rmion lay not there._
From Ettrick woods a peasant swain
Follow'd his lord to Flodden plain,--
&c. &c. &c.

"Sore wounded Sybil's Cross he spied,
And dragg'd him to its foot, and died,
Close by the noble Marmion's side.
The spoilers stripp'd and gash'd the slain,
And thus their corpses were mista'en;
And thus in the proud Baron's tomb,
The lowly woodsman took the room."

Now, I ask, wherefore has the poet dwelt with such minuteness upon this
forced and improbable incident? Had it indeed been with no other purpose
than to introduce the picturesque description and the moral reflexions
contained in the following section, the improbability might well be
forgiven. But such is not the real object. The critic of the _Monthly
Review_ takes the following notice of this passage, which is printed as a
note in the last edition of Scott's _Poems_ in 1833:--

"A corpse is afterwards conveyed, as that of Marmion, to the cathedral
of Lichfield, where a magnificent tomb is erected to his memory, &c.
&c.; but, by an _admirably imagined act of poetical justice_, we are
informed that a peasant's body was placed beneath that costly monument,
while the haughty Baron himself was buried like a vulgar corpse on the
spot where he died."

Had the reviewer attempted to penetrate a little deeper into the workings
of the author's mind, he would have seen in this circumstance much more
than "an admirably imagined act of poetical {204} justice." He would have
perceived in it the ultimate and literal fulfilment of the whole penalty
foreshadowed to the delinquent baron in the two concluding stanzas of that
beautiful and touching song sung by Fitz-Eustace in the Hostelrie of
Gifford in the third canto of the poem, which I here transcribe:

"Where shall the traitor rest,
He the deceiver,
Who could win maiden's breast,
Ruin, and leave her?
In the lost battle
Borne down by the flying,
Where mingles war's rattle,
With groans of the dying--
There shall he be lying.
Her wing shall the eagle flap
O'er the false-hearted,
His warm blood the wolf shall lap
Ere life be parted.
_Shame and dishonour sit_
_By his grave ever;_
_Blessing shall hallow it,_
_Never, O never!_"

Then follows the effect produced upon the conscience of the "Traitor,"
described in these powerful lines:--

"It ceased. the melancholy sound;
And silence sunk on all around.