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

160 THE LAY OF VCANTO v.
VIII.
The blithesome signs of wassel gay
Decay'd not with the dying day;
Soon through the latticed windows tall
Of lofty Branksome's lordly hall,
Divided square by shafts of stone,
Huge flakes of ruddy lustre shone;
Nor less the gilded rafters rang
With merry harp and beakers' clang:
And frequent, on the darkening plain,
Loud hollo, whoop, or whistle ran,
[truce] between them, as long as spears, swords, axes, or
daggers, will endure, but lay on eche upon uther; and whan
they be well beaten, and that the one party hath obtained the
victory, they then gloryfye so in theyre dedes of armies, and
are so joyfull, that such as be taken they shall be ransomed,
or that they go out of the felde; so that shortly eche of them
is so content with other, that, at their departynge, curtyslye
they will say, God thank you."-BERNERS'S Froissart, vol.
ii. p. 153. The Border meetings of truce which, although
places of merchandise and merriment, often witnessed the
most bloody scenes, may serve to illustrate the description in
the text. They are vividly portrayed in the old ballad of
the Reidsquair. [See Minstrelsy, vol. ii. p. 15.] Both parties came armed to a meeting of the wardens, yet they intermixed fearlessly and peaceably with each other in mutual sports and familiar intercourse, until a casual fray
arose:" Then was there nought but bow and spear,
And every man pulled out a brand."
In the 29th stanza of this canto, there is an attempt to express some of the mixed feelings, with which the Borderers
on each side were led to regard their neighbours.