In thraws of death, with walowit che The fainting corps of warriours lay, Ne're to return to native land, Nae mair with blithsome sounds To boast the glories of the day, And shaw their shining wounds. On Norways coast the widowit dame Cease, Emma, cease to hope in vain The valiant Scots nae revers thole Here on a lee, where stands a cross Set up for monument, Thousands fu' fierce that summer's day Fill'd keen war's black intent. Let Scots, while Scots, praise Hardyknute, Ay how he faught, aft how he spar'd, Now loud and chill blew th' westlin wind, Mirk grew the night ere Hardyknute Seem'd now as black as mourning weed, Nae marvel sair he sigh'd. "There's nae light in my lady's bower, Nae blink shines round my FAIRLY fair, What bodes it? Robert, Thomas, say ;"— "Stand back, my sons, I'le be your guide;" "As fast I've sped owre Scotlands faes,”- Sair sham'd to mind ought but his dame, Black fear he felt, but what to fear Sair shook his body, sair his limbs, [In this ballad as printed in a work entitled, Scottish Tragic Ballads,' London, 1781, in which, to use the Editor's own words, the mutilated Fragment of Hardyknute was given in its original perfection,' the latter half of stanza 18 ran thus: Still him to win strave Hardyknute, Nor strave he lang in vain ; Short pleiding eithly micht prevale And between this stanza and that which in the original edition, and in our copy, stands next, was inserted the following: I will return wi' speid to bide Your plaint and mend your wae: But private grudge maun neir be quelled, Mordac, thy eild may best be spaird And meise his egre pang.' To which was appended this note. This stanza is now first printed. It is surprising its omission was not marked in the fragment formerly published, as without it the circumstance of the knight's complaint is altogether foreign and vague. The loss was attempted to be glossed over by many variations of the preceding four lines; but the defect was palpable to the most inattentive reader.' Be this as it may, the stanza was not found in the original edition, nor has it been adopted in any subsequent one; and the accomplished Editor of the work in which it first appeared, was in all probability its author. It seemed necessary, however, to give it and the alteration of the preceding stanza here, as without them the 'Second Part' is unintelligible.] The king of France that morning fair To grace his sports a courtly train And with their loud and cheerful cryes Through the deep forest swift they pass, All in a scarlet kercher lay'd Of silk so fine and thin; A golden mantle wrapt him round, The sudden sight surpriz'd them all; At length the king himself drew near, The pretty babe look'd up and smil'd, Now, by the rood, king Pepin says, Goe bear him home unto my cour Let him be christen'd Valentine, And look me out some cunning nurse; Nor ought be wanting that becomes A bairn of high degree. They look'd him out a cunning nurse; Nor ought was wanting that became Thus grewe the little Valentine, But chief in gallant feates of arms And now the early downe began A boon, a boon, my gracious liege, The first adventure that befalls, The first adventure shall be thine; Nor many days, when lo! there came Help, gracious lord, they weeping say'd; Within those deep and dreary woods Whose fierce and mortal rage doth yield 'Mong ruthless beares he sure was bred; With beares he lives, with beares he feeds, To more than savage strength he joins For arms, ne cunning may suffice Up then rose sir Valentine, And claim'd that arduous deed. Go forth and conquer, say'd the king, 481 |