John of Tillmouth were the man:
A blithesome brother at the can,
A welcome guest in hall and bower,
He knows each castle, town, and tower,
In which the wine and ale are 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 crossed 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, wo 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 vowed 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:

of May, 1570, (and the said Sir Richard was threescore and fourteen years of age, and grown blind.) in time of peace; when nane of that country lippened (expected) such a thing.""The Blind Baron's Comfort" consists in a string of puns on the word Blythe, the name of the lands thus despoiled. Like John Littlewit, he had a conceit left him in his misery,-a miserable

conceit."

The last line of the text contains a phrase, by which the borderers jocularly intimated the burning a house. When the Marwells, in 1685, burned the castle of Lochwood, they said they did so to give the lady Johnstone "light to set her hood." Nor was the phrase inapplicable; for, in a letter, to which I have mislaid the reference, the Earl of Northumberland writes to the king and council, that he dressed himself, at midnight, at Warkworth, by the blaze of the neighbouring villages, burned by the Scottish marauders.

This churchman seems to have been a-kin to Welsh the vicar of St. Thomas of Exeter, a leader among the Cornish insurgents in 1549. "This man," says Hollinshed, had many good things in him. He was of no great stature, but well set, and mightilie compact: he was a very good wrestler; shot well, both in the long bow, and also in the cross-bow; he handled his hand gun and peece very well; he was a very good woodman, and a hardie, and such a one as would not give his head for the polling, or his beard for the washing. He was a companion in any exercise of activitie, and of a courteous and gentle behaviour. He descended of a good honest parentage, being borne at Penevern, in Cornwall; and yet, in this rebellion, an arch-captain, and a principal lents had the misfortune to be hanged upon the steeple of his own doer."-Vol. iv. p. 958, 4to. edition. This model of clerical tachurch.*

⚫ [The reader needs hardly to be reminded of Ivanhoe.]

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 kissed 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 Rosaliet retired to God.

XXIV.

"To stout Saint George of Norwich merry,
Saint Thomas, too, of Canterbury,
Cuthbert of Durham, and Samt Bede,
For his sins' pardon hath he prayed.
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 quaffed his ale,
As little as the wind that blows,
And warms itself against his nose,§

Kens he, or cares, which way he goes."-li

#

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,

* [MS.-" And of the Olives' shaded cell."]
+ MS.-"Retired to God St. Rosalie."]

1" Sante Rosalia was of Palermo, and born of a very noble faly, and, when very young, abhorred so much the vanities of this world, and avoided the converse of mankind, resolving to dedate herself wholly to God Almighty, that she, by divine inspiration, forsook her father's house, and never was more heard of, till ber body was found in that cleft of a rock, on that almost inaccessible mountain, where now the chapel is built; and they firm, she was carried up there by the hands of angels; for that place was not formerly so accessible (as now it is) in the days of the saint; and even now it is a very bad, and steepy, and breakneck way. In this frightful place, this holy woman lived a great many years, feeding only on what she found growing on that barzen mountain, and creeping into a narrow and dreadful cleft in a rock, which was always dropping wet, and was her place of retirement, as well as prayer; having worn out even the rock with her knees, in a certain place, which is now opened on purpose to show it to those who come here. This chapel is very richly adorned; and on the spot where the saint's dead body was dis covered, which is just beneath the hole in the rock, which is opened on purpose, as I said, there is a very fine statue of marbe, representing her in a lying posture, railed in all about with fine on and brass work; and the altar, on which they say mass, built just over it."-Voyage to Sicily and Malta, by Mr. John Dryden. (son to the poet,) p. 107.

LMS." And with metheglin warm'd his nose,

As little as, " &c.]

[This poem has faults of too great magnitude to be passed without notice. There is a debasing lowness and vulgarity in sume passages, which we think must be offensive to every reader of delicacy, and which are not, for the most part, redeemed by any vigour of picturesque effect. The venison pasties, we think, are of this description; and this commemoration of Sir Hugh Heron's troopers, who

Have drank the monks of St. Bothan's ale,' &c.

The long account of Friar John, though not without merit, of

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 listened at his cell;

Strange sounds we heard, and, sooth to tell,
He murmured 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 marked ten aves, and two creeds."-T

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 cas le hall.'
The summoned Palmer came in place;
His sable cowl o'erhung is 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,
Showed pilgrim from the Holy Land.tt
XXVIII.

When as the Palmer came in hall,
Nor lord, nor knight, was there more tall,
Or had a statelier step withal,

Or looked more high and keen;
For no saluting did he wait,

But strode across the hall of state,

And fronted Marmion where he sat,‡‡

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 looked haggard wild:

fends in the same sort, nor can we easily conceive, how any one could venture, in a serious poem, to speak of the win! that blows, And warms itself against his nose."" Jeffrey.]

Friar John understood the soporific virtue of his beads and breviary, as well as his namesake in Rabelais. "But Gargantua could not sleep by any means, on which side soever he turned himself. Whereupon the monk said to him, I never sleep soundly but when I am at sermon or prayers. Let us therefore begin, you and I, the seven penitential psalms, to try whether you shall not quickly fall asleep. The conceit pleased Gargantua very well; and, beginning the first of these psalms, as soon as they came to beati quorum, they fell asleep, both the one and the other."

** A palmer, opposed to a pilgrim, was one who made it his sole business to visit different holy shrines; travelling incessantly, and subsisting by charity: whereas the pilgrim retired to his usual home and occupations, when he had paid his devotions at the particular spot which was the object of his pilgrimage. The palmer seems to have been the Quæstionarii of the ancient Scottish canons 1242 and 1296. There is, in the Bannatyne MS. a burlesque account of two such persons, entitled "Simmy and his Brother." Their accoutrements are thus ludicrously described (I discard the ancient spelling.)

"Syne shaped them up, to loup on leas,
Two tabanls of the tartan;
They counted nought what their clouts were
When sew'd them on, in certain.

Syne clampit up St. Peter's keys,

Made of an old red gartane

St. James's shells, on t'other side, shews
As retty as a partane

Toe,

On Symmye and his brother."

**The first presentment of the mysterious Palmer is laudable."-JEFFREY.]

I [MS.-" And near Lord Marmion took his seat."]