The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott ... Notes & life of the author.

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And thus it fell, that, passing nigh,.4 The Palmer caught the Abbess' eye,:3 {"~Who warned him by a scroll,
l'] She had a secret to reveal,
i. That much concerned the Church's weal,
] And health of sinners' soul;
And, with deep charge of secrecy,
She named a place to meet,
Within an open balcony,
That hung from dizzy pitch, and high
Above the stately street;
To which, M common to each home,
At night they might in.secret come.
i I~XX.
At night in,secret there they came,
I IThe Palmer and the holy dame.
ii |The moon iamong the clouds rode high,
And all the city hum was by.
i i Upon the street, where late before',| Did din of war and warriors roar,
-:' You might have heard a pebble faXf
A beetle hum, a cricket sing,
An owlet flap his boding wing:i iOn Giles's steeple tall
The antique buildings, climbing high,
Whose Gothic frontlets sought the sky,
Were here wrapt deep in shade;
There on their brows the moon-beam blrok,,|
Through the faint wreaths of silvery suiok $,
And on the casements played.
And other light was none to see,
Save torches gliding far,
Before some chieftain of degree,
Who left the royal revelry
To bowne him for the war. —
l A solemn scene the Abbess chose;
A solemn hour, her secret to disclose.
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XXL
0, holy Palmer!" she began,-,For sure he must be sainted -nma,
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