de Vaux, Or, the Heir of Gilsland, a Poem (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ll DE VAUX, CANTO THIRD. Carlisle, my antique native town, Thy praise in tales of old renoWh"' The minstrel oft hath told, ' M' Monastic rhyme and border song Thy legendary fame prolong,' ' Since Luel's reign of old, When from the depth of forest dun Thy rafter'd roofs first met the sun ; And well the Muse could say how shone In thee our Britain's ancient throne, Through Arthur's wild and wond'rous days, When wizard wights and wanton fays Held knights enchain'd by cruel spells On sullen heaths, down distant dells, By stream or gloomy tarn, Till banish'd by the holier train Of mitred Cuthbert, from the fane Of cloister'd Lindisfarn. Next might he sung, in sadder strain, How, ruin'd by the ruthless Dane, All sunk to waste again; But needs not tale of dubious days, Forgotten long, thy state to blaze, Since red-haired William came; He on the borders of his land, When Malcolm fell by Percy's hand, Saw, with a monarch's proud delight, How fit thy river-girdled ecite The borderer's rage to tame. The prowling fax and boar he chae'd And o'er thy grass-grown ruins rais'd Thy castle-keep and high arch'd fane, To grace and guard his new domain, Unconscious that their gloom Should witness oft the doom Of noblest chiefs renown?d The princely and the crowa'd, The sorrows of th' anointed head, Nor feign'd, alas ! nor few: Th' historic Muse their woes hath read And wept to write them true. .. '. ..... -.,i . . - . '. ..- .i, ii. ".. But ne'er in late or elder time ." " ' Did gladder shout and merrier chime ': ' Peel round thy roofe, than when in state . ' - David and Henry pass'd thy gate, Amid their gallant chivalry, Nobles and knights of high degree, To chace away th' usurper bold, . And rescue Maud from ...