The Lady of the Lake
Walter Scott, Sir Walter Scott
Paperback
(TheClassics.us, Sept. 12, 2013)
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ... She said no shepherd sought her side, No hunter's hand her snood untied, Yet ne'er again to braid her hair The virgin snood did Alice wear; Nor sought she, from that fatal night, Or holy church or blessed rite, iao But locked her secret in her breast, And died in travail, unconfessed. VI Alone, among his young compeers, Was Brian from his infant years; A moody and heart-broken boy, Estranged from sympathy and joy, Bearing each taunt wlfich careless tongue On his mysterious lineage flung. Whole nights he spent by moonlight pale, To wood and stream his "hap to wail, 130 "Till, frantic, he as truth received What of his birth the crowd believed, And sought, in mist and meteor fire, To meet and know his Phantom Sire! In vain, to soothe his wayward fate, The cloister oped her pitying gate; In vain the learning of the age Unclasped the "sable-lettered page; Even in its treasures he could find Food for the fever of his mind. 140 Eager he read whatever tells Of magic, "cabala, and spells, And every dark pursuit allied To curious and presumptuous pride; Till with fired brain and nerves o'erstrung, And heart with mystic horrors wrung, Desperate he sought Benharrow's den, And hid him from the haunts of men. VII The desert gave him visions wild, Such as might suit the spectre's child. 150 Where with black cliffs the torrents toil, He watched the wheeling eddies boil, Till from their foam his dazzled eyes Beheld the River Demon rise: The mountain mist took form and limb Of noontide hag or goblin grim; The midnight wind came wild and dread, Swelled with the voices of the dead; Far on the future battle-heath His eye beheld the ranks of death: 160 Thus the lone Seer, from mankind hurled, Shaped forth a "disembodied world. One lingering sympathy of mind...