“For hear me, sire, restrain your ire,
  This knight you so admired,
A plan had laid to ruin my maid,
  While he for my love aspired. 
I claim the contract by his hand,
  Whereto thou’rt guarantee,
And this young Allan is the man,
And he alone of all Scotland,
  Thy Katharine’s lord shall be.”

V.

THE BALLAD OF AILIE FAA.

I.

Sir Robert has left his castle ha’,
  The castle of fair Holmylee,
And gone to meet his Ailie Faa,
  Where no one might be there to see. 
He has sounded shrill his bugle horn,
  But not for either horse or hound;
And when the echoes away were borne,
  He listened for a well-known sound.

He hears a rustling among the leaves,
  Some pattering feet are drawing near;
Like autumn’s breathings among the sheaves,
  So sweet at eventide to hear: 
His Ailie Faa, who is sweeter far
  Than the white rose hanging upon the tree,
Who is fairer than the fairies are
  That dance in moonlight on the lea.

Oh! there are some flowers, as if in love,
  Unto the oak their arms incline;
And tho’ the tree may rotten prove,
  They still the closer around it twine: 
So has it been until this hour,
  And so in coming time ’twill be,
Wherever young love may hang a flower,
  ’Twill think it aye ane trusty tree.

He has led her into a summer bower,
  For he was fond and she was fain,
And there with all of a lover’s power
  He whispered that old and fatal strain,
Which those who sing it and those who hear
  Have never sung and never heard,
But they have shed the bitter tear
  For every soft delusive word.

He pointed to yon castle ha’,
  And all its holts so green and fair;
And would not she, poor Ailie Faa,
  Move some day as a mistress there? 
As the parched lea receives the rains,
  Her ears drank up the sweet melodie;
A gipsy’s blood flowed in her veins,
  A gipsy’s soul flashed in her eye.

Oh! it’s time will come and time will go,
  That which has been will be again;
This strange world’s ways go to and fro,
  This moment joy, the next is pain. 
A sough has thro’ the hamlet spread,
  To Ailie’s ear the tidings came,
That Holmylee will shortly wed
  A lady fair of noble name.

II.

In yon lone cot adown the Lynne
  A widowed mother may think it long
Since there were lightsome words within,
  Since she has heard blithe Ailie’s song. 
A gloomy shade sits on Ailie’s brow,
  At times her eyes flash sudden fires,
The same she had noticed long ago,
  Deep flashing in her gipsy sire’s.

When the wind at even was low and loun,
  And the moon paced on in her majesty
Thro’ lazy clouds, and threw adown
  Her silvery light o’er turret and tree,
Then Ailie sought the green alcove,
  That place of fond lovers’ lone retreat,
Where she for the boon of gentle love,
  Had changed the meed of a deadly hate.