Page:Marmion - Walter Scott (ed. Bayne, 1889).pdf/153

 I said he joy'd in banquet bower;
But, 'mid his mirth, 'twas often strange,
How suddenly his cheer would change,
245 His look o'ercast and lower,
If, in a sudden turn, he felt
The pressure of his iron belt,
That bound his breast in penance pain,
In memory of his father slain.
250Even so 'twas strange how, evermore,
Soon as the passing pang was o'er,
Forward he rush'd, with double glee,
Into the stream of revelry:
Thus, dim-seen object of affright
255Startles the courser in his flight,
And half he halts, half springs aside;
But feels the quickening spur applied,
And, straining on the tighten'd rein,
Scours doubly swift o'er hill and plain.

X.
260O'er James's heart, the courtiers say,
Sir Hugh the Heron's wife held sway:
 To Scotland's Court she came,
To be a hostage for her lord,
Who Cessford's gallant heart had gored,
265And with the King to make accord,
 Had sent his lovely dame.
Nor to that lady free alone
Did the gay King allegiance own;
 For the fair Queen of France
270Sent him a turquois ring and glove,
And charged him, as her knight and love,
 For her to break a lance;
And strike three strokes with Scottish brand,
And march three miles on Southron land,
275And bid the banners of his band
 In English breezes dance.
And thus, for France's Queen he drest
His manly limbs in mailéd vest;