Withouten sun, or moon, or night; In yon green-wood there is a waik, And in that wene there is a maike, That neither has flesh, blood, nor bane; And down in yon green-wood he walks his lane. In that green wene Kilmeny lay, She 'waken'd on a couch of the silk sae slim, All striped wi' the bars of the rainbow's rim; And lovely beings round were rife, Who erst had travell'd mortal life; And aye they smiled and 'gan to speer, "What spirit has brought this mortal here?" "Lang have I journey'd, the world wide," Eident a thousand years and mair. I have brought her away frae the snares of men, That sin or death she never may ken." They clasp'd her waist and her hands sae fair, They kiss'd her cheek and they kemed her hair, And round came many a blooming fere, Saying, "Bonnie Kilmeny, ye're welcome here! Women are freed of the littand scorn: Commission'd to watch fair womankind, For it's they who nurice the immortal mind. We have watch'd their steps as the dawning shone, And deep in the green-wood walks alone; By lily bower and silken bed, The viewless tears have o'er them shed; Have soothed their ardent minds to sleep, Or left the couch of love to weep. We have seen! we have seen! but the time must come, And the angels will weep at the day of doom! "O would the fairest of mortal kind And dear to Heaven the words of truth, And the praise of virtue frae beauty's mouth! And dear to the viewless forms of air, "O bonnie Kilmeny! free frae stain, see; Of the times that are now, and the times that shall be" They lifted Kilmeny, they led her away, And she walk'd in the light of a sunless day; The sky was a dome of crystal bright, The fountain of vision, and fountain of light: The emerald fields were of dazzling glow, That her youth and beauty never might fade; And they smiled on heaven, when they saw her lie In the stream of life that wander'd bye. And she heard a song, she head it sung, She kenn'd not where; but sae sweetly it rung, It fell on the ear like a dream of the morn: "O, blest be the day Kilmeny was born! Now shall the land of the spirits see, Now shall it ken what a woman may be! The sun that shines on the world sae bright, A borrow'd gleid frae the fountain of light; And the moon that sleeks the sky sae dun, Like a gouden bow, or a beamless sun, Shall wear away, and be seen nae mair, And the angels shall miss them travelling the air. But lang, lang after baith night and day, When the sun and the world have elyed away; When the sinner has gane to his waesome doom, Kilmeny shall smile in eternal bloom!" They bore her away, she wist not how, 'Twas like the motion of sound or sight; They came, they pass'd, and backward flew, Like floods of blossoms gliding on, From thence they can view the world below, And heaven's blue gates with sapphires glow, More glory yet unmeet to know. They bore her far to a mountain green, To see what mortal never had seen; And they seated her high on a purple sward, And bade her heed what she saw and heard, And note the changes the spirits wrought, She hid her e'en frae the dazzling view; She saw a sun on a summer sky, gray; And that land had valleys and hoary piles, And marlèd seas, and a thousand isles. Its fields were speckled, its forests green, And its lakes were all of the dazzling sheen, Like magic mirrors, where slumbering lay The sun and the sky and the cloudlet gray; Which heaved and trembled, and gently swung, On every shore they seem'd to be hung; For there they were seen on their downward plain A thousand times and a thousand again; Kilmeny sigh'd and seem'd to grieve, For she found her heart to that land did cleave; She saw the corn wave on the vale, And the brows that the badge of freedom bore; And she thought she had seen the land before. She saw a lady sit on a throne, The fairest that ever the sun shone on! Then a gruff untoward bedesman came, And the guardian maid wi' the dauntless e'e, She dropp'd a tear, and left her knee; And she saw till the queen frae the lion fled, Till the bonniest flower of the world lay dead; A coffin was set on a distant plain, Then the gruff grim carle girn'd amain, And they trampled him down, but he rose again; And he baited the lion to deeds of weir, Till he lapp'd the blood to the kingdom dear; And weening his head was danger-preef, When crown'd with the rose and clover leaf, He gowl'd at the carle, and chased him away To feed wi' the deer on the mountain gray. He gowl'd at the carle, and geck'd at But his mark was set, and his arles given. She saw before her fair unfurl'd Their lilies grew, and the eagle flew; in a blaze, And the thunder it roar'd o'er the lands and the seas. The widows they wail'd, and the red blood ran, And she threaten'd an end to the race of man; She never lened, nor stood in awe, With a mooted wing and waefu' maen, And lang, lang sleek her wounded breast, But to sing the sights Kilmeny saw, But she saw till the sorrows of man were. The dun deer woo'd with manner bland, bye, And all was love and harmony; Till the stars of heaven fell calmly away, Like flakes of snaw on a winter day. Then Kilmeny begg'd again to see The friends she had left in her own countrye; To tell of the place where she had been, And the glories that lay in the land un seen; To warn the living maidens fair, The loved of Heaven, the spirits' care, When seven lang years had come and fled, When grief was calm, and hope was dead; When scarce was remember'd Kilmeny's name, Late, late in a gloamin' Kilmeny came hame! And O, her beauty was fair to see, And her cheek the moss-rose in the shower; And her voice like the distant melodye, To suck the flowers, and drink the spring. And cower'd aneath her lily hand. O, then the glen was all in motion! tame, And goved around, charm'd and amazed; Even the dull cattle croon'd and gazed, And murmur'd and look'd with anxious pain For something the mystery to explain. The buzzard came with the throstlecock; The corby left her houf in the rock; The blackbird alang wi' the eagle flew; The hind came tripping o'er the dew; The wolf and the kid their raike began, And the tod, and the lamb, and the leveret ran; The hawk and the hern attour them hung, And the merle and the mavis forhooy'd their young; And all in a peaceful ring were hurl'd; It was like an eve in a sinless world! When a month and a day had come and gane, Kilmeny sought the green-wood wene; There laid her down on the leaves sae green, And Kilmeny on earth was never mair seen. But O, the words that fell from her mouth Were words of wonder, and words of truth! But all the land were in fear and dread, For they kendna whether she was living or dead. It wasna her hame, and she couldna remain; She left this world of sorrow and pain, And return'd to the land of thought again. SIR WALTER SCOTT (1771-1832) From THE ABBOT Mary's Delirium The fit of delirium here presented is apparently brought on by Lady Fleming's unfortunate reference to Sebastian. Catherine Seyton, attending Queen Mary, explains the circumstances to Roland Græme, the hero of the novel: "Know ye not that on the night of Henry Darnley's murder, and at the blowing up of the Kirk of Field, the Queen's absence was owing to her attending on a masque at Holyrood, given by her to grace the marriage of this same Sebastian, who, himself a favored servant, married one of her female attendants, who was near to her person?" The historical background is familiar. Mary's first husband was Henry, Lord Darnley, son of Matthew Stuart, earl of Lennox. Within the second year after the marriage, some time in the night of February 9, 1567, Darnley was murdered, and the house in which he should have been sleeping was blown up, by agents of the unscrupulous and powerful Bothwell. On May 12, Bothwell was made Duke of Orkney and Shetland. On May 15, Mary and Bothwell were married. The Scotch lords in general, and the populace, regarded her as guiltily involved in the murder. On June 15, the confederate lords, with a well-disciplined force, met the army of the Queen and Bothwell at Carberry Hill, near Edinburgh. The royal army melted away, and at last it was agreed that the Queen should yield herself prisoner, and Bothwell retire in safety to Dunbar. The Queen was kept in the island castle of Lochleven until her escape, on the 2nd of May, 1568. She soon mustered an army of 6,000 men round Hamilton Palace, and revoked her abdication. With 4500 men, under leaders of high distinction, Murray, acting as regent for the infant son of Mary and Darnley, encountered the Queen's forces at the battle or rout of Langside, on the 13th of May, whence Mary fled, crossing the Solway three days later and landing at Workington in Cumberland. MARY entered from her apartment, paler than usual, and apparently exhausted by a sleepless night, and by the painful thoughts which had ill supplied the place of repose; yet the languor of her looks was so far from impairing her beauty, that it only substituted the frail delicacy of the lovely woman for the majestic grace of the Queen. Contrary to her wont, her toilette had been very hastily dispatched, and her hair, which was usually dressed by Lady Fleming with great care, escaping from beneath the head-tire, which had been hastily adjusted, fell, in long and luxuriant tresses of Nature's own curling, over a neck and bosom which were somewhat less carefully veiled than usual. As she stepped over the threshold of her apartment, Catherine, hastily drying her tears, ran to meet her royal mistress, and having first kneeled at her feet, and kissed her hand, instantly rose, and placing herself on the other side of the Queen, seemed anxious to divide with the Lady Fleming the honour of supporting and assisting her. The page, on his part, advanced and put in order the chair of state, which she usually occupied, and having placed the cushion and footstool for her accom |