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

4 o tt ROKEBY. ray ar
Now must Matilda stray apart,
To school her disobedient heart:
And Redmond now alone must rue
The love he never can subdue.
But factions rose, and Rokeby sware,
No rebel's son should wed his heir;
And Redmond, nurtur'd while a child
In many a bard's traditions wild,
Now sought the 1 nely wood or stream
To cherish there a happier dream,
Of maiden won by sword or lance.
As in the regions of romance;.
And count the heroes of his line,
Great Nial of the Pledges Nine,
Shane-Dymas wild, and Geraldine,
And Connan-more, who vow d his rae,
For ever to the fight and chase,
And curs'd him, of his lineage born,
Should sheathe the sword to reap the cotr
Or leave the mountain and the wold,
To shroud himself in castled hold.
From such examples hope he drew,
And brighten'd as the trumpet blew.
XV.
If brides were won by heart and blade,
]Redmond had both his cause to aid,
And all beside of nurture rare
That might beseem a haron'sheir.
Turlough ()'Neale, in Erin's strife,
On Rokeby's Lord bestow'd his life,
And well did Rokeby's gen'rous Knight
Young Redmond for the deed requite.
Nor was his liberal care and cost
Upon the gallant stripling lost:
Seek the North. Riding broad and wide,
Like Redmond none could stee;l bestride;,
From Tynemouth search to Cumberland,
Like Redmond none could wield a brand
And then, of humour kind and free,
And bearing him to each degree
With frank and fearless courtesy,
There never youth was form'd to steal
Upon the heart like brave O'Nealo.
XVI
Sir Richard lov'd him as his son;
And when the days of peace were do0e