And spears in wild disorder shook,
Like reeds beside a frozen brook.

XXVII.

The Seneschal, whose silver hair
Was redden'd by the torches' glare,
Stood in the midst, with gesture proud,
And issued forth his mandates loud :-
"On Penchryst glows a bale1 of fire,
And three are kindling on Priesthaughswire ;
Ride out, ride out,

The foe to scout!

1 Bale, beacon-fagot. The Border beacons, from their number and position, formed a sort of telegraphic communication with Edinburgh.—The act of Parliament 1455, c. 48, directs, that one bale or fagot shall be warning of the approach of the English in any manner; two bales that they are coming indeed; four bales, blazing beside each other, that the enemy are in great force. "The same taikenings to be watched and maid at Eggerhope (Eggerstand) Castell, fra they se the fire of Hume, that they fire right swa. And in like manner on Sowtra Edge, sall se the fire of Eggerhope Castell, and mak taikening in like manner: And then may all Louthaine be warned, and in special the Castell of Edinburgh; and their four fires to be made in like manner, that they in Fife, and fra Striveling east, and the east part of Louthiane, and to Dunbar, all may se them, and come to the defence of the realme." These beacons (at least in latter times) were a "long and strong tree set up, with a long iron pole across the head of it, and an iron brander fixed on a stalk in the middle of it, for holding a tar-barrel."-STEVENSON'S History, vol. ii. p. 701.

Mount, mount for Branksome,1 every man!
Thou, Todrig, warn the Johnstone clan,

That ever are true and stout

Ye need not send to Liddesdale ;
For when they see the blazing bale,
Elliots and Armstrongs never fail.
Ride, Alton, ride, for death and life!
And warn the Warden of the strife.
Young Gilbert, let our beacon blaze,
Our kin, and clan, and friends, to raise.” 2

XXVIII.

Fair Margaret, from the turret head,
Heard, far below, the coursers' tread,

While loud the harness rung,

As to their seats, with clamour dread,
The ready horsemen sprung:
And trampling hoofs, and iron coats,
And leaders' voices, mingled notes,
And out! and out!

In hasty route,

The horsemen gallop'd forth; Dispersing to the south to scout,

And east, and west, and north,

To view their coming enemies,
And warn their vassals and allies.

Mount for Branksome was the gathering word of the Scotts.

2 See Appendix, Note X.

XXIX.

The ready page, with hurried hand,1
Awaked the need-fire's 2 slumbering brand,
And ruddy blush'd the heaven:

For a sheet of flame, from the turret high,
Waved like a blood-flag on the sky,

All flaring and uneven;

And soon a score of fires, I ween,

From height, and hill, and cliff, were seen;
Each with warlike tidings fraught;

Each from each the signal caught;

Each after each they glanced to sight,
As stars arise upon the night.

They gleam'd on many a dusky tarn,3
Haunted by the lonely earn ;*

5

4

On many a cairn's gray pyramid,
Where urns of mighty chiefs lie hid;

1 ["We absolutely see the fires kindling, one after another, in the following animated description."-Annual Review, 1804.]

2 Need-fire, beacon.

4 Earn, a Scottish eagle.

3 Tarn, a mountain lake.

5 The cairns, or piles of loose stones, which crown the summit of most of our Scottish hills, and are found in other remarkable situations, seem usually, though not universally, to have been sepulchral monuments. Six flat stones are commonly found in the centre, forming a cavity of greater or smaller dimensions, in which an urn is often placed. The author is possessed of one, discovered beneath an immense cairn at Roughlee, in Liddesdale. It is of the most barbarous construction; the middle of the substance alone having been subjected to the fire, over which, when hardened, the artist

Till high Dunedin the blazes saw,
From Soltra and Dumpender Law;

And Lothian heard the Regent's order,
That all should bowne1 them for the Border.

XXX.

The livelong night in Branksome rang
The ceaseless sound of steel;

The castle-bell, with backward clang,
Sent forth the larum peal;

Was frequent heard the heavy jar,
Where massy stone and iron bar
Were piled on echoing keep and tower,
To whelm the foe with deadly shower;
Was frequent heard the changing guard,
And watchword from the sleepless ward;
While, wearied by the endless din,
Bloodhound and ban-dog yell'd within.

XXXI.

The noble Dame, amid the broil,
Shared the gray Seneschal's high toil,
And spoke of danger with a smile;

Cheer'd the young knights, and council sage

had laid an inner and outer coat of unbaked clay, etched with some very rude ornaments; his skill apparently being inadequate to baking the vase, when completely finished. The contents were bones and ashes, and a quantity of beads made of coal. This seems to have been a barbarous imitation of the Roman fashion of sepulture.

1 Bowne, make ready.

Held with the chiefs of riper age.
No tidings of the foe were brought,
Nor of his numbers knew they aught,
Nor what in time of truce he sought.

Some said, that there were thousands ten; And others ween'd that it was nought But Leven Clans, or Tynedale men, Who came to gather in black-mail; And Liddesdale, with small avail,

1

Might drive them lightly back agen.
So pass'd the anxious night away,
And welcome was the peep of day.

CEASED the high sound-the listening throng
Applaud the Master of the Song;
And marvel much, in helpless age,
So hard should be his pilgrimage.
Had he no friend-no daughter dear,
His wandering toil to share and cheer;
No son to be his father's stay,

And guide him on the rugged way?

66

Ay, once he had-but he was dead!'

Upon the harp he stoop'd his head,
And busied himself the strings withal,
To hide the tear that fain would fall.

1 Protection-money exacted by freebooters. VOL. I.

8