By my mother's shroud, he is full proud!

What earthly man is he?”

"I know not in truth," quoth the trembling youth, "If earthly man it be.

"In traveller's plight he is bedight,

With a vest of the crim'sy meet,

But his mantle behind, that streams on the wind,

Is a corse's bloody sheet."

“ Out, paltry child, thy wits are wild!
Thy comrade will me true :

Say plainly then, what hast thou seen,
Or dearly thou shalt rue!"

Faint spoke the second page with fear,
And bent him on his knee,

"Were I on your father's sword to swear,
The same it appeared to me."

Then dark, dark lowered the baron's eye,
And his red cheek changed to wan;
For again at the gate more furiously
The thundering din began.

"And is there ne'er of my vassals here, Of high or low degree,

That will unto this stranger go

Will go for the love of me?

Then spake and said fierce Donald the Red (A fearless man was he),

"Yes; I will straight to the castle-gate, Lord John, for the love of thee."

With heart full stout he hied him out,

While silent all remain;

Nor moved a tongue those gallants among,

Till Donald returned again.

"O speak," said his Lord; "by thy hopes of grace,

What stranger must we hail?”

But the haggard look of Donald's face
Made his faltering words to fail.

"It is a knight in some foreign guise
His like did I never behold;

For the stony look of his beamless eyes
Made my very life-blood cold.

"I did him greet in fashion meet,

And bade him your feast partake;

But the voice that spoke, when he silence broke, Made the earth beneath me quake.

"O such a tone did tongue ne'er own
That dwelt in mortal head;

It is like a sound from the hollow ground-
Like the voice of the coffined dead.

"I bade him to your social board;

But in he will not hie,

Until at the gate this castle's Lord

Shall entreat him courteously.

"And he stretched him the while, with a ghastly smile, And sternly bade me say,

'Twas no deputy's task, your guest to ask

To the feast of the woody bay."

Pale grew the baron, and faintly said,
As he heaved his breath with pain -
"From such a feast as there was spread
Do any return again?

"I bade my guest to a bloody feast,

Where the death's-wound was his fare;

And the isle's bright maid, who my love betrayed,
She tore her raven hair.

"The sea-fowl screams, and the watch-tower gleams,

And the deafening billows roar,

Where the unblest was put to rest

On a wild and distant shore.

"Do the hollow grave and the whelming wave up their dead again?

Give

Doth the surgy waste waft o'er its breast

The spirits of the slain?"

But his loosened limbs shook fast, and poured

The big drops from his brow,

As louder still the third time roared

The thundering gate below.

"O rouse thee, Baron, for manhood's worth!
Let good or ill befall,

Thou must to the stranger knight go forth
And ask him to thy hall."

"Rouse thy bold breast," said each eager guest, "What boots it shrinking so?

Be it fiend or sprite, or murdered knight,

In God's name thou must go.

Why should'st thou fear? dost thou not wear A gift from the great Glendower—

Sandals blest by a holy priest,

O'er which nought ill hath power?"

All ghastly pale did the Baron quail,
As he turned him to the door,
And his sandals blest by a holy priest,
Sound feebly on the floor.

Then back to the hall and his merry mates all,

He cast his parting eye:

"God send thee amain safe back again!

He heaved a heavy sigh.

Then listened they on the lengthened way,
To his faint and lessening tread;

And when that was past, to the wailing blast,
That wailed as for the dead.

But wilder it grew, and stronger it blew,
And it rose with a hellish sound,
Till the lofty keep on its rocky steep
Fell hurtling to the ground.

Each fearful eye then glanced on high,
To the lofty-windowed wall;
When a fiery trace of the Baron's face
Through the casements shone on all.

But the visioned glare passed through the air,
And the raging tempest ceased:

And never more, on sea or shore,
Was seen Lord John of the East.

The sandals blessed by a holy priest
Lay unscathed on the swarded green :
And never again, on land or main,
Lord John of the East was seen.

JOANNA BAILLIE.