1

young man, your gallantry shall not go unrewarded. Go to the wardrobe-keeper, and he shall have orders to supply 1 the suit which you have cast away in our service. Thou shalt have a suit, and that of the newest cut; I promise you, on the word of a princess."

"May it please your Grace," said Walter, hesitating, "it is not for so humble a servant of your Majesty to measure out your bounties; but if it became me to choose

“Thou wouldst have gold, I warrant me," said the queen, interrupting him. "Fie, young man! I take shame to say that in our capital such and so various are the means of thriftless folly that to give gold to youth is giving fuel to fire, and furnishing them with the means for self-destruction. If I live and reign, these means of unchristian excess shall be abridged. Yet thou mayst be poor," she added, "or thy parents may be. It shall be gold if thou wilt, but thou shalt answer to me for the use of it."

Walter waited patiently until the queen had done, and then modestly assured her that gold was still less in his wish than the raiment her Majesty had before offered.

"How, boy," said the queen, "neither gold nor garment ! What is it thou wouldst have of me, then?"

"Only permission, madam,—if it is not asking too high an honor, permission to wear the cloak which did you this trifling service."

"Permission to wear thine own cloak, thou silly boy!" said the queen.

"It is no longer mine," said Walter. "When your Majesty's foot touched it, it became a fit mantle for a prince, but far too rich a one for its former owner."

The queen again blushed; and endeavored to cover, by laughing, a slight degree of not unpleasing surprise and confusion.

"Heard you ever the like, my lords? The youth's head is turned with reading romances; I must know something of him,

1 make good the loss of

that I may send him safe to his friends. What is thy name and birth?"

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'Raleigh is my name, most gracious queen; the youngest son of a large but honorable family in Devonshire."

"Raleigh?" said Elizabeth, after a moment's recollection; "have we not heard of your service in Ireland?”

"I have been so fortunate as to do some service there, madam," replied Raleigh," scarce, however, of consequence sufficient to reach your Grace's ears."

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"They hear further than you think for," said the queen, graciously, "and have heard of a youth who defended a ford in Shannon against a whole band of rebels until the stream ran purple with their blood and his own."

"Some blood I may have lost," said the youth, looking down ; "but it was where my best is due, and that is in your Majesty's service."

The queen paused, and then said hastily, "You are very young to have fought so well and to speak so well. But you must not escape your penance for turning back Masters, the poor man hath caught cold on the river; for our order reached him when he had just returned from certain visits to London, and he held it a matter of loyalty and conscience instantly to set forth again. So hark ye, Master Raleigh, see thou fail not to wear thy muddy cloak, in token of penitence, till our pleasure be further known. And here," she added, giving him a jewel of gold in the form of a chessman, "I give thee this to wear at the collar."

Raleigh, to whom nature had taught intuitively, as it were, those courtly arts which many scarce acquire from long experience, knelt, and as he took from her hand the jewel, kissed the fingers which gave it.

LOCHINVAR-LADY HERON'S SONG1

O, YOUNG Lochinvar s come out of the west,
Through all the wide Border his steed was the best,
And save his good broadsword he weapons had none;
He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone.

So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,
There never was knight like the

young Lochinvar.

He stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for stone, He swam the Eske River where ford there was none; But, ere he alighted at Netherby gate,

The bride had consented; the gallant came late :

For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war,
Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.

So boldly he entered the Netherby hall,

Among bridesmen and kinsmen, and brothers and all: Then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword (For the poor craven bridegroom spoke never a word), "O, come ye in peace here, or come ye in war, Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?”

"I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied ;
Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide,—
And now I am come, with this lost love of mine,
To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.
There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far,
That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar."

The bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up, He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup, She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh, With a smile on her lips and a tear in her eye.

1 from "Marmion"

He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar,
"Now tread we a measure!" said young Lochinvar.

So stately his form, and so lovely her face,
That never a hall such a galliard1 did grace;

While her mother did fret, and her father did fume,
And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume;
And the bride-maidens whispered, ""T were better by far
To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar."

One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear,

When they reached 'he hall-door, and the charger stood near ; So light to the croupe' the fair lady ne swung,

So light to the saddle before her he sprung!

"She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur; 8 They'll have fleet steeds that follow," quoth young Lochinvar.

There was mounting 'mong Græmes of the Netherby clan;
Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran :
There was racing, and chasing, on Cannobie Lee,
But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see.

So daring in love, and so dauntless in war,
Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?

The last of all the Bards was he,
Who sung of Border chivalry;
For, well-a-day! their date was fled,
His tuneful brethren all were dead;
And he, neglected and oppressed,
Wished to be with them, and at rest.
No more, on prancing palfrey1 borne,
He caroled, light as lark at morn;
No longer, courted and caressed,
High placed in hall, a welcome guest,
He poured, to lord and lady gay,
The unpremeditated lay :

Old times were changed, old manners gone;
A stranger fills the Stuarts' throne;
The bigots of the iron time 2

Had called his harmless art a crime.

A wandering harper, scorned and poor,
He begged his way from door to door;
And tuned, to please a peasant's ear,
The harp a king had loved to hear.

LOVE OF COUNTRY

BREATHES there the man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,

"This is my own, my native land?"
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned
As home his footsteps he hath turned,

From wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well ·
For him no minstrel raptures swell!

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a saddle-horse

3. e. the Puritans of the Commonwealth