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XXIV.
The Knight breathed free in the morning wind,
And strove his hardihood to find:
He was glad when he passed the tombstones gray,
Which girdle round the fair Abbaye;
For the mystic Book, to his bosom prest,
Felt like a load upon his breast;
And his joints, with nerves of iron twined,
Shook, like the aspen leaves in wind.
Full fain was he when the dawn of day
Began to brighten Cheviot gray;
He joyed to see the cheerful light,
And he said Ave Mary, as well as he might.

XXV.
The sun had brightened Cheviot grey,
The sun had brightened the Carter's[1] side;
And soon beneath the rising day
Smiled Branksome towers and Teviot's tide.

  1. A mountain on the border of England, above Jedburgh.