He heard a voice cry, "Lost! lost! lost!" And, like tennis-ball by racket toss'd, A leap, of thirty feet and three, Made from the gorse this elfin shape, Distorted like some dwarfish ape, And lighted at Lord Cranstoun's knee. Lord Cranstoun was some whit dismay'd; 'Tis said that five good miles he rade, To rid him of his company; But where he rode one mile, the Dwarf ran four, And the Dwarf was first at the castle door. XXXII. Use lessens marvel, it is said: An it had not been for his ministry. All between Home and Hermitage, Talk'd of Lord Cranstoun's Goblin-Page. XXXIII. For the Baron went on pilgrimage, And now, in Branksome's good greenwood, As under the aged oak he stood, And signs to the lovers to part and fly: scene, Rode eastward through the hawthorns green. WHILE thus he pour'd the lengthen'd tale, The Minstrel's voice began to fail: The precious juice the Minstrel quaff'd; And he, embolden'd by the draught, Look'd gaily back to them, and laugh'd. The cordial nectar of the bowl Swell'd his old veins, and cheer'd his soul; A lighter, livelier prelude ran, Ere thus his tale again began. CANTO THIRD. I. AND said I that my limbs were old, So foul, so false a recreant prove! How could I name love's very name, Nor wake my heart to notes of flame! II. In peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed; III. So thought Lord Cranstoun, as I ween, While, pondering deep the tender scene, He rode through Branksome's hawthorn green. But the Page shouted wild and shrill, And scarce his helmet could he don, When downward from the shady hill A stately knight came pricking on. That warrior's steed, so dapple-grey, Was dark with sweat, and splash'd with clay; His armour red with many a stain: He seem'd in such a weary plight, As if he had ridden the live-long night; For it was William of Deloraine. IV. But no whit weary did he seem, When, dancing in the sunny beam, Stern was the dint the Borderer lent! The tough ash spear, so stout and true, But Cranstoun's lance, of more avail, Pierced through, like silk, the Borderer's mail; Through shield, and jack, and acton, past, *The crest of the Cranstouns, in allusion to their name, is a crane dormant, holding a stone in his foot, with an emphatic Border motto: Thou shalt want ere I want. VII. But when he rein'd his courser round, Lie senseless as the bloody clay, For the kinsman of the maid he loved. VIII. Away in speed Lord Cranstoun rode; The dwarf espied the Mighty Book! Until the secret he had found. IX. The iron band, the iron clasp, All was delusion, nought was truth. X. He had not read another spell, * Magical delusion. A shepherd's hut. So fierce, it stretch'd him on the plain, Shut faster than they were before. XI. Unwillingly himself he address'd XII. As he repass'd the outer court, Seem'd to the boy, some comrade gay XIII. He led the boy o'er bank and fell, Until they came to a woodland brook; * Magic 1 The running stream dissolved the spell, And his own elvish shape he took. Could he have had his pleasure vilde, He had crippled the joints of the noble child; Or, with his fingers long and lean, Had strangled him in fiendish spleen : But his awful mother he had in dread, And also his power was limited; So he but scowl'd on the startled child, And darted through the forest wild; The woodland brook he bounding cross'd, And laugh'd, and shouted, "Lost! lost! lost!" XIV. Full sore amaz'd at the wondrous change, And frighten'd as a child might be, At the wild yell and visage strange, And the dark words of gramarye, The child, amidst the forest bower, Stood rooted like a lily flower; And when at length, with trembling pace, He sought to find where Branksome lay, He fear'd to see that grisly face, Glare from some thicket on his way. Thus, starting oft, he journey'd on, And deeper in the wood is gone,For aye the more he sought his way, The farther still he went astray,Until he heard the mountains round Ring to the baying of a hound. XV. And hark! and hark! the deep-mouth'd bark Comes nigher still, and nigher: Bursts on the path a dark blood-hound, His tawny muzzle track'd the ground, And his red eye shot fire. Soon as the wilder'd child saw he, He flew at him right furiouslie. I ween you would have seen with joy The bearing of the gallant boy, When, worthy of his noble sire, His wet cheek glow'd 'twixt fear and ire! He faced the blood-hound manfully, And held his little bat on high; So fierce he struck, the dog, afraid, At cautious distance hoarsely bay'd, But still in act to spring; When dash'd an archer through the glade, And when he saw the hound was stay'd, He drew his tough bow-string; But a rough voice cried, "Shoot not, hoy! Ho! shoot not, Edward-'Tis a boy!" XVI. The speaker issued from the wood, And quell'd the ban-dog's ire: Five hundred feet him fro; His coal-black hair,shorn round and close, His bugle-horn hung by his side, All in a wolf-skin baldric tied; And his short falchion, sharp and clear, Had pierced the throat of many a deer. And, if thou dost not set me free, False Southron, thou shalt dearly rue! For Walter of Harden shall come with speed, And William of Deloraine, good at need, XX. "Gramercy, for thy good-will, fair boy! My mind was never set so high; But if thou art chief of such a clan, And art the son of such a man, And ever comest to thy command, Our wardens had need to keep good order; My bow of yew to a hazel wand, Thou'lt make them work upon the Meantime, be pleased to come with me, When we have taken thy father's son." XXI. Although the child was led away, XXII. Well I ween the charm he held * Bandelier, belt for carrying ammunition. + Hackbuteer, musketeer. * Much she wonder'd to find him lie, On the stone threshold stretch'd along; She thought some spirit of the sky Had done the bold moss-trooper wrong, Because, despite her precept dread, Perchance he in the Book had read; But the broken lance in his bosom stood, And it was earthly steel and wood. XXIII. She drew the splinter from the wound, And with a charm she stanch'd the blood; She bade the gash be cleansed and bound: No longer by his couch she stood; But she has ta'en the broken lance, And wash'd it from the clotted gore, And salved the splinter o'er and o'er. William of Deloraine, in trance, Whene'er she turned it round and round, Twisted as if she gall'd his wound. Then to her maidens she did say, That he should be whole man and sound, Within the course of a night and |