med to disguise or concealment, and being by nature all
openness and truth--gives vent to the feelings which now thrill her maiden
heart for the first time, in the rich gush of unspeakable love, tenderness,
and devotion--

I vish Lord Bateman as you vos mine!]

[Footnote 4:

_Oh, in sevin long years I'll make a wow,
I'll make a wow, and I'll keep it strong_.

Love has converted the tender girl into a majestic heroine; she cannot only
make "a wow," but she can "keep it strong;" she feels all the dignity of
truth and love swelling in her bosom. With the view of possessing herself
of the real state of Lord Bateman's affections, and with no sordid or
mercenary motives, she has enquired of that nobleman what are his means of
subsistence, and whether _all_ Northumberland belongs to him. His Lordship
has rejoined, with a noble regard for truth, that _half_ Northumberland is
his, and that he will give it freely to the fair young lady who will
release him from his dungeon. She, being thus assured of his regard and
esteem, rejects all idea of pecuniary reward, and offers to be a party to a
solemn wow--to be kept strong on both sides--that, if for seven years he
will remain a bachelor, she, for the like period, will remain a maid. The
contract is made, and the lovers are solemnly contracted.]

[Footnote 5:

_Now sevin long years is gone and past,
And fourteen days vell known to me._

In this may be recognised, though in a minor degree, the same gifted hand
that portrayed the Mussulman, the pirate, the father, and the bigot, in two
words. The time is gone, the historian knows it, and that is enough for the
reader. This is the dignity of history very strikingly exemplified.]

[Footnote 6:

_Avay and avay vent this proud young porter,
Avay and avay and avay vent he._

Nothing perhaps could be more ingeniously contrived to express the vastness
of Lord Bateman's family mansion than this remarkable passage. The proud
young porter had to thread courts, corridors, galleries, and staircases
innumerable, before he could penetrate to those exquisite apartments in
which Lord Bateman was wont to solace his leisure hours, with the most
refined pleasures of his time. We behold him hastening to the presence of
his lord: the repetition of the word "avay" causes us to feel the speed
with which he hastens--at length he arrives. Does he appear before the
chief with indecent haste? Is he described as rushing mad