Death Of Louis Of Bourbon, Bishop Of Liege

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

How actual, through the lapse of years,
That scene of death and dread appears,
The maiden shrouded in her veil,
The burghers half resolved, half pale;
And the young archer leant prepared,
With dagger hidden, but still bared --
Are real, as if that stormy scene
In our own troubled life had been.
Such is the magic of the page
That brings again another age.
Such, Scott, the charms thy pages cast,
O, mighty master of the past!