All that makes dying vehemence despair, v7 2 Knowing it must be dragg'd it knows not where. Th' excess of fear and anguish, which had tied The courtier's tongue, now loos'd it, and he cried, "O royal master! Sage! Lord of the Ring, I cannot bear the horror of this thing; Help with thy mighty art. Wish me, I pray, On the remotest mountain of Cathay." Ι Solomon wish'd, and the man vanish'd. Straight Up comes the terror, with his orbs of fate. "Solomon," with a lofty voice said he, "How came that man here, wasting time with thee? I was to fetch him, ere the close of day, From the remotest mountain of Cathay." 66 Solomon said, bowing him to the ground, WALLACE AND FAWDON. THIS ballad was suggested by one of the notes to the Lay of the Last Minstrel. Wallace, the great Scottish patriot, had been defeated in a sharp encounter with the English. He was forced to retreat with only sixteen followers; the English pursued him with a bloodhound; and his sole chance of escape from that tremendous investigator was either in baffling the scent altogether, (which was impossible, unless fugitives could take to the water, and continue there for some distance,) or in confusing it by the spilling of blood. For the latter purpose, a captive was sometimes sacrificed; in which case the hound stopped upon the body. The supernatural part of the story of Fawdon is treated by its first relator, Harry the Minstrel, as a mere legend, hd that not a very credible one; but as a mere legend it is very fine, and quite sufficient for poetical purposes; nor should the old poet's philosophy have thought proper to gainsay it. Nevertheless, as the mysteries of the conscience are more awful things than any merely gratuitous terror, (besides leaving optical phenomena quite as real as the latter may find them,) even the supernatural part of the story becomes probable when we consider the agitations which the noble mind of Wallace may have undergone during such trying physical circumstances, and such extremes of moral responsibility. It seems clear, that however necessary the death of Fawdon may have been to his companions, or to Scotland, his slayer regretted it; I have suggested the kind of reason which he would most likely have had for the regret; and upon the whole, it is my opinion, that Wallace actually saw the visions, and that the legend originated in the fact. I do not mean to imply that Fawdon became present, embodied or disembodied, whatever may have been the case with his image. I only say that what the legend reports Wallace to have seen, was actually in the hero's eyes. The remainder of the question I leave to the psychologist. PART THE FIRST. WALLACE with his sixteen men The bloodhound's bay comes down the wind, Town and tower are yet to pass, With not a friend's abode. Wallace neither turn'd nor spake; Closer drew the men; Little had they said that day, But most went cursing then. Oh! to meet twice sixteen foes Bos Oh! to overtake one wretch Suddenly dark Fawdon stopp'd, He stumbled with a desperate oath, He said, "The leech took all my strength, Come dog, come devil, or English rack, Fawdon was an Irishman Had join'd them in the war; Four orphan children waited him Down by Eden Scawr. But Wallace hated Fawdon's ways, "No thought is thine of lingering here, Fawdon would not speak nor stir, Scorn'd or sooth'd, he sat and lour'd, Wallace drew a little back, And waved his men apart; And Fawdon half leap'd up and cried, "Thou wilt not have the heart!" Wallace with his dreadful sword, Through its stifled screech, and through Safe is Wallace with his men, PART THE SECOND. WALLACE lies in Castle Gask, Not a soul has come, three days, Safely with his men lies Wallace, There is fever in his blood; It was night, and all were housed, Who is this that blows the horn Who is this that blows a horn Which none but Wallace hears? He sends by twos, he sends by threes, Wallace flings him forth down stairs; Fawdon's headless trunk he sees, Wallace with a stifled screech Turn'd and fled amain, Up the stairs, and through the bowers, With a burning brain : From a window Wallace leap'd And never stopp'd till fast within And then he turn'd, in gasping doubt, To see the fiend retire, And saw him not at hand, but saw All on fire was Castle Gask; And on its top, endued |