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

j ClNTO V. LAST MINSTREl,
Disgrace, and loss of fame.
But earthly spirit could not tell
The heart of them that loved so well;
True love's the gift which God has given
To man alone beneath the heaven.
It is not Fantasy's hot fire,
Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly;
It liveth not in fierce desire,
With dead desire it doth not die:
It is the secret sympathy,
The silver link, the silken tie,
Which heart to heart, and mind to mind,
In body and in soul can bind.Now leave we Margaret and her Knight,
To tell you of the approaching fight.
XIV.
Their warning blast the bugles blew,
The pipe's shrill port aroused each claun
In haste, the deadly strife to view,
The trooping warriors eager ran:
Thick round the lists their lances stood,
Like blasted pines in Ettricke wood;
To Branksome many a look they threw,
The combatants' approach to view,
And bandied many a word of boast,
About the knight each favoured most.
H I Xv.
Meantime full anxious was the Dame;
For now arose disputed claim,
Of who should fight for Deloraine,'Twixt Harden and'twixt Thirlestaine:
They'gan to reckon kin and rent,
And frowning brow on brow was bent;
But yet not long the strife-for lo!
Himself, the Knight of Deloraine,
Strong, as it seemed, and free from pain,
In armour sheathed from top to toe,
Appeared, and craved the combat due.
The Dame her charm successful knew,
And the fierce chiefs their claims withdrew.
XVI.
When for the lists they sought the plain,
The stately Ladye's silken rein, ___