he guard of
'bauld barons' and 'proud porters,' by his little footpage, who,

'When he came to broken brig,
He bent his bow and swam,
And when he came to grass growin',
Set down his feet and ran.

And when he came to the porter's yett,
Stayed neither to chap or ca',
But set his bent bow to his breast,
And lightly lap the wa'.'

Or the knight comes himself to the bower door at witching and untimely
hours--at 'the to-fa' o' the nicht,' or at the crowing of the 'red red
cock'--and 'tirles at the pin.' But always treachery, in the shape of
envious step-dame, angry brother, or false squire, is watching and
listening. Six perils may go past, but the seventh is sure to strike its
mark. Even should the course of true love run smoothly almost to the
church door, something is sure to happen. Love is hot and swift as flame
in the ballads, although it does not waste itself in honeyed phrases. It
is quick to take offence; and at a hasty word the lovers start apart,

'Lord Thomas spoke a word in jest,
Fair Annet took it ill.'

But more often the bolt comes out of the blue from another and jealous
hand. The bride sets out richly apparelled and caparisoned to the tryst
with the bridegroom. Her girdle is of gold and her skirts of the
cramoisie. Four-and-twenty comely knights ride at her side, and
four-and-twenty fair maidens in her train. The very hoofs of her steed
are 'shod in front with the yellow gold and wi' siller shod behind.' To
every teat of his mane is hung a silver bell, and,

'At every tift o' the norland win'
They tinkle ane by ane.'

If the voyage is by sea,

'The masts are a' o' the beaten gold
And the sails o' the taffetie.'

The old minstrel loved to linger over and repeat these details, and his
audience, we may feel sure, never tired of hearing them. But they knew
that calamity was coming, and would overtake bride and groom before they
had gone, by sea or land,

'A league, a league,
A league, but barely three.'

It might be in the shape of storm or flood. One ballad opens:

'Annan Water 's runnin' deep,
And my love Annie 's wondrous bonnie,'

and afar off we see what is going to happen. But greater danger than
from salt sea wave or 'frush saugh bush' is to be apprehended from the
poisoned cup of the slighted rival or the dagger of the jealous brother.
The knight had perhaps forgotten when he came courting his