226 
rited and picturesque language—the men 
at arms, the knights and squires, the 
burghers, the yeomen, the borderers, the 
highlanders, the islesmen. 
¢¢ Much Marmion marvelled one small land 
Could marshal forth such various band.” 
After passing through the camp, where 
every civility and attention was paid to 
them, the English embassy at length 
reached the gate of the city, which was 
every where alive with martial show. 
The Lyon conducted Marmion to the 
Jodzing provided for him by order of the 
' king; and after the hour of vespers, ac- 
companied the ambassador to the palace 
of Holyrood. The court of Scotland is 
then described, and the person of the 
king himself, with the principal features 
of his singular and romantic character, in 
a strain of gay and pleasing verse. James 
»is represented as giving a magnificent 
entertainment to his nobles previous to 
his joining the army. Margaret, his 
queen, however, was not present. She 
“in Lithgow’s bower all Jonely sat, and 
wept the weary hour.” In herroom and 
stead sat Dame Heron, the favourite of 
the king, who was detained at the Scot- 
tish court as a hostage for her lord. To 
her every eye and every car was turned, 
when after feigned hesitation she was 
persuaded to play a soft and lively air 
upon the harp, mingled with arch sim- 
plicity. ‘ 
¢¢ The monarch o’er the Syrea hung, . 
And,beat the'measure as she sung.” 
On Marmion’s commission being at 
lensth presented to the king, he express- 
ed invdecided and disdainful terms. his 
rejection of the overture; and concluded 
by exclaiming, 
6¢ Our full defiance, hate and scorn, 
Our herald has to Henry borne.” 
, Among the lords at court was the Earl 
of Angus, an ancient nobleman, who had 
been deeply engaged in the conspiracy 
against the late king, and who was re- 
girded upon that account with great jea- 
lousy by the present. On the approach 
of this chieftain, the monarch informed 
Marmion that he should, ull the return 
of the Scottish herald from England, re- 
side in Angus’s castle of Tantallon. 
«< Your host shall be the Douglas bold, 
A chief unlike his sires of old.” 
Yor as the king explains himself, 
‘¢Fe loves his severciga to oppose, 
More than to face his country’s foes.’’ 
‘Jae monarch farther declares ‘that a 
Remarks on the Poetic Romance of Marmion. 
7 a me oan 
“ bevy” of holy virgins, the first prize of 
the war, shall be placed under Marmi- 
on’s protection. at Tantallon, and retura 
with him to their cloistered shades, 
<¢ And while they at Tantallon stay, 
Requiem for Cochran’s soul may say.” 
Cochran was the minion of the late 
monarch, 
«¢ And with the slaughtered favourite’s namey 
Across the monarch’s brow there came 
A cloud of ire, remorse, and shame.” 
A momentary burst of anger ensues 
between the king and Angus; this, hows 
ever, is soon followed by a reconciliation; 
but bis purpose in relation to the war, 
which Angus disapproved and condemn- 
ed, is fixed and immoveable— 
‘* Laugh those that can, weep those that 
may, 
Thus did the fiery monarch say, 
Southward.1 march by break of day.” 
Tt will easily be anticipated that the 
holy maids captured by the Scottish gal- 
ley were the abbess and her train, on 
their return to Whitby. Previous to their 
setting out with Marmion for Tantallon, 
the abbess took an opportunity of warn- 
ing the Palmer by a scroll, that she had 
a secret of importance to disclose to him, 
and at night they privately met in a bal- 
cony before their lodging. In this inter- 
view the abbess communicated to the 
Palmer, i.e, to De Wilton himself, alk 
the particulars of Marmion’s treachery, 
perpetrated by the instrumentality of the 
wretched Constance. She at the same 
time delivered the papers into his hands, 
which proved the trath of the recital, 
and charged him to transmit them with 
cautious speed into the hands of Wolsey 
himself, that he might shew theta to the 
king. While strong emotion shook the 
‘frame of De Wilton, a faint and shrilly 
sound, accompanied ‘by a preternatural 
appearance on the top of the High Cross 
of Edinburgh, alarmed and engrossed 
their attention. On its battled tower 
were seen phantoms with escutcheons 
and blazoned banners, and on a suddena 
thundering voige was heard, summoning 
a roll of names, of which the king him- 
self was first, to appear at the tribunal of 
the late monarch in forty days. During 
the consternation occasioned by this 
dreadful phenomenon, the abbess fell 
prone on her face, and the Palmer va- 
nished. 
Upon the succeeding day the court re- 
moved from the city to the camp; and 
the abbess, with her nuns, set off, in com- 
pany with Masmien and the Palmer, for 
Tantallon, 
bi 
“iy 
