"The first of blessings I shall thee shew,
"Is by a burn, that's call'd of bread;[49]
"Where Saxon men shall tine the bow,
"And find their arrows lack the head.
"Beside that brigg, out ower that burn,
"Where the water bickereth bright and sheen,
"Shall many a falling courser spurn,
"And knights shall die in battle keen.
"Beside a headless cross of stone,
"The libbards there shall lose the gree;
"The raven shall come, the erne shall go,
"And drink the Saxon blude sae free.
"The cross of stone they shall not know,
"So thick the corses there shall be."
"But tell me now," said brave Dunbar,
"True Thomas, tell now unto me,
"What man shall rule the isle Britain,
"Even from the north to the southern sea?"
"A French queen shall bear the son,
"Shall rule all Britain to the sea:
"He of the Bruce's blude shall come,
"As near as in the ninth degree.
"The waters worship shall his race;
"Likewise the waves of the farthest sea;
"For they shall ride ower ocean wide,
"With hempen bridles, and horse of tree."
FOOTNOTES:
[44] I do not know, whether the person here meant be Waldhave, an abbot of Melrose, who died in the odour of sanctity, about 1160.
[45] The strange occupation, in which Waldhave beholds Merlin engaged, derives some illustration from a curious passage in Geoffrey of Monmouth's life of Merlin, above quoted. The poem, after narrating, that the prophet had fled to the forests in a state of distraction, proceeds to mention, that, looking upon the stars one clear evening, he discerned, from his astrological knowledge, that his wife, Guendolen, had resolved, upon the next morning, to take another husband. As he had presaged to her that this would happen, and had promised her a nuptial gift (cautioning her, however, to keep the bridegroom out of his sight), he now resolved to make good his word. Accordingly, he collected all the stags and lesser game in his neighbourhood; and, having seated himself upon a buck, drove the herd before him to the capital of Cumberland, where Guendolen resided. But her lover's curiosity leading him to inspect too nearly this extraordinary cavalcade, Merlin's rage was awakened, and he slew him with the stroke of an antler of the stag. The original runs thus:
Dixerat: et silvas et saltus circuit omnes,
Cervorumque greges agmen collegit in unum,
Et damas, capreasque simul, cervoque resedit;
Et veniente die, compellens agmina præ se,
Festinans vadit quo nubit Guendolna.
Postquam venit eo, pacienter coegit
Cervos ante fores, proclamans, "Guendolna,
"Guendolna, veni, te talia munera spectant."
Ocius ergo venit subridens Guendolna
Gestarique virum cervo miratur, et illum
Sic parere viro, tantum quoque posse ferarum
Uniri numerum quas præ se solus agebat,
Sicut pastor oves, quas ducere suevit ad herbas.
Stabat ab excelsa, sponsus spectando fenestra
In solio mirans equitem risumque movebat.
Ast ubi vidit eum vates, animoque quis esset,
Calluit, extemplo divulsit cornua cervo
Quo gestabatur, vibrataque jecit in illum
Et caput illius penitus contrivit, eumque
Reddidit exanimem, vitamque fugavit in auras;
Ocius inde suum, talorum verbere, cervum
Diffugiens egit, silvasque redire paravit.