Page:Scotish Descriptive Poems - Leyden (1803).djvu/201

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NOTES.
189
With wild despair's reverted eye,
Close, close behind he marks the throng
With bloody fangs, and eager cry,
In frantic fear he scours along.

Still shall the dreadful chace endure
Till time itself shall have an end;
By day earth's tortured womb they scour,
At midnight's witching hour ascend.

This is the horn, and hound and horse
That oft the lated peasant hears:
Appalled he signs the frequent cross,
When the wild din invades his ears.

The wakeful priest oft drops a tear
For human pride, for human woe,
When at his midnight mass he hears
The infernal cry of holla, ho[1]!

It appears from Heywood, that about the beginning of the 17th century, those who affected skill in necromancy were fond of assuming the character of aerial huntsmen.

We read of one in Creucemacon dwelling,
In this prestigious kinde of arte excelling,
Who by such spirits help, could in the aire
Appeare an huntsman, and there chase the hare,
With a full packe of dogs[2].——

P. 169. v. 279. Corbrecho is the whirlpool Corrivrekin, concerning which I find the following account in


  1. Scott's translation of Bürger's Chace, p. 17.
  2. Heywood's Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells, 1635, p. 514.