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

CANTO I.] ROKEBY. 63
Less prompt to brave the bloody field,
Made Barnard's battlements his shield,
Secured them with his Lunedale powers,
And for the Commons held the towers.
XXIX.
The lovely heir of Rokeby's Knight
Waits in his halls the event of fight;
For England's war rever'd the claim
Of every unprotected name,
And spared, amid its fiercest rage,
Childhood and womanhood and age.
But Wilfrid, son to Rokeby's foe,2
Must the dear privilege forego,
By Greta's side, in evening gray,
To steal upon Matilda's way,
Striving,3 with fond hypocrisy,
For careless step and vacant eye;
Calming each anxious look and glance,
To give the meeting all to chance,
Or framing as a fair excuse,
The book, the pencil, or the muse;
1 [MS. —" Dame Alice and Matilda bright,
Daughter and wife of Rokeby's Knight,
Wait in his halls," &c.]
2 [MS.-" But Wilfrid, when the strife arose,
And Rokeby and his son were foes,
Was doom'd each privilege to lose,
Of kindred friendship and the muse."]
3 [MS.-" Aping, with fond hypocrisy,
The careless step," &c.]