And I sang:
“In far Touraine I'd watched each lagging day Drag on to weary night, I'd broke my heart when homing birds Winged o'er me in their flight; But a Blackbird came one golden eve And rested on the wing, And these were the heartsome words I heard The bonnie Blackbird sing:
“'Go bid your love bind in her hair The blue of Scotland's Kings, Go bid her don her bravest gown And all her gauds and rings, And bid her shine all maids above As she can shine alone; For the news was whispered in the night, And the night hath told the day, And the cry hath gone across the land From Lochaber to the Tay! From Lochaber far beyond the Tay The glorious news hath flown— So bid her don her best array, For the King shall have his own Once more! The King shall have his own!”
“Beyond the Tweed I know each bonnie bird That lilts the greenwood through, I know each note from the mavis sweet To the crooning cushie-doo; But I ne'er had heard a song that gar'd My very heart-strings ring Till I heard that eve in far Touraine The bonnie Blackbird sing:
“'Go bid your love bind in her hair The blue of Scotland's Kings, Go bid her don her bravest gown And all her gauds and rings, And bid her shine all maids above, As she can shine alone;— For the news was whispered in the night, And the night hath told the day, And the cry hath gone across the land From Lochaber to the Tay! From Lochaber far beyond the Tay The glorious news hath flown— So bid her don her best array, For the King shall have his own Once more! The King shall have his own!'”
Lady Jane was in tears, and my Margaret was little better, though smiling at me from the spinet, while the Vicomte sat the only composed one in the room—I being affected, as I always am when I hear a fine effort, whether by myself or another—when Mr. Colvill, who was Lady Jane's man of business, entered to us, and without any preamble began:
“Mr. Maxwell, I have certain information that your lodgings will be searched to-night, and I have a suspicion that you are the person sought for.”
My poor Margaret cried out and nearly swooned with terror, but Lady Jane was herself at once. “Give over your nonsense, Peggy, this instant! Hughie is not a mewling baby to be frightened, with a warning before him! Colvill, you have acted with the discretion I should have expected in you, and I thank you in my cousin's name and my own. Hughie, do you find out some new place at once; I marked a little sempstress who has a shop in Wych Street only the other day, and I would apply there if you know of no other. Do not go back to your old lodgings on any account. When I hear where you are, I will supply you with everything needful.”
The Vicomte very obligingly offered me the shelter of his roof for the night, but I answered I could not think of exposing him, when on diplomatic business, to the charge of sheltering a rebel, and was pleased to have so handsome an excuse to cover my unwillingness to lie under an obligation towards him.
In a moment the whole aspect of our little party was changed, and I took my way to seek for a new shelter, leaving anxious hearts behind me.