* * * * *
Sir Launcelot, not being sure that Cowcaddens Wood really hides his mortal enemy, despatches a "herald stout," accompanied by
"Sir Roderick Dalgleish, and his foster-brother Neish,
With his bloodhounds in the leash,"
to see whether the party in the wood are friends or foes. All doubt on the subject is put to rest by a shower of arrows which
"Sped their force, and a pale and bleeding corse
He (the herald) sank from off his horse
On the plain!
"Back drew the bold Dalgleish, back started stalwart Neish,
With his bloodhounds in the leash from Brownlee.
'Now shame be to the sword that made thee knight and lord,
Thou caitiff thrice abhorred,
Shame on thee!'"
After this burst of not unnatural rage at the unhandsome treatment of a herald, whose office should have made his person sacred, Sir Launcelot gives orders that there must be
"'Forthwith no end of those heavy bolts;
Three angels to the brave who finds the foe a grave,
And a gallows for the slave
Who revolts!'
"Ten days the combat lasted; but the bold defenders fasted,
While the foemen, better pastied, fed their host;
You might hear the savage cheers of the hungry Gorbaliers,
As at night they dressed the steers
For the roast.