Still tunes her lute to Edgar's name,

Still chides the hours which stay her flight; Still sings,-" In Blantyre shines the flame? "Ah! no!-'tis but the northern-light!"

Since writing this Ballad, I have seen a French one, entitled “La
Veillée de la Bonne Mère," which has some resemblance with it.

SWIFT roll the Rhine's billows, and water the plains,
Where Falkenstein Castle's majestic remains

Their moss-cover'd turrets still rear:

Oft loves the gaunt wolf midst the ruins to prowl,
What time from the battlements pours the lone owl
Her plaints in the passenger's ear.

No longer resound through the vaults of yon hall
The song of the minstrel, and mirth of the ball;
Those pleasures for ever are fled :

There now dwells the bat with her light-shunning brood,
There ravens and vultures now clamour for food,

And all is dark, silent, and dead!

Ha! dost thou not see, by the moon's trembling light

Directing his steps, where advances a knight,

His eye big with vengeance and fate?

'Tis Osric the Lion his nephew who leads,
And swift up the crackling old staircase proceeds,
Gains the hall, and quick closes the gate.

eyes,

Now round him young Carloman casting his
Surveys the sad scene with dismay and surprise,

And fear steals the rose from his cheeks.

His spirits forsake him, his courage is flown;
The hand of Sir Osric he clasps in his own,
And while his voice faulters he speaks.

"Dear uncle," he murmurs, "why linger we here? "'Tis late, and these chambers are damp and are drear, "Keen blows through the ruins the blast!

"Oh let us away and our journey pursue :

"Fair Blumenberg's Castle will rise on our view,

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Soon as Falkenstein forest is pass'd.

Why roll thus your eyeballs? why glare they so wild? "Oh! chide not my weakness, nor frown, that a child

"Should view these apartments with dread;

"For know, that full oft have I heard from my nurse, "There still on this castle has rested a curse,

"Since innocent blood here was shed.

"She said, too, bad spirits, and ghosts all in white, "Here use to resort at the dead time of night,

" Nor vanish till breaking of day;

"And still at their coming is heard the deep tone

"Of a bell loud and awful-hark! hark! 'twas a groan! "Good uncle, oh! let us away!"

-"Peace, serpent!" thus Osric the Lion replies, While rage and malignity gloom in his eyes;

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Thy journey and life here must close:

Thy castle's proud turrets no more shalt thou see; "No more betwixt Blumenberg's lordship and me "Shalt thou stand, and my greatness oppose.

My brother lies breathless on Palestine's plains, "And thou once remov'd, to his noble domains

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My right can no rival deny :

Then, stripling, prepare on my dagger to bleed; "No succour is near, and thy fate is decreed, "Commend thee to Jesus, and die!".

Thus saying, he seizes the boy by the arm,
Whose grief rends the vaulted hall's roof, while alarm
His heart of all fortitude robs;

His limbs sink beneath him; distracted with fears,
He falls at his uncle's feet, bathes them with tears,
And-" spare me! oh spare me!"-he sobs.

But vainly the miscreant he strives to appease;
And vainly he clings in despair round his knees,

And sues in soft accents for life;

Unmov'd by his sorrow, unmov'd by his

prayer,

Fierce Osric has twisted his hand in his hair,

And aims at his bosom a knife.

But ere the steel blushes with blood, strange to tell!
Self-struck, does the tongue of the hollow-toned bell
The presence of midnight declare:

And while with amazement his hair bristles high,
Hears Osric a voice, loud and terrible cry,

In sounds heart-appaling-" Forbear!”.

Straight curses and shrieks through the chambers resound, Shrieks mingled with laughter: the walls shake around; The groaning roof threatens to fall;

Loud bellows the thunder, blue lightnings still flash; The casements they clatter; chains rattle; doors clash, And flames spread their waves through the hall.

The clamour increases, the portals expand!-
O'er the pavement's black marble now rushes a band
Of dæmons all dropping with gore,

In visage so grim, and so monstrous in height,
That Carloman screams, as they burst on his sight,
And sinks without sense on the floor.