Lord Douglas leap'd on his berry-brown steed,

And spurr'd him the Leader o'er:

But, though he rode with lightning speed,

He never saw them more.

Some said to hill, and some to glen,
Their wondrous course had been;

But ne'er in haunts of living men
Again was Thomas seen.

NOTES

ON

THOMAS THE RHYMER.

PART THIRD.

And Ruberslaw shew'd high Dunyon.-P. 268. v. 1. Ruberslaw and Dunyon are two high hills above Jedburgh.

Then all by bonny Coldingknow.-P. 268. v. 2.

An ancient tower near Erceldoune, belonging to a family of the name of Home. One of Thomas's prophecies is said to have run thus:

"Vengeance, vengeance! when and where?

On the house of Coldingknow, now and ever mair!"

The spot is rendered classical by its having given name to the beautiful melody, called the Broom o' the Cowdenknows.

They roused the deer from Caddenhead,

To distant Torwoodlee.-P. 269. v. 1.

Torwoodlee and Caddenhead are places in Selkirkshire.

How courteous Gawaine met the wound.-P. 270. v. 4. See, in the Fabliaux of Monsieur le Grand, elegantly translated by the late Gregory Way, Esq., the tale of the Knight and the Sword.

As white as snow on Fairnalie.-P. 275. v. 2.

An ancient seat upon the Tweed, in Selkirkshire. In a popular edition of the first part of Thomas the Rhymer, the fairy queen thus addresses him ;

"Gin ye wad meet wi' me again,
Gang to the bonny banks of Fairnalie."

THE

FIRE-KING.

"The blessings of the evil Genii, which are curses, were upon "him." Eastern Tale.

This ballad was written at the request of MR LEWIS, to be inserted in his "Tales of Wonder." It is the third in a series of four ballads, on the subject of Elementary Spirits. The story is, however, partly historical; for it is recorded, that, during the struggles of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, a KnightTemplar, called Saint-Alban, deserted to the Saracens, and defeated the Christians in many combats, till he was finally routed and slain, in a conflict with King Baldwin, under the walls of Jerusalem.

BOLD knights and fair dames, to my harp give an ear, Of love, and of war, and of wonder to hear;

And you haply may sigh, in the midst of your glee,

At the tale of Count Albert, and fair Rosalie.

O see you

that castle, so strong and so high?

And see you that lady, the tear in her eye?
And see you that palmer, from Palestine's land,
The shell on his hat, and the staff in his hand?-

"Now palmer, grey palmer, O tell unto me, What news bring you home from the Holy Countrie ? And how goes the warfare by Gallilee's strand?

And how fare our nobles, the flower of the land ?”

"O well goes the warfare by Gallilee's wave, For Gilead, and Nablous, and Ramah we have; And well fare our nobles by Mount Lebanon,

For the Heathen have lost, and the Christians have won."

A fair chain of gold mid her ringlets there hung; O'er the palmer's grey locks the fair chain has she flung: "Oh palmer, grey palmer, this chain be thy fee,

For the news thou hast brought from the Holy Countrie.