Fair Margaret, from the turret head,
Heard, far below, the coursers' tread,
While loud the harness rung,

As to their seats with clamour dread,
The ready horsemen sprung;
And trampling hoofs, and'iron coats,
And leaders' voices mingled notes,
And out! and out!

In hasty route,

The horsemen galloped forth;
Dispersing to the south to scout,

And east, and west, and north,
To view their coming enemies,
To warn their vassals and allies.
The ready page, with hurried hand.
Awaked the need-fires slumbering brand,
And ruddy blushed the heaven :
For a sheet of flame, from the turret high,
Waved like a bloodflag on the sky,

All flaring and uneven;

And soon a score of fires, I ween,

From height, and hill, and cliff, were seen; Each with warlike tidings fraught;

Each from each the signal caught;

Each after each they glanced to sight,
As stars arise upon the night.
They gleamed on many a dusky tarn,
Haunted by the lonely carn;
On many a cairn's gray pyramid,
Where urns of mighty chiefs lie hid :
Till high Dunedin the blazes saw,
From Soltra and Dumpender Law;
And Lothian heard the regent's order,
That all should bowne them from the Border.

The livelong night in Branksome rang
The ceaseless sound of steel:
The castle bell, with backward clang,
Sent forth the larum peal;
Was frequent heard the heavy jar,
Where massy stone and iron bar
Were piled on echoing keep and tower,
To whelm the foe with deadly shower;

Was frequent heard the changing guard,
And watchword from the sleepless ward;
While, wearied by the endless din,
Blood-hound and ban-dog yelled within.

The noble dame, amid the broil,
Shared the gray Seneschal's high toil,
And spoke of danger with a smile;
Cheered the young knights, and council sage
Held with the chiefs of riper age.
No tidings of the foe were brought,
Nor of his numbers knew they aught,
Nor in what time the truce he sought.
Some said that there were thousands ten
And others weened that it was nought
But Leven clans, or Tynedale men,
Who came to gather in black mail ;
And Liddesdale, with small avail,

Might drive them lightly back agen.
So passed the anxious night away,
And welcome was the peep of day."

The castle of the Scotts, at the time expressed in the verses, was in possession of the widow of its late lord. The fair Margaret is the Lady's daughter.

Is

red glare the western star? No. It is a war signal. yon On some distant and elevated spot, the Scotts kept a post of observation—a place where some of their clan were stationed to observe if any armed force marched towards the castle. As soon as the watchman discovered movements among the enemy, he gave notice of it by lighting a fire, which was seen at another high place, where another watch was stationed. The second watchman lighted a bale fire, which another saw; and thus, by a succession of signs, the endangered family got information of their danger, and prepared themselves for defence. This mode of giving information, was in ancient times in use among the Greeks and Asiatics. In Agamemnon, a tragedy of Eschylus, the circumstance of the taking of Troy is represented to have been thus transmitted to Peloponnesus.

The time of curfew bell—about eight o'clock at night.

Warder a watchman who gave notice of danger to the inmates of a castle.

Seneschal—an officer who regulated ceremonies, and gave orders upon emergencies.

Bale—beacon-faggot.

Mount for Branksome was the gathering word of the Scotts. Need-fire—beacon.

Tarn—a mountain lake.
Earn the Scottish eagle.
Cairn—a pile of stones.
Bowne—make ready.

The regent's order. A regent is a person appointed to act for a king in his infancy, in his absence from his kingdom, and during his illness.

Who came to gather in black mail. The Scotts did not certainly know who was approaching their domain, it might be some lawless men of the country who were coming to carry off cattle, and such things as they could find, yet who might be prevented from doing this violence by money distributed among them. This bribe for refraining from robbery was called black mail.

This disorderly and perilous state of society exists no longer. The region once disturbed in this manner is now in security and prosperity. This change is sweetly described in the poem from which the succeeding verses are extracted :

"Sweet Teviot! on thy silver tide

The glaring bale-fires blaze no more j
No longer steel-clad warriors ride
Along thy wild and willowed shore ;
Where'er thou wind'st by dale or hill
All, all is peaceful, all is still,

As if thy waves, since time was born,
Since first they rolled their way to Tweed,
Had only heard the shepherd's reed,
Nor startled at the bugle-horn.

Unlike the tide of human time,

Which, though it change in ceaseless flow,
Retains each grief, retains each crime,

Its earliest course was doomed to know:

And darker as it downward bears,

Is stained with past and present tears."

LORD SURREY.

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, was the son of a Duke of Norfolk, an English nobleman. Lord Surrey was born in England about the year 1516. He was educated in the fashion of that age for young persons of his elevated rank. According to an old writer of the time" they began early with languages and manners; from ten to twelve were taught music and dancing, and to speak of gentleness ;' (to converse like gentlemen) then scoured the fields as sportsmen; at sixteen were practised in mock battles—jousting, and breaking and riding the war-horse; and at seventeen or eighteen were reckoned fit to enter the world, and be entrusted with the duties of men."

Lord Surrey was highly accomplished, and a writer of poetry. His poetry js now only read by those students who take pleasure in reviving what is old and obsolete, and in tracing the past progress of English literature. Surrey spent his short life chiefly in the court of Henry the VIII, or in the military service in France. His genius and accomplishments made him enemies.—The unsettled state of laws, and the despotism of the royal authority at that period in England, made it easy for cruel and unprincipled men in high stations to ruin those they hated, and to such men, Lord Surrey fell a victim.

The circumstances of Surrey's death, are not very precisely known, but he was falsely accused of treason, (a project against the government of his country,) and in the 31st year of his age was sentenced to death, and publicly beheaded. The king, being near his end, and enfeebled in mind, gave his sanction to this vile

measure.

"Thus was cut off, gallant and guiltless, the most accomplished man of his age.'

lovely to the last :

Extinguished, not decayed.

This melancholy fact affords a clear inference of the value of a wise civil government, founded in the rights of all men.—A young person who should now read the frivolous pretences which brought Lord Surrey to the block, ought to feel his heart glow with gratitude to Providence, that he lives under political institutions, which forbid the shedding of blood except for the worst crimes; and he ought to make himself worthy of that personal safety and liberty which when they bestow the privileges of a good citizen, require of him all the duties of one.

Surrey's character and fate are so interesting that many fictions have been composed upon his history. One of these is, that he loved a beautiful English lady named Geraldine—that he travelled in Italy and Germany, and in order to obtain some intelligence of the lady Geraldine while he was on the continent of Europe, that he repaired to a certain necromancer for information. The reputed name of that fortune-teller, as we call such impostors, was Cornelius Agrippa. According to this fable, Agrippa showed Lord Surrey the figure of his absent lady in a mirror. She was seen by him reclining on a couch and reading one of his sonnets. To complete this story it was further asserted, that Lord Surrey was just married to Geraldine when he was torn from her, and put to death.

Towards the end of Sir Walter Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel, a marriage feast is described. The time in which the circumstances related in the poem are supposed to happen, is soon after the death of Surrey. One of the entertainments at feasts, then in fashion, was the musical recitation of poetry, in honour of beautiful ladies and true knights. At the marriage feast alluded to, Fitztraver, a favourite Minstrel of Lord Surrey, is supposed to be present, and to relate the fabled vision of his unhappy master.

SURREY'S VISION.

As ended Albert's simple lay,
Arose a bard of loftier port;

For sonnet, rhyme, and roundelay,

Renowned in haughty Henry's court;
There hung the harp, unrivalled long,
Fitztraver of the silver song!

The gentle Surrey loved his lyre—
Who has not heard of Surrey's fame?

His was the Hero's soul of fire,

And his the bard's immortal name,

And his was love, exalted high

By all the glow of chivalry.

They sought together, climes afar,
And oft, within some olive grove,

When evening came, with twinkling star,
They sung of Surrey's absent love.
His step the Italian peasant staid,

And deemed, that spirits from on high,
Round where some hermit saint was laid,
Were breathing heavenly melody;