The feast is spread in the knightly hall,
And the guests are uproarious, one and all,
Drinking success to the hero stout
Who larruped the Giants out-and-out;
When, lo! all their mirth was changed to gloom,
For a herald, all whey-faced, rushed into the room.
Oh, the horrified wight!
What a terrible sight!
He spoke—five hundred jaws were still;
Eyes, twice five hundred, staring wide—
"Mac Thundel's coming, bent to kill
You, valiant champion—hide, sir, hide!"
The cry of the crowd without they hear,
"Mac Thundel is coming, oh dear! oh dear!"
"And who the deuce is this Mac Thundel,
That I," Sir Jack replied, "should bundle?"
"Mac Thundel, Sir Knight, is a two-headed beggar,
You have slain his two kinsmen, the Giants Mac Gregor:
That he 'll kill you and eat you he swears, or 'de'il tak' him,'"
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed bold Jack, "let him come—I shall whack him."
"Gentles and ladies, pray walk below
To the castle yard with me;
You don't object to sport I know,
And rare sport you shall see."
"Success to gallant Jack!" they shout,
And follow, straight, the champion stout.
The knight's retainers he summons, all hands,
And thus with hasty speech commands:-
"Ho! merrymen, all, to the castle moat,
Cut the drawbridge well nigh through;
While I put on this elegant coat
The knaves his bidding do.
The form of the hero dissolves in air,
And the ladies exclaim and the gentlemen stare.
XV.
[Original Size] -- [Medium-Size]
Stumping, thumping, blundering, lo!
Comes the Giant Scot in sight;
All the people screaming "Oh!"
Fly before him in affright.
Look, he snorts and sniffs, as though
His nose had ken'd an unseen foe;
And hearken what he thunders forth,
In gutteral accent of the north!
See Page Image==>
XVI.