And still to all his court would he say,
"What keeps my son so long away?"

And they said: "The ports lie far and wide
That skirt the swell of the English tide;

"And England's cliffs are not more white
Than her women are, and scarce so light
Her skies as their eyes are blue and bright;

"And in some port that he reached from France
The Prince has lingered for his pleasaùnce."

But once the King asked: "What distant cry
Was that we heard 'twixt the sea and sky?"

And one said: "With suchlike shouts, pardie !
Do the fishers fling their nets at sea.'

And one: "Who knows not the shrieking quest When the sea-mew misses its young from the nest?"

'T was thus till now they had soothed his dread.
Albeit they knew not what they said:

But who should speak to-day of the thing
That all knew there except the King?

Then pondering much they found a way,
And met round the King's high seat that day.

And the King sat with a heart sore stirred,
And seldom he spoke and seldom heard.

'T was then through the hall the King was 'ware
Of a little boy with golden hair,

As bright as the golden poppy is

That the beach breeds for the surf to kiss :

Yet pale his cheek as the thorn in Spring,
And his garb black like the raven's wing.

Nothing heard but his foot through the hall,
For now the lords were silent all.

And the King wondered, and said, "Alack!
Who sends me a fair boy dressed in black?

Why, sweet heart, do you pace through the hall As though my court were a funeral?"

Then lowly knelt the child at the dais,
And looked up weeping in the King's face.

"O wherefore black, O King, ye may say,
For white is the hue of death to-day.

"Your son and all his fellowship
Lie low in the sea with the White Ship."

King Henry fell as a man struck dead;
And speechless still he stared from his bed
When to him next day my rede I read.

There's many an hour must needs beguile
A King's high heart that he should smile,-

Full many a lordly hour, full fain

Of his realm's rule and pride of his reign:

But this King never smiled again.

By none but me can the tale be told,
The butcher of Rouen, poor Berold.

(Lands are swayed by a King on a throne.)

'T was a royal train put forth to sea,
Yet the tale can be told by none but me.

(The sea hath no King but God alone.)

201

THE KING'S TRAGEDY.

NOTE.-Tradition says that Catherine Douglas, in honor of her heroic act when she barred the door with her arm against the murderers of James the First of Scots, received popularly the name of "Barlass." This name remains to her descendants, the Barlas family, in Scotland, who bear for their crest a broken arm. She married Alexander Lovell of Bolunnie.

A few stanzas from King James's lovely poem, known as The King's Quhair, are quoted in the course of this ballad. The writer must express regret for the necessity which has compelled him to shorten the ten-syllabled lines to eight syllables, in order that they might harmonize with the ballad metre."

JAMES I. OF SCOTS.-20TH FEBRUARY, 1437.

I CATHERINE am a Douglas born,
A name to all Scots dear;

And Kate Barlass they've called me now
Through many a waning year.

This old arm's withered now.
Most deft 'mong maidens all

'T was once

To rein the steed, to wing the shaft,
To smite the palm-play ball.

In hall adown the close-linked dance
It has shone most white and fair;
It has been the rest for a true lord's head,
And many a sweet babe's nursing-bed,

And the bar to a King's chambère.

Aye, lasses, draw round Kate Barlass,
And hark with bated breath

How good King James, King Robert's son,
Was foully done to death.

Through all the days of his gallant youth
The princely James was pent,

By his friends at first and then by his foes,

In long imprisonment.

For the elder Prince, the kingdom's heir,

By treason's murderous brood

Was slain; and the father quaked for the child
With the royal mortal blood.

I' the Bass Rock fort, by his father's care,
Was his childhood's life assured;
And Henry the subtle Bolingbroke,

Proud England's King, 'neath the southron yoke
His youth for long years immured.

Yet in all things meet for a kingly man
Himself did he approve;

And the nightingale through his prison-wall
Taught him both lore and love.

For once, when the bird's song drew him close
To the opened window-pane,

In her bowers beneath a lady stood,
A light of life to his sorrowful mood,
Like a lily amid the rain.

And for her sake, to the sweet bird's note,

He framed a sweeter Song,

More sweet than ever a poet's heart

Gave yet to the English tongue.

She was a lady of royal blood;

And when, past sorrow and teen

He stood where still through his crownless years
His Scotish realm had been,

At Scone were the happy lovers crowned,
A heart-wed King and Queen.

But the bird may fall from the bough of youth,
And song be turned to moan,

And Love's storm-cloud be the shadow of Hate,
When the tempest-waves of a troubled State
Are beating against a throne.

Yet well they loved; and the god of Love,
Whom well the King had sung,

Might find on the earth no truer hearts
His lowliest swains among.

From the days when first she rode abroad
With Scotish maids in her train,
I Catherine Douglas won the trust

Of my mistress sweet Queen Jane.

And oft she sighed, "To be born a King!"
And oft along the way

When she saw the homely lovers pass

She has said, "Alack the day!"

Years waned, the loving and toiling years:
Till England's wrong renewed

Drove James, by outrage cast on his crown,
To the open field of feud.

'Twas when the King and his host were met At the leaguer of Roxbro' hold,

The Queen o' the sudden sought his camp
With a tale of dread to be told.

And she showed him a secret letter writ
That spoke of treasonous strife,
And how a band of his noblest lords
Were sworn to take his life.

"And it may be here or it may be there, In the camp or the court," she said: "But for my sake come to your people's arms And guard your royal head.”

Quoth he, ""T is the fifteenth day of the siege, And the castle 's nigh to yield.”

"O face your foes on your throne," she cried, "And show the power you wield;

And under your Scotish people's love
You shall sit as under your shield."

At the fair Queen's side I stood that day
When he bade them raise the siege,
And back to his Court he sped to know

How the lords would meet their Liege.