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THE LAMB OF ST SERF.

This holy man had a ram,
That he had fed up of a lamb;
And used him till1 follow ay,
Wherever he passed on his way.
A thief this sheep in Athren stall,
And eat him up in pieces small.
When Saint Serf his ram had mist,
Wha that it stall, was few that wist:
On presumption, nevertheless,
He that it stall, arrested was.

And till Saint Serf syne3 was he brought;
That sheep, he said, that stall he not;
And there-till for to swear ane athe.4
He said that he would not be lathe,5
But soon he worthyd red for shame
The sheep there bleated in his waime.7
Sae was he tainted 8 shamefully,
And at Saint Serf asked mercy.

SAINT SERF AND THE DEVIL.

While Saint Serf intill a stede,9
Lay after matins in his bed;
The devil came in foul intent,
For till fand to him with argument.
And said: "Saint Serf by thy werk"
I ken thou art a connand 12 clerk."
Saint Serf said, "If I sae be,
Foul wretch, what is that for thee?"
The devil said, "This question
I ask in our collation. 13

Say where was God, wit thou aught, Before that heaven and erde14 was wrought?"

Saint Serf said, "In himself stedles 15 His Godhead hampered never was."

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The devil then asked "What cause he

had,

To make the creatures that he made?"
To that, Saint Serf answered there,
"Of creatures made he was maker;
A maker might he never be

Bot gif creatures made had he."
The devil asked him, "Why God of
nought

His works all, full good had wrought?"
Saint Serf answered, "That God's will
Was, never to make his works ill,
And als envious he had been sene
Gif nought but he full good had been."
Saint Serf the devil asked then,

"Where God made Adam the first man?"
In Hebron Adam formèd was,"
Saint Serf said. And till Sathanas

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"Where was Eve made?" said Sathanas. In Paradise made," Serf said, "she was."

And at Saint Serf the devil askèd then
"Why God let Adam, the first man,
And Eve sin in Paradise?"

Saint Serf said, "That monywise,
For God wist and understood
That thereof should come meikle good.
For Christ (took) flesh, mankind to win,
That was to pain put for their sin."
The devil asked, "Why might not be
All mankind delivered free

Be themself, set God had not

Them with his precious passion bought?" Saint Serf said "They fell not in

By their self into their sin.

But by the false suggestion

Of the devil, their fae felloun.3

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For that, he choosed to be born

To save mankind, that was forlorn."
The devil asked at him than
"Why not make a new man,
Mankind for to deliver free?"

Saint Serf said, "That should not be :

It sufficed well that mankind

Once should come of Adam's strynde?" The devil asked, "Why that ye

Men, are quite delivered free

At a seat in hunting so
Intil his leash had grey-hounds two.
He thought, while he was so sittànd,
He saw three women by gangànd;1
And they 2 women, then, thought he,
Three weird sisters most like to be.
The first he heard say, gangand by,
"Lo! yonder the thane of Crumbauchty!'
The 'tother woman said again,

"Of Moray yonder I see the thane."

Through Christ's precious passion bought, The third then said, "I see the king."

And we devils, sae, are not?"

Saint Serf said, "For that ye
Fell through your own iniquity;
And through ourself we never fell
But through your fellon false counsel.
And for the devils were nought wrought
Of bruky13 kind, ye would not
With ruthe4 of heart forthink 5 your sin
That through yourself ye were fallen in ;
Therefore Christ's passion

Should not be your redemption."
Then saw the devil that he could not,
With all the wiles that he sought,
O'ercome Saint Serf: he said than
He kened him for a wise man.
Forthi7 there he gave him quit
For he wan at him na profit.
Saint Serf said, "Thou wretch gae!
Frae this stede ;8 and noy9 na mae
Into this stede, I bid ye."
Suddenly then passed he;
Frae that stede he held his way,
And never was seen there to this day.

All this he heard in his dreaming.
Soon after that, in his youth-head,

Of thyr 3 thanedoms, he thane was made
Syne next he thought to be king,
Fra 4 Duncan's days had ta'en ending.
The fantasy thus of his dream
Moved him most to slay his eme, 5
As he did all forth indeed,
As before he heard me rede,
And dame Gruok his eme's wife

Took, and led with her his life,

And held her both his wife and queen, As before then she had been

Till his eme, queen living,

When he was king with crown reigning; For little in honour, then, had he

The grace of affinity.

All thus when his eme was dead,
He succeeded in his stead;

And seventeen winters full, reignand
As king, he was then intill Scotland.
All his time was great plenty
Abounding, both in land and sea;
He was in justice right lawful,
And till his lieges all awful.

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And set him then in his power
A great house for to make of were
Upon the hill of Dunsinane.
Timber theretill to draw, and stane,
Of Fife and of Angus, he
Gert many oxen gathered be.
So on a day in their travail,
A yoke of oxen Macbeth saw fail;
Then speired2 who that aught

The yoke, that failed in their draught.
They answered till Macbeth again
And said "Macduff, of Fife the thane,
That ilk yoke of oxen aught,
That he saw fail into the draught."
Then spake Macbeth dispiteously,
And to the thane said angrily,
Like all writhen in his skin,3
His own neck he should put in
The yoke, and ger him draughts draw.
Not doubting all his kynny's awe.
Frae the thane Macbeth heard speak,
That he would put in yoke his neck,
Of all his thought he made no song;
But privily out of the throng

With slight he got; and the spensere 4
A loaf him gave till his suppere.
And, as soon as he might see
His time and opportunity,
Out of the court he past, and ran,
And that loaf bare with him than
To the water of Erne. That bread
He gave the boat-wards, him to lead,
And on the south half him to set
But 5 delay or any let.

That passage call'd was after than
Long time Port Naharyan;

The Haven of Bread that should be

Called in-tyl property.

Ower the water then was he set,

But danger, or but ony let.

POPE JOHN, THAT WAS A WOMAN.

When this Leo the third was dead,
A woman occupied that stead,1
Twa year as pape full, and mare.
She was too wantown of her ware,
She was English of nation,
Right wylie of condition,

A burgess' daughter, and his heir;
Pryve pleasant and right fair :
They called her father Hob of Lyne.
Frae father and mother and all her

kin,

2

With her love she past off land,
A woman young till eild growand ;3
And at Athens in study

She bade, and leryd ythandly :4
And nane perceived her woman,
But all time kythyd 5 her as man,
And called herself John Magwytyne,
Yea, wit ye well, a shrew fine.
Syne again frae Greece to Rome,
As a solemn clerk she come,
And had of clergy sic renown,
That by concord election
Pape she was chosen there,
Yet feel (it) that her cubiculare
By her lay and gat a bairn:
That all her clergy could not warne.
Intill procession on a day,
As she passed intill the way,
Her child-ill all suddenly,
Travailed her sae angrily,

That suddenly there was she dead,
And erdyd in that ilk stede
Without prayer or orrison,
Or ony kind devotion,
And but all other honesty,
Solempne or in privity.7

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THE DUKE OF ORLEANS' DEFENCE OF
THE SCOTS.

"The question put by the illustrious Duke of Orleans," says Dr Laing, "is sufficiently simple and dispassionate, and leads to a natural and satisfactory conclusion, when he asked how it came that the English, with all their boasting, never were able to vanquish the puir folk of Scotland?

'Whose gathering into weiris Micht nocht exceed five hundred speiris,'but allowed themselves to be harassed night and day by those whom they pretended to hold in despite; nor could enforce that homage and obedience which, at times, they presumed to say we owed to the crown of England."

As it was said on this manner :-
Ye ween to lak,' but ye commend
That nation, as ye mak it kend:
Was never realm, nor region
Worth mare commendation,
Than are the few folk of Scotland,
As that ye gar2 us understand.
Ye say their gaddering into weiris,
May not exceed five hundred spears ;
And ye are ane mighty nation,
Excelling in presumption,
For all lands lying you by,
Ye suppress with your seniory,
Either ye win them to your crown,
Or haldis3 them in subjection.
But the few folk of Scotland,
Whilk by dry marches are lyand
Near on to you, they hold their own

Ane thousand year three hundred ninety As it is made untill us known;

and ane,

Frae Jesus Christ had manhood tane,
The bishop of Saint Andrews see,
Master Walter Trail called was he,-
By counsel and by ordinance
Of Scottismen, he passèd in France:
For, into Scotland men heard tell,
That the Duke John of Longcastell,
By ane ordinate deliverance
Of Englishmen, he passed in France.-
And whatsover they treited, had
Our bishop there twelve monthes bade
And there sorely the Englishmen
The Scottismen defamèd then ;-
They said their gaddering into weiris,3
Might not exceed five hundred spears;
The king of France, they said forthy,4
Should lat 5 of Scottismen but lightly.
Thir' wordis were said in the presence
Of the doughty Duke of Orleans,
Whilk had ane special affection
Till Scottismen, and their nation;
And then in haste he made answer,

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And will come with their power,
Playn ye,4 or your land, of war,
And day and night will lie therein,
And in your sight your lands bryne ; 5
Your cattle, and your goods they ta;6
And spares nothing yourselves to slay;
Thus suffer they on no kind wise,
You of such might to do suppryse ; 7
But even they quit you lill for lall,8
Or that ye skail9 the market all:
That nation may ye not defame
But gif 10 ye smight your own with shame!
The King of France, therefore, think me,
Should hold them into mair daintie "
That so few folk of so little might
Against you can maintain their fight,
Upon the dry marches lyand,
As it is gart 12 us understand.-
When this was said the Englishmen
Were shamed of their wordis then,
And hold them still, and spoke no mare
Intil dispite, as they did ere.

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5 Esteem, reckon.

4 Ye complain.

8 Tit for tit.

6 These.

3 Hold.

9 Disperse. 10 Without. 11 Esteem. 12 Made.

HENRY THE MINSTREL.

1420?-1493?

SOMEWHAT Out of chronological | 1549; so that he must then have been order, we have placed Blind Harry, as very old indeed, and Dr Irving may the minstrel is familiarly called, next Wyntoun, although he must have been born at least a quarter of a century later than James I. ; yet no one who compares his Wallace with the King's Quair, will doubt that the former poetically belongs to the school of Barbour, while the latter marks the introduction of a more modern school.

"Henry, who was blind from his birth, composed, in the time of my infancy, the whole Book of William Wallace, and committed to writing in vulgar poetry, in which he was well skilled, the things that were commonly related of him. For my own part, I give only partial credit to writings of this description. By the recitation of these, however, in the presence of men of the highest rank, he procured, as he indeed deserved, food and raiment." Along with a few incidental references by himself, in the Life of Wallace, the above quotation from the Latin History of Scotland, by John Major, or Mair, published in 1521, is all the direct evidence that we possess regarding the life of this very remarkable man. The date of Major's own birth being unrecorded, makes his statement as to Henry less definite as data for ascertaining the time when he composed his Life of Wallace. Buchanan says Major was an old man in 1524, and was still alive, and provost of St Salvator's College in

not be far wrong in supposing him to have reached the age of 94. On this hypothesis, he would have been born in 1455, and, allowing five years of age to be about that which he calls his infancy, this would place the composition of Wallace in 1460. Supposing the author to be 40 when he composed it, 1420 would be the year of his birth. The Treasurer's accounts, during the reign of James IV., record several donations of five, nine, and eighteen shillings, having been made to him, of which the last is dated January 1492; and Dr Irving's conjecture, that he died shortly after, is very probable-if we suppose in 1493 it would make his age to be 73 at death.

"All worthi men at redys this rurall dyt,

Blaym nocht the buk; set I be unperfyt.
I suld have thank, sen I nocht travaill spard,
For my laubour na man hecht me reward;
Na charge I had off king nor othir lord
Gret harm I thocht his gud deid suld be
smord.

I haiff said her ner as the process gais;
And fenyeid nocht for frendschip nor for fais.
Costis herfor was no man bound to me;
In this sentence I had na will to be,
Bot in als mekill as I rahersit nocht
Sa worthely as nobill Wallace wrocht."

"Go nobill buk, fulfillyt off gud sentens,
Supposs thou be baran off eloquens.
Go worthy buk fullfillit off suthfast deid;
Bot in language, off help thow has gret neid
Quhen gud makaris rang weill in to Scotland,
Gret harm was it, that name of thaim ye fand.

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