s of the quarrel,
hot and sudden; of the challenge, fiercely given and accepted; of the
appeal, so charged with wild forebodings of evil:

'"O stay at hame, my noble lord,
O stay at hame, my marrow!
My cruel kin will you betray
On the dowie howms o' Yarrow"';

of the treacherous ambuscade under Tinnis bank; of the stubborn fight,
in which a single 'noble brand' holds its own against nine, until the
cruel brother comes behind that comeliest knight and 'runs his body
thorough'; of the yearning and waiting of the 'winsome marrow,' while
fear clutches at her heart:

'"Yestreen I dreamed a doleful dream,
I fear there will be sorrow,
I dreamed I pu'ed the birk sae green
For my true love on Yarrow.

O gentle wind that blaweth south
Frae where my love repaireth,
Blaw me a kiss frae his dear mouth
And tell me how he fareth"';

lastly, of the quest 'the bonnie forest thorough,' until on the trampled
den by Deucharswire, near Whitehope farmhouse, she finds the 'ten slain
men,' and among them 'the fairest rose was ever cropped on Yarrow':

'She kissed his cheek, she kaimed his hair,
She searched his wounds a' thorough,
She kissed them till her lips grew red
On the dowie howms o' Yarrow.'

The story is said to be founded on the slaughter of Walter Scott of
Oakwood, of the house of Thirlstane, by John Scott of Tushielaw, with
whose sister Grizel the murdered man had, in 1616, contracted an
irregular marriage, to the offence of her kin. On this showing, it is of
the later crop of the ballads. But it is well-nigh impossible to think
of rueful Yarrow flowing through her dens to any other measure than that
which keeps repeating

'By strength of sorrow
The unconquerable strength of love.'

But, as Wordsworth reminds us, these ever-youthful waters have their
gladsome notes. On the not unchallengeable ground that it makes mention,
in one version, of 'St. Mary's' as the fourth Scots Kirk at which halt
was made after leaving the English Border, _The Gay Goshawk_ has been
set down among the Yarrow ballads; and Hogg has confirmed the claim by
using the tale as the foundation of his _Flower of Yarrow_. Even here
such happiness as the lovers find comes by a perilous way past the very
gates of the grave. The feigning of death, as the one means of escape
from kinsfolk's ban to the arms of love, was a device known to Juliet
and to other