Poetry > Lady of the lake

84
THE LADY OF THE LAKE.
Canto II.
I thrill with anguish! or, if e'er
A Douglas knew the word, with fear.
To change such odious theme were best,—
What think’st thou of our stranger guest?''—
XV.
“ What think I of him ?—woe the while
That brought such wanderer to our isle !
Thy father’s battle-brand, of yore
For Tine-man forged by fairy lore,1
What time he leagued, no longer foes,
His Border spears with Hotspur’s bows,
Did, self-unscabbarded, foreshow
The footstep of a secret foe.2
If courtly spy hath harbour’d here,
What may we for the Douglas fear ?
1 Archibald, the third Earl of Douglas, was so unfortunate in
all his enterprises, that he acquired the epithet of Tine-Man,
because he lined, or lost, his followers in every battle which he
fought. He was vanquished, as every reader must remember,
in the bloody battle of Homildon-hill, near Wooler, where he
himself lost an eye, and was made prisoner by Hotspur. He was
no less unfortunate when allied with Percy, being wounded and
taken at the battle of Shrewsbury. He was so unsuccessful in
an attempt to besiege Roxburgh Castle, that it was called the
Foul Raid, or disgraceful expedition. His ill fortune left him
indeed at the battle of Heauge. in France; but it was only to re¬
turn with double emphasis at the subsequent action of Vernoil,
the last and most unlucky of his encounters, in which he fell, with
the flower of the Scottish chivalry, then serving as auxiliaries in
France, and about two thousand common soldiers, A.D. 1424.
2 [See Appendix, Note D.]