Idyls and Songs (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1854 Excerpt: ...my sorrowing mother's sake. Tell me, fair Page, that by my stirrup runs, And tell me true, the custom of the land.' 'It is no custom, ' the fair Page replies, 'It is no message for a Lady's ear. For seven king's daughters, seven fair as thou, Cospatrick's wedded brides, --thy lord and mine--Each bridal after-morn went weeping home, Weeping, dishonour'd, bearing shameful wounds; For they were frail, and thus he punish'd them. But any maid of maiden innocence, He bids unfearing to the bridal couch, Cospatrick's honour'd wife--thy lord and mine.' So they, till twain and twain the kirk was reach'd. But when Reluctant even, orange-robed, Dyed her in grayness, and the bells were rung, And louder revel pledged Cospatrick's weal, Withdrawing thro' still chambers--as he came The lady call'd her maiden to the bower, And laid her there, and thro' the twilight fled. And now the blithe Earl enter'd, and he saw Long golden locks, but not the locks he loved; And azure eyes, but not that azure: Then, O then in full wrath from the couch he fled, And wrathful thro' hush'd revellers in the hall, And on his mother call'd: --' I of all men Thro' Christian lands most wretched once again Now yet once more by woman's fraud beguiled ' She bids her son among the revellers stay, 'For I will track the serpent to the lair, For I will bring the tale should ne'er be brought'--And she has steel'd her woman's heart to wrath, And she has burst within the secret bower: 'I bare Cospatrick; I, a loyal wife: But who art thou to bring dishonour thus Within the precincts of a bridal bedP' 'O hear me, Mother, hear me on my knee: --For we were seven sisters, fairer none, Each still apart the fairest: youngest I: And so it fell, one summer's afternoon, When toil was over, and the lots were thrown For w...