24. Forthwith she tried a letter to indite, To rouse the faithless Mador's dormant flame: Her soul was rack'd with feelings opposite; She found no words proportion'd to his blame. At memory's page her blushes went and came; And aye she stoop'd and o'er the cradle hung, Call'd her loved infant by his father's name, Then framed a little lay, and thus she sung "Thy father's far away, thy mother all too young! 25. "Be still, my babe! be still!-the die is cast! Beyond thy weal no joy remains for me! Thy mother's spring was clouded and o'erpast O thy sweet eye will melt my wrongs to see! And thy kind little heart with grief be wrung! Thy father's far away, thy mother all too young! 26. "If haggard poverty should overtake, And threat our onward journey to forelay, For thee I'll pull the berries of the brake, Wake half the night, and toil the live-long day; And when proud manhood o'er thy brow shall play, For me thy bow in forest shall be strung. The memory of my errors shall decay, And of the song of shame I oft have sung, 27. "But O! when mellow'd lustre gilds thine eye, And love's soft passion thrills thy youthful frame, Let this memorial bear thy mind on high Above the guilty and regretful flame, The mildew of the soul, the mark of shame! Think of the fruit before the bloom that sprung! When in the twilight bower with beauteous dame, Let this unbreathed lay hang on thy tongueThy father's far away, thy mother all too young!" 28. When days and nights a stained scroll had seen Beneath young Ila Moore's betrothed eye; When many a tear had dropt the lines between, When dim the page with many a burning sigh, A boy is charged to Scotland's court to hie The pledge to bear, nor leave the Minstrel's door Till answer came.-Alas! nor low, nor high, Porter nor groom, nor warder of the tower, Had ever heard the name of Mador of the Moor. |