ed with Richard Faulder of Allanbay. | the moon, nigh the full, and in midNow lend an attentive ear to some of his heaven, threw down an unbroken-light, romantic adventures, as he related them rendering visible mountain, and headto me they have ever been indelibly land, and sea, so that I might count the fixed upon my memory, as their in- pebbles and shells on the shore,-the terest is of the most unearthly and in- seven black shadows of men had not tense description. departed, and there appeared a space in the middle, like room measured out for an eighth. A strange terror came upon me; and I began to dread that this vision was sent for my warning-for be assured, heaven hath many and singular revelations for the welfare and instruction of man. I prayed, and, while I prayed, the seven shadows began to move-filling up the space prepared for another: then they waxed dimmer and dimmer,-and then wholly vanished! I was much moved; and, deeming it the revelation of approaching sorrow, in which I was to be a sharer, it was past midnight before I could fall asleep. The sun had been some time risen when I was awaked by Simon Forester, who, ard Faulder, arise, for young Lord William of Helvellyn-hall has launched his new barge on the Solway, and SEVEN of the best and boldest mariners of Allanbay must bear him company to bring his fair bride from Preston-hall-even at the foot of the mountain Criffell; hasten and come, for he sails not, be sure without Richard Faulder!" It was, I think, said the mariner, in the year seventeen hundred and thirty-three, that one summer evening, I sat on the summit of Rosefoster-cliff, gazing on the multitudes of waves which, swelled by the breeze, and whitened.by the moonlight, undulated as far as the eye could reach. The many lights, gleaming from Allanbay, were extinguished one by one; and the twinklings of remote Saint Bees, glimmering fainter and fainter on the Solway. As I sat and thought on the perils I had encountered and braved on the great deep, I observed a low dark mist arise from the middle of the Solway; which, swelling out, ud-coming to my bed side, said,—“ Richdenly came rolling huge and sable, towards the Cumberland shore. Nor was fear or fancy long in supplying this exhalation with sails, and penons, and the busy hum and murmur of mariners. As it approached the cliff on which I had seated myself, it was not without dismay, that I observed it become more dark, and assume more distinctly the shape of a barge with a shroud for a sail. It left the sea, and settled on the beach within sea-mark, maintaining still its form, aad still sending forth the merry din of mariners. In a moment the voices were changed from mirth to sorrow; and I heard a sound and outcry like the shriek of a ship's company whom the sea is swallowing. The cloud dissolved away, and in its place I beheld, as it were, the forms of seven men, shaped from the cloud, and stretched black on the beach-even as corses are prepared for the coffin. I was then young, and not conversant with the ways in which He above reveals and shadows out approaching sorrow to man. I went down to the beach, and though It was a gallant sight to see a shallop, with her halsers and sails of silk, covered with streamers, and damasked with gold, pushing gaily from the bay. It was gallant, too, to behold the lordly bridegroom, as he stood on the prow, looking towards his true-love's land, not heeding the shout, the song, and the music-swell, with which his departure was hailed. It was gallant to see the maids and the matrons of Cumberland, standing in crowds, on headland and cliff, waving their white hands seaward, as we spread our sails to the winds, and shot away into the Solway, with our streamers dancing and fluttering, like the main of a steed as he gallops against the wind. Proud of our charge, and glorying in our skill, we made the good ship go through the surge as we willed; and every turn we made, and every time we wetted her silken sails, there came shout and trumpet-sound from the shore, applauding the seven merry mariners of Allanbay. Helvellyn-hall, of which there is no stone standing-save an old sun-dial, around which herdsmen gather at noonday, to hear of old marvels of the Foresters, was an extensive mansion, built in the times when perils from the pirate and the Scot were dreaded, and stood on a swelling knoll, encompassed with wood, visible from afar to mariners. In the centre was a tower, and on the summit of the tower was a seat, and in that seat tradition will yet tell you, that good Lord Walter Forester sat for a certain time, in every day of the year, looking on the sea. The swallows and other birds which made their nests and their roosts on the castle-top, became so accustomed to his presence, that they built, and sung, and brought out their young beside him; and old men, as they beheld him, shook their heads, and muttered over the ancient prophecy, which a saint, who suffered from persecution, had uttered against the house of Helvellyn. Let the Lord of Helvellyn look long on the sea- As we scudded through the water, I looked towards the shore of Cumberland, stretching far and near, with all its winding outline, interrupted with woody promontories; and there I beheld the old Lord Walter of Helvellyn, seated on the topmost tower of his castle, looking towards the Scottish shore. I thought on the dying man's rhyme; and thought on the vision of last night: and I counted the mariners, and looked again on the castle and Lord Walter; and I saw that the fulfilling of the prophecy and the vision was approaching. Though deeply affected, I managed the barge with my customary skill, and she flew across the bay, leaving a long furrow foam from behind. Michael Hammer, an old mariner of Allanbay, afterwards told me, he never beheld a fairer sight than the barge that day breasting the billows-and he stood, warding off the sun with his hands from his fading eyes, till we reached the middle of the bay. At that time, he said, he beheld something like a ship formed of a black cloud, sailing beside us, which moved as we moved, and tacked as we tacked, had the semblance of the same number of mariners, and, in every way, appeared like the bridegroom's barge! He trembled with dismay, for he knew the spectre shallop of Solway, which always sails by the side of the ship which the sea is about to swallow. It was not my fortune to behold fully this dreadful vision; but, while I gazed towards Helvellyn-hall, I felt a dread, and although I saw nothing on which my fears could fix, I remember that a kind of haze or exhalation, resembling the thin shooting of a distant light, floated through the air at our side; which I could not long endure to look upon. The old Lord still preserved his position on the tower, and sat gazing towards us, as still and motionless as a marble statue, and with an intensity of gaze like one who is watching the coming of destiny. The acclamations which greeted our departure from Cumberland, were exceeded by those which welcomed us to the Scottish shore. The romantic and mountainous coast of Colvend and Siddick was crowded with shepherd, and less as their native rocks, and as silent matron, and maid, who stood motion-powerful and ancient name of Maxwell; and such was its fame for generosity, that the beggar or pilgrim who went in at the eastern gate empty, always came out at the western gate full, and blessing the bounty of the proprietor. It stood at the bottom of a deep and beautiful bay, at the entrance of which two knolls, slow in their swell from the land, and abrupt in their rise from the sea,-seemed almost to shut out all approach. In former times they had been crowned with slight towers of defence. It was a fairy nook for beauty; and tradition, which loves to embellish the scenes on which nature has been lavish of her bounty, asserted that the twin hillocks of Preston bay were formerly one green hill, till a wizard, whose name has not yet ceased to work marvels, cleft the knoll asunder with his wand, and poured the sea into the aperture,— laying, at the same time, the foundationstone of Preston-hall with his own hand. On the sides and summits of these small hills, stood two crowds of of peasants, who welcomed the coming of Lord William with the sounding of instruments of no remarkable harmony. As this clamorous hail ceased, the melody of maidens' tongues made ample amends for the instrumental discord. They greeted us as we passed with this poetical welcome, after the manner of their country. Preston-hall-the plough has long since passed over its foundation !-was long the residence of a branch of the The Maidens' Song. MAIDS OF COLVEND. Ye maids of Allanbay sore may ye mourn, Weep maidens of Cumberland, shower your tears salter,— Scotland is rife with the labours of wizard and witch. The beautiful green mountain of Criffel and its lesser and immediate companions were created by a singular disaster which befel Dame Ailie Gunson. This noted and malignant witch had sustained an insult from the sea of Solway, as she crossed it in her wizard shallop, formed from a cast off slipper; she, therefore, gathered a huge creelful of earth and rock, and, stride after stride, was advancing to close up for ever the entrance of that beautiful bay! An old and devout mariner, who witnessed her approach, thrice blessed himself, and at each time a small mountain fell out of the witch's creel; the last was the largest, and formed the mountain Criffel, which certain rustic antiquarians say is softened from "creel feil," for the witch dropt earth and creel in despair. MAIDS OF SIDDICK. The bride she is gone to the altar-and far, MAIDS OF COLVEND. Lord William is come; and the bird on the pine, MAIDS OF SIDDICK. The bridal-bed's ready;—but hearken, high Lord; When the bridal wine's poured, and the bride's at the altar! ed child of a house whose name shall live, and whose children shall breathe, while green woods grow, and clear streams run? Return as thou camest, nor touch a shore hostile to thee and thine. If thy foot displaces but one blade of grass-thy life will be as brief as the endurance of thy name, which that giddy boy is even now writing on the sand within sea-mark ;—the next tide will pass over THEE-and blot IT out for ever and ever! Thy father, even now watching thy course from his castle top, shall soon cease to be the warder of his house's destiny; and the Cumberland boor, as he gazes into the bosom of the Solway, shall sigh for the ancient and valiant name of Forster." During the minstrel salutation, the barge floated into the bosom of Prestonbay; and, through all its woody links and greenwood nooks, the song sounded mellow and more mellow, as it was flung from point to point over the sunny water. The barge soon approached the green sward, which, sloping downwards from the hall, bordering with its livelier hue the dull deep green of the ocean, presented a ready landing-place. When we were within a lance's length of the shore, there appeared, coming towards us from a deep grove of holly, a female figure, attired in the manner of the farmer matrons of Scotland,-with a small plaid, or mantle, fastened over her grey lint-and-woollen gown, and a white cap, or mutch, surmounting, rather than covering, a profusion of lyart locks which came over her brow and neck, like remains of winter snow. She aided her steps with a staff, and descending to the prow of the barge, till the sea touched her feet, stretched her staff seaward, and said with a deep voice and an unembarrassed tone," What wouldst thou, William Forster, the doomed son of a doomed house, with Beatrice Maxwell, the bless-prophesied more fortunately and wisely While this singular speech was uttering, I gazed on the person of the speaker-from whom no one, who had once looked, could well withdraw his eyes. She seemed some seventy years old, but unbowed or unbroken by age, and had that kind of commanding look, which common spirits dread. Lord William listened to her words with a look of kindness and respect :-" Margery Forsythe," he said, " thou couldst have hadst thou wished it-bút thou art a faithful friend and servant to my Beatrice-accept this broad piece of gold, and imagine a more pleasant tale, when, with the evening tide, I return with my love to Helvellyn." The gold fell at the old woman's feet, but it lay glittering and untouched among the grass, for her mind and eye seemed intent on matters connected with the glory of her master's house. "Friend am I to Beatrice Maxwel, but not servant," said Margery, in a haughty tone," though it's sweet to serve a face so beautiful.-Touch not this shore, I say again, William Forster -but it's vain to forbid the thing that must be must-we are fore-ordained to run our course and this is the last course of the gallant house of Forster." She then stept aside, opposing Lord William no longer, who, impatient at her opposition, was preparing to leap ashore. Dipping her staff in the water as a fisher dips his rod, she held it dripping towards the Solway, to which she now addressed herself:-"False and fathomless sea-slumbering now in the sweet summer sun, like a new lulled babe, I have lived by thy side for years of sin that I shall not sum; and every year hast thou craved and yearned for thy morsel, and made the maids and matrons wail in green Galloway and Nithsdale. When shalt thou be satisfied thou hungry sea?-even now, sunny and sweet as thou seemest, dost thou crave for thy mouthful ordained to thee by ancient prophecy, and the fair and the dainty morsel is at hand." Her eyes, dim and spiritless at first, became filled, while she uttered this apostrophe to the sea, with a wild and agitated light-her stature seemed to augment, and her face seemed to dilate with more of grief than joy, and her locks snowy and sapless with age, writhed on her forehead and temples, as if possest with a distinct life of their own. Throwing her staff into the sea, she went into the grove of holly, and disappeared. May I be buried beyond the plummet sound," said Sam Selby of Skiddawbeck, "if I fail to prove if 66 that dame's tartan kirtle will flatten swan-shot-I never listened to such unblessed language," and he presented his carbine after her-while William Macgowan, a Galloway sailor, laid his hand to the muzzle and said," I'll tell thee what, Margery Forsythe has more forecast in the concerns o' the great deep than a wise mariner ought to despise. Swan-shot, mon!—she would shake it off her charmed callimanco kirtle, as a swan shakes snow from its wings. I see you're scantly acquaint with the uncannie pranks of our Colvend Carline. But gang up to the Boran point and down to Barnhourie bank, and if the crews of two bonnie ships, buried under fifteen fathom of quicksand and running water, winna waken and tell ye whose uncannie skill sunk them there; the simplest hind will whisper ye that Margery Forsythe kens mair about it than a God-fearing woman should. So ye see, Lord William Forster, I would even counsel ye to make yere presence scarce on this kittle coast-just wyse yersel warily owre the salt water again. And true-love's no like a new-killed kid in summer-it will keep, you see; it will keep. This cross Cummer will grow kindly, and we shall come snooring back in our barge, some bonnie moonlight summer night, and carry away my young lady with a sweeping oar and a wetted sail. For if we persist when Carline resists, we shall have wet sarks and droukit hair. Sae ye laugh and listen not? Aweel, aweel, them that will to Couper will to Couper !—a doomed man's easily drowned !—the thing that maun be maun be!-and sic things shall be if we sell ale!" These predestinating exclamations were occasioned by a long train of bridal guests hurrying from the hall to receive the bridegroom, who disregarding all admonition, leaped gaily ashore, and was welcomed with trumpet flourish and the continued sound of the lowland pipe. He was followed by six of his mariners, I alone remained-overawed by the vision I had beheld the preced |