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(From The Lay of the Last Minstrel)
THE FEAST was over in Branksome tower, | |
| And the Ladye had gone to her secret bower; | |
| Her bower that was guarded by word and by spell, | |
| Deadly to hear, and deadly to tell,— | |
| Jesu Maria, shield us well! | 5 |
| No living wight, save the Ladye alone, | |
| Had dared to cross the threshold stone. | |
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| The tables were drawn, it was idlesse all; | |
| Knight and page and household squire, | |
| Loitered through the lofty hall, | 10 |
| Or crowded round the ample fire; | |
| The stag-hounds, weary with the chase, | |
| Lay stretched upon the rushy floor, | |
| And urged, in dreams, the forest race, | |
| From Teviot stone to Eskdale moor. | 15 |
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| Nine-and-twenty knights of fame | |
| Hung their shields in Branksome Hall; | |
| Nine-and-twenty squires of name | |
| Brought them their steeds to bower from stall; | |
| Nine-and-twenty yeomen tall | 20 |
| Waited, duteous, on them all: | |
| They were all knights of metal true, | |
| Kinsmen to the bold Buccleuch. | |
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| Ten of them were sheathed in steel, | |
| With belted sword and spur on heel: | 25 |
| They quitted not their harness bright, | |
| Neither by day, nor yet by night; | |
| They lay down to rest, | |
| With corselet laced, | |
| Pillowed on buckler cold and hard; | 30 |
| They carved at the meal | |
| With gloves of steel, | |
| And they drank the red wine through the helmet barred. | |
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| Ten squires, ten yeomen, mail-clad men, | |
| Waited the beck of the warders ten; | 35 |
| Thirty steeds, both fleet and wight, | |
| Stood saddled in stable day and night, | |
| Barbed with frontlet of steel, I trow, | |
| And with Jedwood-axe at saddle-bow: | |
| A hundred more fed free in stall;— | 40 |
| Such was the custom of Branksome Hall. | |
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| Why do these steeds stand ready dight? | |
| Why watch these warriors, armed, by night? | |
| They watch to hear the bloodhound baying; | |
| They watch to hear the war-horn braying, | 45 |
| To see St. George’s red cross streaming, | |
| To see the midnight beacon gleaming; | |
| They watch, against Southern force and guile, | |
| Lest Scroop, or Howard, or Percy’s powers, | |
| Threaten Branksome’s lordly towers, | 50 |
| From Warkworth, or Naworth, or merry Carlisle. | |
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