The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

142 ROKEBY. [CANTO III.
Ill was the omen if he smiled,
For'twas in peril stern and wild;
But when he laugh'd, each luckless mate
ilight hold our fortune desperate.'
Foremost he fought in every broil,
Then scornful turn'd him fiom the spoil;
Nay, often strove to bar the way
Between his comrades and their prey;
Preaching, even then, to such as we,
Hot with our dear-bought victory,
Of mercy and humanity.
XXIII.
"I loved him well-His fearless part,
His gallant leading, won my heart.
And after each victorious fight,'Twas I that wrangled for his right,2
Redeem'd his portion of the prey
That greedier mates had torn away:
In field and storm thrice saved his life,
And once amid our comrades' strife.-'
1 [, There was a laughing devil in his sneer,
That raised emotions both of rage and fear;
And where his frown of hatred darkly fell,
Hope withering fled-and Mercy sigh'd farewell."
BYRON'S Works, vol. ix. p. 272.]
2 [MS.-" And when his bloody fight was done,
I wrangled for the share he won."]
3 The laws of the Buccaneers, and their successors the
Pirates, however severe and equitable, were, like other laws,