Page:The Lay of the Last Minstrel - Scott (1805).djvu/61

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

52

XXIV.
The Knight breathed free in the morning wind,
And strove his hardihood to find:
He was glad when he passed the tombstones gray,
Which girdle round the fair Abbaye;
For the mystic Book, to his bosom prest,
Felt like a load upon his breast;
And his joints, with nerves of iron twined,
Shook, like the aspen leaves in wind.
Full fain was he when the dawn of day
Began to brighten Cheviot gray;
He joyed to see the cheerful light,
And he said Ave Mary, as well as he might.

XXV.
The sun had brightened Cheviot grey,
The sun had brightened the Carter's[1] side;
And soon beneath the rising day
Smiled Branksome towers and Teviot's tide.

  1. A mountain on the border of England, above Jedburgh.