Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

206 MINSTRELSY OF
The original stands thus :
When laddes weddeth lovedies.
— ;
Another prophecy of Merlin seems to have been cur-
rent about the time of the regent Morton's execution.
When that nobleman was committed to the charge of
his accuser. Captain James Stewart, newly created Earl
of Arran, to be conducted to his trial at Edinburgh,
Spottiswoode says, that he asked, " Who was Earl of
Arran ?" and being answered that Captain James was
" the man, after a short pause he said, * And is it so ?
" I know then what I may look for !' meaning, as was
" thought, that the old prophecy of the ' Falling of the
" heart* by the mouth of Arran^' should then be fulfil-
" led. Whether this was his mind or not, it is not known
*' but some spared not, at the time when the Hamiltons
" were banished, in which Ijjisiness he was held too
" earnest, to say, that he stood in fear of that predic-
*' tion, and went that course only to disappoint it. But,
" if so it was, he did find himself now deluded ; for he
*' fell by the mouth of another Arran than he imagined."
—Spottiswoode, 313. The fatal words alluded to
seem to be these in the prophecy of Merlin :
" In tlie moutbe of Arrane a selcouth shall fall,
" Two bloodie hearts shall be taken with a false traine,
" And derfly dung down without any dome."
* The heart was the cognizance of Morton.