March had the vices and virtues
of a hasty and uncertain character, and even now, when he came to
bid the King adieu, with the purpose of renouncing his allegiance
as soon as he reached his own feudal territories, he felt unwilling,
and almost unable, to resolve upon a step so criminal and so full
of peril. It was with such dangerous cogitations that he was occupied
during the beginning of the glee maiden's lay; but objects which
called his attention powerfully, as the songstress proceeded, affected
the current of his thoughts, and riveted them on what was passing
in the courtyard of the monastery. The song was in the Provencal
dialect, well understood as the language of poetry in all the
courts of Europe, and particularly in Scotland. It was more simply
turned, however, than was the general cast of the sirventes, and
rather resembled the lai of a Norman minstrel. It may be translated
thus:
The Lay of Poor Louise.
Ah, poor Louise! The livelong day
She roams from cot to castle gay;
And still her voice and viol say,
Ah, maids, beware the woodland way;
Think on Louise.
Ah, poor Louise! The sun was high;
It smirch'd her cheek, it dimm'd her eye.
The woodland walk was cool and nigh,
Where birds with chiming streamlets vie
To cheer Louise.
Ah, poor Louise! The savage bear
Made ne'er that lovely grove his lair;
The wolves molest not paths so fair.
But better far had such been there
For poor Louise.
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