Pad! pad! they came on the level sward, Thud! thud! upon the sand; With a gleam of swords, and a burning match, And a shaking of flag and hand: But one long bound, and I passed the gate, Safe from the canting band.
Walter Thornbury.
KING JAMES'S RIDE.
"Stand, Bayard, stand!"—the steed obeyed, With arching neck and bending head, And glancing eye and quivering ear As if he loved his lord to hear. No foot Fitz-James in stirrup staid, No grasp upon the saddle laid, But wreathed his left hand in the mane, And lightly bounded from the plain, Turned on the horse his armed heel, And stirred his courage with the steel. Bounded the fiery steed in air, The rider sate erect and fair, Then like a bolt from steel crossbow Forth launched, along the plain they go. They dashed that rapid torrent through, And up Carhonie's hill they flew; Still at the gallop pricked the Knight, His merry-men followed as they might. Along thy banks, swift Teith! they ride, And in the race they mocked thy tide; Torry and Lendrick now are past, And Deanstown lies behind them cast; They rise, the bannered towers of Doune, They sink in distant woodland soon; Blair-Drummond sees the hoof strike fire, They sweep like breeze through Ochtertyre; They mark just glance and disappear The lofty brow of ancient Kier; They bathe their courser's sweltering sides, Dark Forth! amid thy sluggish tides, And on the opposing shore take ground, With plash, with scramble, and with bound. Right-hand they leave thy cliffs, Craig-Forth! And soon the bulwark of the North, Grey Stirling, with her towers and town, Upon their fleet career looked down.
Walter Scott.
DELORAINE'S RIDE.
*....*....*....*
The Ladye forgot her purpose high, One moment, and no more; One moment gazed with a mother's eye, As she paused at the arched door: Then from amid the armed train, She called to her William of Deloraine.