Our Caledonian pride! In vain the wish-for far away, While spoil and havoc mark their way, Near Sybil's Cross the plunderers stray. “O, Lady,” cried the Monk, “away!" And placed her on her steed, And led her to the chapel fair, Of Tillmouth upon Tweed. There all the night they spent in prayer, And at the dawn of morning, there She met her kinsman, Lord Fitz-Clare. XXXIV. But as they left the dark'ning heath, To break the Scottish circle deep, That fought around their King. But yet, though thick the shafts as snow, Though charging knights like whirlwinds go, Though bill-men ply the ghastly blow, The stubborn spear-men still made good No thought was there of dastard flight; As fearlessly and well; Till utter darkness closed her wing Then did their loss his foemen know; Their King, their Lords, their mightiest low, They melted from the field as snow, To gain the Scottish land; To town and tower, to down and dale, To tell red Flodden's dismal tale, And raise the universal wail. Tradition, legend, tune, and song, Shall many an age that wail prolong: Still from the sire the son shall hear Of the stern strife, and carnage drear, Of Flodden's fatal field, Where shiver'd was fair Scotland's spear, And broken was her shield! XXXV. Day dawns upon the mountain's side:- That, journeying far on foreign strand, May yet return again. He saw the wreck his rashness wrought; And fell on Flodden plain : But, O! how changed since yon blithe night! Gladly I turn me from the sight, XXXVI. Short is my tale :-Fitz-Eustace' care A guerdon meet the spoiler had!) His hands to heaven upraised; And all around, on scutcheon rich, The last Lord Marmion lay not there. XXX.VII. Less easy task it were, to show Oft halts the stranger there, For thence may best his curious eye And shepherd boys repair And plait their garlands fair; When thou shalt find the little hill, But say, XXXVIII. I do not rhyme to that dull elf, Who cannot image to himself, That, all through Flodden's dismal night, Paint to her mind the bridal's state; L'Enboy. TO THE READER. WHY then a final note prolong, THE LADY OF THE LAKE: A POEM. IN SIX CANTOS. ΤΟ THE MOST NOBLE JOHN JAMES, MARQUIS OF ABERCORN, &c. &c. &c THIS POEM IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. ARGUMENT. The Scene of the following Poem is laid chiefly in the vicinity of Loch Katrine in the Western Highlands of Perthshire. The time of Action includes Six Days, and the transactions of each Day occupy a Canto. THE LADY OF THE LAKE. THREE years separated Scott's second poetical venture from his first; but the “Lady of the Lake” followed “Marmion” after an interval of little more than a couple of years. Scott has told us himself the alarm of his aunt,* when she heard that he was meditating another appeal to public favour, lest he should in any way injure the great popularity he had already achieved, or, in her own words, lest standing so high he got a severe fall if he attempted to climb higher. “And a favourite, she added, sententiously, “will not be permitted to stumble with impunity.' But Scott, without being guilty of any overweening self-confidence, had taken the measure of his powers, and felt that he might safely make the effort. Besides, he conceived that he held his distinguished position as the most successful poet of the day, on much the same condition as the champion of the prize-ring holds the belt —that of being always ready to show proofs of his skill. The result fully justified his resolution. Measured even by the standard of the “ Minstrel” and “Marmion,' the "Lady of the Lake" possessed merits of its own, which raised his reputation still higher. Jeffrey's prediction has been perfectly fulfilled, that the "Lady of the Lake" would be "oftener read hereafter than either of the former;" and it is generally acknowledged to be, in Lockhart's words, "the most interesting, romantic, picturesque, and graceful of his great poems." Scott's acquaintance with the Highlands dated from his boyhood. He had visited them before his sixteenth year, and repeatedly returned thither. His first introduction to the scenery of the "Lady of the Lake' was curious enough. He entered it, " riding in all the dignity of danger, with a front and rear-guard, and loaded arms. He was then a writer's apprentice, or, in English phrase, an attorney's clerk, and had been despatched by his father to enforce the execution of a legal instrument against some Maclarens, refractory tenants of Stewart of Appin. The armed force with which he was attended, consisting of a serjeant and six men from a Highland regiment lying in Stirling Castle, proved unnecessary, for no resistance was offered. The Maclarens had decamped, and Scott afterwards learned that they went to America. That such an escort should have been deemed needful, however, gives one an idea of what the Highlands and the inhabitants were even at a time so close upon our own day. In the course of his successive excursions to the Highlands, Scott made himself thoroughly acquainted with their He not only became familiar with the people, but, as one of his friends said, even the goats might have claimed him as an old friend. With characteristic conscientiousness, however, when he conceived the idea of the "Lady of the Lake," he did not trust to the impressions thus acquired to guide him in the descriptions of scenery, which form one of the chief charms of the poem, and render it, even now, one of the most minute and faithful hand-books to the region in which the drama of Ellen and the Knight of Snowdoun is enacted. He made a special tour, in order to verify the accuracy of the local circumstances of the story, recesses. * Miss Christian Rutherford, his mother's sister. K |