IV.
Those with whom I started
Oceans wide have parted:
Some are broken-hearted,
Some lie in the clay;
Those I once heard prattle,
For whom I shook the rattle,
Engaged in life's vain battle,
Push me off the way.
The world's laugh it jeers me,
Their looks they seem to fear me,
I hear them whisper near me,
"Old man, why linger here?"
She who loved me dearly,
Wandered with me cheerily,
Is now a phantom merely,
Seen through memory's tear.
Pale ghost, flitting yonder!
With drooping head you wander.
Deep in thought you ponder
Why I stay from thee;
Cease those hands to beckon,
Vain, vain, may you reckon;
Alas! I cannot quicken
Death's desired decree.
Weary, weary wandering,
Life's last moments squandering,
Weary, weary wandering
Through this world of sin,
None can undeceive me,
None but ONE relieve me,
None but ONE receive me,
His peace to enter in.
XXIV.
THE SIEGE: A DRAMATIC TALE.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.—SIR ALEXANDER SETON, Governor of Berwick; RICHARD and HENRY, his sons. PROVOST RAMSAY. HUGH ELLIOT, a traitor. KING EDWARD. EARL PERCY. MATILDA, wife of Seton; etc.
SCENE I.—A Street—the Market-place.
Enter SIR ALEXANDER SETON, RICHARD and HENRY (his sons), PROVOST RAMSAY, HUGH ELLIOT, and others of the People.