c II 1 III m&$£ Hi LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ©ijap. J..V. Snpjrigjji $> ...,.'A Shelf I IS84- UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 2w- ^£•0 Day set on Norham's castled steep, and deep." And Tweed's fair river, broad Canto i. 1. MARMION A POEM IN SIX CANTOS BY SIR WALTER SCOTT, Bart. OTttf) 5HIustrati0ns By GARRETT, SHELTON, SHEPPARD, TAYLOR AM) OTHERS NEW YORK THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 13 Astor Place Copyright By T. Y. Crowell & Co. 1884. RIGHT HONORABLE HENRY, LORD MONTAGUE, THIS ROMANCE IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. Introduction 7 Canto I. Introduction. To Wm, Stewart Rose 17 The Castle ...... 32 Canto II. Introduction. To Rev. John Marriott 59 The Convent 70 Canto III. Introduction. To William Erskine . 99 The Hostel, or Inn .... 109 Canto IV. Introduction. To James Skene . 135 The Camp 144 Canto V. Introduction. To George Ellis i73 The Court i8r Canto VI. Introduction. To Richard Heber 223 The Battle . 234 Appendix ......... 281 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Drawn and Engraved under the supervision of George T. Andrew. '• Day set on Norham's castled steep, And Tweed's fair river, broad and deep." — Canto i, i. E. H. Garrett. Frontispiece. ; ' His bugle-horn he blew." — Canto I, Hi. W. H. Shelton. 34 '• But strode across the hall of state, And fronted Marmion where he sate." — Canto i, xxviii. W. L. Sheppard. 54 " Before them stood a guilty pair.'' — Canto 2, xx. W. L. Taylor. 87 '• Resting upon his pilgrim staff, Right opposite the Palmer stood." — Canto 3, v. W. L. Sheppard. 112 " Thus speaking, he his steed bestrode, And from the hostel slowly rode." — Canto 3, xxix. W. H. Shelton. 132 '• First came the trumpets, at whose clang So late the forest echoes rang." — Canto 4, vi. W. H. Shelton. 148 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. " Since Marmion, from the crown Of Blackford, saw that martial scene." — Canto 4, xxv. E. H. Garrett. 165 " Then glanced her dark eye on the King, And then around the silent ring." — Canto 5, xt. W. L. Sheppard. 194 " Now, saintly Palmer, mark my prayer : I give this packet to thy care." — Canto 5, xxtv. W.L.Taylor. 209 " " Lord Angus, thou hast lied ! — Canto 6, xiv. W. H. Shelton. 249 " With dying hand, above his head, He shook the fragment of his blade." — Canto 6, xxxii. W. L. Sheppard. 271 INTRODUCTION. What I have to say respecting this Poem may be briefly told. 11 In the Introduction to the "Lay of the Last Minstrel, I have mentioned the circumstances, so far as my literary life is con- cerned, which induced me to resign the active pursuit of an honorable profession, for the more precarious resources of litera- ture. My appointment to the Sheriffdom of Selkirk called for a change of residence. I left, therefore, the pleasant cottage I had upon the side of the Esk, for the " pleasanter banks of the Tweed, 11 in order to comply with the law, which requires that the Sheriff shall be resident, at least during a certain num- ber of months, within his jurisdiction. We found a delightful retirement, by my becoming the tenant of my intimate friend and cousin-german, Colonel Russel, in his mansion of Ashestiel, which was unoccupied during his absence on military service in India. The house was adequate to our accommodation, and the exercise of a limited hospitality. The situation is uncommonly beautiful, by the side of a fine river, whose streams are there very favorable for angling, surrounded by the remains of natural woods, and by hills abounding in game. In point of society, ac- cording to the heartfelt phrase of Scripture, we dwelt "amongst our own people " ; and as the distance from the metropolis was only thirty miles, we were not out of reach of our Edinburgh friends, in which city we spent the terms of the summer and winter Sessions of the Court, that is, five or six months in the year. 8 INTRODUCTION. An important circumstance had, about the same time, taken place in my life. Hopes had been held out to me from an in- fluential quarter, of a nature to relieve me from the anxiety which I must have otherwise felt, as one upon the precarious tenure of whose own life rested the principal prospects of his family, and especially as one who had necessarily some depend- ence upon the favor of the public, which is proverbially capricious ; though it is but justice to add, that, in my own case, I have not found it so. Mr. Pitt had expressed a wish to my personal friend, the Right Honorable William Dundas, now Lord Clerk Register of Scotland, that some fitting opportunity should be taken to be of service to me ; and as my views and wishes pointed to a future rather than an immediate provision, an op- portunity of accomplishing this was soon found. One of the Principal Clerks of Session, as they are called (official persons who occupy an important and responsible situation, and enjoy a considerable income), who had served upwards of thirty years, felt himself, from age, and the infirmity of deafness with which it was accompanied, desirous of retiring from his official situa- tion. As the law then stood, such official persons were entitled to bargain with their successors, either for a sum of money, which was usually a considerable one, or for an interest in the emolu- ments of the office during their life. My predecessor, whose services had been unusually meritorious, stipulated for the emolu- ments of his office during his life, while I should enjoy the sur- vivorship, on the condition that I discharged the duties of the office in the meantime. Mr. Pitt, however, having died in the interval, his administration was dissolved, and was succeeded by that known by the name of the Fox and Grenville Ministry. My affair was so far completed, that my commission lay in the office subscribed by his Majesty ; but, from hurry or mistake, the in- terest of my predecessor was not expressed in it, as had been MARMION. usual in such cases. Although, therefore, it only required pay- ment of the fees, I could not in honor take out the commission in the present state, since, in the event of my dying before him, the gentleman whom I succeeded must have lost the vested in- terest which he had stipulated to retain. I had the honor of an interview with Earl Spencer on the subject, and he, in the most handsome manner, gave directions that the commission should issue as originally intended ; adding, that the matter having received the royal assent, he regarded only as a claim of justice what he would have willingly done as an act of favor. I never saw Mr. Fox on this, or on any other occasion, and never made any application to him, conceiving that in doing so I might have been supposed to express political opinions contrary to those which I had always professed. In his private capacity, there is no man to whom I would have been more proud to owe an obligation, had I been so distinguished. By this arrangement I obtained the survivorship of an office, the emoluments of which were fully adequate to my wishes ; and as the law respecting the mode of providing for superannuated officers was, about five or six years after, altered from that which admitted the arrangement of assistant and successor, my colleague very handsomely took the opportunity of the alteration to accept of the retiring annuity provided in such cases, and admitted me to the full benefit of the office. But although the certainty of succeeding to a considerable in- come, at the time I obtained it, seemed to assure me of a quiet harbor in my old age, I did not escape my share of inconvenience from the contrary tides and currents by which we are so often encountered in our journey through life. Indeed, the publication of my next poetical attempt was prematurely accelerated, from one of those unpleasant accidents which can neither be foreseen nor avoided. ; ; IO INTRODUCTION. I had formed the prudent resolution to endeavor to bestow a little more labor than I had yet done on my productions, and to be in no hurry again to announce myself as a candidate for literary fame. Accordingly, particular passages of a poem, which was finally called " Marmion, 11 were labored with a good deal of care, by one by whom much care was seldom bestowed. Whether the work was worth the labor or not, I am no competent judge but I may be permitted to say, that the period of its composition was a very happy one in my life ; so much so, that I remember with pleasure, at this moment, some of the spots in which par- ticular passages were composed. It is probably owing to this that the Introductions to the several Cantos assumed the form of familiar epistles to my intimate friends, in which I alluded perhaps more than was necessary or graceful to my domestic occupations and amusements — a loquacity which may be excused by those who remember that I was still young, light-headed, and happy, and that " out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." The misfortunes of a near relation and friend, which happened at this time, led me to alter my prudent determination, which had been to use great precaution in sending this poem into the world, and made it convenient at least, if not absolutely neces- sary, to hasten its publication. The publishers of "The Lay 1 of the Last Minstrel, ' emboldened by the success of that poem, willingly offered a thousand pounds for " Marmion.'" The tran- saction being no secret, afforded Lord Byron, who was then at general war with all who blacked paper, an apology for including me in his satire entitled "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." 1 1 [" Next view in state, proud prancing on his roan, The golden-crested haughty Marmion, Now forging scrolls, now foremost in the fight, Not quite a felon, yet but half a knight, The gibbet or the field prepared to grace ; 1; MARMION.