MARMION.

INTRODUCTION TO CANTO FOURTH.

JAMES SKENE, ESQ.1

Ashestiel, Ettrick Forest.

An ancient Minstrel sagely said,

"Where is the life which late we led?"
That motley clown in Arden wood,
Whom humorous Jacques with envy view'd,
Not even that clown could amplify,
On this trite text, so long as I.

Eleven years we now may tell,

Since we have known each other well;

Since, riding side by side, our hand.

First drew the voluntary brand;2

And sure, through many a varied scene,
Unkindness never came between.

1 [James Skene, Esq., of Rubislaw, Aberdeenshire, was Cornet in the Royal Edinburgh Light Horse Volunteers; and Sir Walter Scott was Quartermaster of the same corps.]

2 [MS." Unsheath'd the voluntary brand."]

Away these winged years have flown,
To join the mass of ages gone;

And though deep mark'd, like all below,
With checker'd shades of joy and woe;
Though thou o'er realms and seas hast ranged,
Mark'd cities lost, and empires changed,
While here, at home, my narrower ken
Somewhat of manners saw, and men ;
Though varying wishes, hopes, and fears,
Fever'd the progress of these years,

Yet now, days, weeks, and months, but seem
The recollection of a dream,

So still we glide down to the sea
Of fathomless eternity.

Even now it scarcely seems a day, Since first I tuned this idle lay; A task so often thrown aside, When leisure graver cares denied, That now, November's dreary gale, Whose voice inspired my opening tale, That same November gale once more Whirls the dry leaves on Yarrow shore. Their vex'd boughs streaming to the sky, Once more our naked birches sigh, And Blackhouse heights, and Ettrick Pen, Have donn'd their wintry shrouds again : And mountain dark, and flooded 'nead,1 Bid us forsake the banks of Tweed.

1 [MS." And noontide mist, and flooded mead."]