“He stepped before the monarch’s chair,
And stood with rustic plainness there,
And little reverence made:
Nor head, nor body, bowed nor bent,
But on the desk his arm he leant,
And words like these he said,
In a low voice—but never tone
So thrilled through vein, and nerve, and bone:—
‘My mother sent me from afar,
Sir King, to warn thee not to war—
Woe waits on thine array;
If war thou wilt, of woman fair,
Her witching wiles and wanton snare,
James Stuart, doubly warned, beware:
God keep thee as he may!’
The wondering monarch seemed to seek
For answer, and found none;
And when he raised his head to speak,
The monitor was gone.
The marshal and myself had cast
To stop him as he outward passed:
But, lighter than the whirlwind’s blast,
He vanished from our eyes,
Like sunbeam on the billow cast,
That glances but, and dies.”
