Sir Brian Tunstall, ycleped "the Undefiled," wore white armour, and sustained a shield of the same. Fighting on the English side he fell on Flodden. Whether the epithet was suggested by the colour of his armour, or originated from his loyal and knightly character, is unknown; but, judging from the passages in relation to him, which are clearly figurative, we infer the latter incentive was entertained:

but

Finally

Amid the scene of tumult, high

They saw

stainless Tunstall's banner white,

Fortune, on the right,

With fickle smile, cheer'd Scotland's fight.
Then fell that spotless banner white,

Tunstall lies dead upon the field;

His life's blood stains the spotless shield.

Nothing could be more intensely poetic than the second line of the The accomplished Sir Giles de Argentine, who was

last quotation.

contemporaneous with Bruce, bore a cross of gules.

Alone De Argentine,

Yet bears on high his red-cross shield.

He received his death-blow;

The squadrons round free passage gave,
The wounded knight drew near;

He raised his red-cross shield no more.

To the question of Norman, heir of Armandave, Malise makes

answer:

"At Doune, o'er many a spear and glaive,

Two barons proud their banners wave.

I saw the Moray's silver star,

And marked the sable pale of Mar."

King James, apostrophising the loyalty of the people of Stirling and their love for the Douglas, is checked by the appearance of a harbinger, and exclaims:

But soft! what messenger of speed
Spurs hitherward his panting steed?
I guess his cognizance afar-

What from our cousin, John of Mar?

To Rhoderick Dhu in durance comes the minstrel with tidings of the fight. He bids him tune and sing. Acquiescing he chants:

.... I see the dagger crest of Mar,

I see the Moray's silver star,
Wave o'er the cloud of Saxon war

That up the lake comes winding far!

The device of the Howards, as is well known, is a lion argent. At

Branksome

Each chief around leaned on his spear,

To see the pursuivant appear

All in Lord Howard's livery dressed,

The lion argent decked his breast.

At the proposition of Lord Howard the fierce Dacre is wroth.

“Yet hear,” quoth Howard, “calmly hear,

Nor deem my words the words of fear :

For, who in field or foray slack,

Saw the blanche lion e'er fall back?"

On Flodden was seen

Edmund Howard's lion bright,

and with Tunstall's "spotless banner white"

The Howard's lion fell.

The heraldic element in the relation it bears to Marmion in the poem of that name is not only full of charm and elegance but particularly striking. His career-the splendour of his reputation, the cause of its decline, and his fitting end-is typified throughout by the course of the falcon crest to a degree that, from an armorial analysis alone, we can almost comprehend it. Distinct from its heraldic significance, from history or fiction no finer illustration of knight-errantry, with its attendant conditions or contemporary picture, than the delineation of Marmion and his career affords could be adduced. The fact that the leading figure of the poem is purely an imaginary one by no means reduces its heraldic value. At Norham Castle Marmion arrives.

Well was he armed from head to heel,

In mail and plate of Milan steel;

But his strong helm, of mighty cost,

Was all with burnish'd gold emboss'd.
Amid the plumage of the crest,

A falcon hovered on her nest,

With wings outspread, and forward breast;

E'en such a falcon on his shield
Soared sable in an azure field;

The golden legend bore aright,

"Who checks at me, to death is dight."
Blue was the charger's broidered rein,
Blue ribbons decked his arching mane:
The knightly housing's ample fold
Was velvet blue, and trapp'd with gold.

Of Marmion's men-at-arms attendant,

and

The last, and trustiest of the four,
On high his forky pennon bore
Like swallow's tail, in shape and hue,
Flutter'd the streamer glossy blue,
Where, blazoned sable as before,
The towering falcon seemed to soar.

Last, twenty yeomen, two and two,
In hosen black, and jerkins blue
With falcons broider'd on each breast,
Attended on their lord's behest.

Marmion is accorded a royal welcome.
herald pomp and state"

Two pursuivants "with

. . . Hailed him Lord of Fontenaye,

Of Luterward and Scrivelbaye,

Of Tamworth tower and town;

And he, their courtesy to requite,

Gave them a chain of twelve marks weight,
All as he lighted down.

"Now largesse, largesse, Lord Marmion,
Knight of the crest of gold!

A blazon'd shield, in battle won,
Ne'er guarded heart so bold."

Escorting him to the castle hall,

The heralds loudly cried,

"Room, lordlings, room for Lord Marmion,
With the crest and helm of gold!

Full well we know the trophies won

In the lists at Cottiswold. . .

We saw the victor win the crest

He wears with worthy pride;

And on the gibbet-tree, reversed,

His foeman's scutcheon tied."

The scene changes to Lindisfarne, where from "Whitby's cloistered pile" comes the Abbess to hold a chapter “stern and strict" on two apostates.

One alone deserves our care.

Her sex a page's dress belied.

On doublet breast,

She tried to hide the badge of blue,
Lord Marmion's falcon-crest.

In the weird tilt with De Wilton, whom Marmion had wronged, the latter is almost vanquished. To the surprised Fitz-Eustace .... The moonlight did betray, The falcon-crest was soiled with clay

They saw Lord Marnion's falcon fly.

And when Scotland's seemed the victory,

Yet still Lord Marmion's falcon flew
With wavering flight.

But "the scattered van of England wheels," when

Straight up the hill there rode

Two horsemen drenched with gore,
And in their arms, a helpless load,
A wounded knight they bore.
With dinted shield, and helmet beat,
The falcon-crest and plumage gone,
Can that be haughty Marmion?

His casque removed, "he felt free air."

Upon his tomb

De Wilton

Around 'gan Marmion wildly stare :

"Where's Harry Blount? Fitz-Eustace where?
Linger ye here, ye hearts of hare !
Redeem my pennon-charge again !

Cry-"Marmion to the rescue !"-Vain!
Last of my race, on battle plain
That shout shall ne'er be heard again !

All around, on scutcheon rich,
And tablet carved, and fretted niche,
His arms and feats were blazed.

Won his rank and lands again;

And charged his old paternal shield
With bearings won on Flodden field.

The happy association of heraldry with architecture is occasionally denoted. Two instances have been already quoted. At Melrose The key-stone, that locked each ribbed aisle, Was a fleur-de-lys, or a quartre-feuille,

and the monument at Mortham was

Carv'd o'er in ancient Gothic wise,

With many a scutcheon and device.

The delineation of the champion of Branksome's lady is purely

metaphoric.

Here standeth William of Deloraine,
Good knight and true, of noble strain,
Who sayeth, that foul treason's stain,

Since he bore arms, ne'er soiled his coat.

The succeeding, from "Marmion" and the "Lord of the Isles " respectively, is likewise entirely figurative:

.. Honour, with his spotless shield,

Rend's Honour's scutcheon from thy hearse.

The ensuing is adduced to evince the nobility heraldry presumably confers. Of King James in disguise it is said:

His stately mien as well implied

A high-born heart, a martial pride,

As if a baron's crest he wore.

As befitting the subject we conclude this view of Scott and his verse with that regal description of the entry of the Lion King-atArms contained in "Marmion":

First came the trumpets, at whose clang

So late the forest echoes rang;

On prancing steeds they forward pressed,
With scarlet mantle, azure vest;
Each at his trump a banner wore
Which Scotland's royal scutcheon bore,
Heralds and pursuivants, by name
Bute, Islay, Marchmount, Rothsay, came,
In painted tabards, proudly showing
Gules, Argent, Or, and Azure glowing,
Attendant on a King-at-Arms,

Whose hand the armorial truncheon held. . . .
On milk-white palfrey forth he paced;

His cap of maintenance was graced

With the proud heron-plume.

From his steed's shoulder, loin, and breast

Silk housings swept the ground,

With Scotland's arms, device, and crest,

Embroidered round and round.

The double tressure might you see,

First by Achaius borne,

The thistle, and the fleur-de-lis,

And gallant unicorn.

So bright the king's armorial coat,

That scarce the dazzled eye could note,

In living colours, blazoned brave,

The Lion, which his title gave.

Should the incentives upon which we rest the responsibility for that influence we have essayed to depict fail to win our unqualified sympathy, the force and grandeur of its effect challenges our entire admiration, and establishes the conviction that heraldry, not weighed merely as a historical detail, but as an element of poetry, sheds upon it a lustre peculiarly its own.

J. GALE PEDRICK.