READERS already acquainted with my Poems will recognise, in the following composition, some eight or ten lines, which I have not scrupled to retain in the places where they originally stood. It is proper however to add, that they would not have been used elsewhere, if I had foreseen the time when I might be induced to publish this Tragedy. February 28, 1842. ACT I. SCENE, road in a Wood. WALLACE and LACY. Lacy. The Troop will be impatient; let us hie Wal. Lacy. True; and, remembering how the Band Wil. Mar. Oh, Sir ! And I had heard the like before: in sooth Peace, my good Wilfred ; | The tale of this his quondam Barony Repair to Liddesdale, and tell the Band I shall be with them in two days, at farthest. [Exit. Enter OSWALD (a bunch of plants in his hand). Os. This wood is rich in plants and curious simples. Is cunningly devised; and, on the back Mar. (looking at them). The wild rose, and the Though I have never seen his face, methinks, poppy, and the nightshade : Which is your favorite, Oswald? Orio That which, while it is Strong to destroy, is also strong to heal [Looking forward. Not yet in sight!-We'll saunter here awhile; They cannot mount the hill, by us unseen. Mar. (a letter in his hand). It is no common thing when one like you Performs these delicate services, and therefore No less; There cannot come a day when I shall cease Of scarcely seven years' growth, beneath the Elm Idon. That dismal MoorIn spite of all the larks that cheered our path, I never can forgive it but how steadily You paced along, when the bewildering moonlight Mocked me with many a strange fantastic shape!— I thought the Convent never would appear; It seemed to move away from us: and yet, That you are thus the fault is mine; for the air Was soft and warm, no dew lay on the grass, And midway on the waste ere night had fallen I spied a Covert walled and roofed with sodsA miniature; belike some Shepherd-boy, Who might have found a nothing-doing hour Heavier than work, raised it: within that hut We might have made a kindly bed of heath, And thankfully there rested side by side |