INTO BALLAD-LAND. 87 



" Through whose green boughs the golden sunshine creeps, 

 Where Merlin by the enchanted thorn-tree sleeps ? " 



Alas ! the " gurlie sea " must in that case be crossed, and no 

 Phantom Lover appeared to offer a speedy passage, 



" I have seven ships upon the sea, 



The eighth brought me to land, 

 With four and twenty bold mariners, 

 And music on every hand." 



It seemed more feasible to walk northwards to that other 

 Elf-land which an equally potent mage, Thomas the Rhymer, 

 visited with its Queen, 



" After kissing her rosy lips, 

 All underneath the Eildon Tree." 



And this was the manner of his progress 



" She's mounted on her milk-white steed, 

 She's ta'en True Thomas up behind ; 

 And aye, whene'er her bridle rung, . 

 Her steed flew swifter than the wind. 



He has gotten a coat of the even cloth, 



And a pair of shoes of velvet green ; 

 And till seven years were gone and past, 



True Thomas on earth was never seen." 



Was it not there, too, that Bonny Kilmeny was rapt from earth 

 that sweetest of all pure damsels and when at length she 

 begged once more to see her friends, in this wise the fairies 

 granted her boon 



" With distant music soft and deep, 

 They lull'd Kilmeny sound asleep ; 

 And when she awakened, she lay her lane, 

 All happed with flowers in the greenwood wene. 

 When seven lang years had come and fled ; 

 When grief was calm, and hope was dead : 

 When scarce was remember'd Kilmeny's name, 

 Late, late in a gloamin' Kilmeny came hame ! " 



There, too, of late years dwelt a more lovable and more power- 



