FREDERICK AND ALICE. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY SIR WALTER SCOTT. This ballad is translated (but with such alterations and additions, that it may almost be called original) from the fragment of a romance, sung in Goethe's opera of "Claudina von Villa Bella." FREDERICK leaves the land of France, On the scene of former pleasure. Keen to prove his untried blade, Mourn'd o'er love's fond contract torn, As the village bell struck four. Far from her, and far from France, As the tongue of yonder tower, Told the fourth, the fated hour? Starts the steed, and snuffs the air, Bristles high the rider's hair, Struck with strange mysterious fears. In the steed the spur he hides Seven long days, and seven long nights, Long drear vaults before him lie! Lent its wild and wondrous close Midst the din, he seem'd to hear Voice of friends, by death removed; Well he knew that solemn air, 'Twas the lay that Alice loved.Hark! for now a solemn knell Four times on the still night broke; But a funeral's form it wore ! All with black the board was spread, Girt by parent, brother, friend, Long since numbered with the dead! Wild their notes of welcome swell "Welcome, traitor, to the grave! "Perjured, bid the light farewell!" MUCH has been said by various sagacious critics, on the system so generally adopted by the German Romance writers of introducing scenes of diabolical agency into their tales, which, although they are generally seized upon by the reader with the utmost avidity, and usually prove of the most intense interest, yet they are of opinion that they tend to demoralize the mind, and enervate the understanding. It is not our intention to controvert this popularly received opinion, (but which might easily be done), as we at present wish only to remove the stigma that has been so long attached to the German Romance writers of their being the only ones of that class who do introduce these diableries into their compositions. If we look at the productions of many authors of our own country, we shall soon find that they have not been far behind hand with their German brothers in calling into their aid all the interest to be derived from a connection with devilish agency: and even the "Great Wizard of the North," in one of his late productions, has not disdained to intro duce a scene of this description, which fully equals (if not excels) in diabolism most of those yet produced from the German school, not excepting even the celebrated scene in Faustus, or the Masque of the Walpurgis Night on the Harz Mountains. If a writer like this, with his gigantic powers, has chosen to play with such a subject, surely we may in future cease from upbraiding the Germans in the acrimonious manner we have hitherto done, for their committal of those faults, which are committed by others in common with them. The following singularly interesting tale is to be found in the admiral novel of "Redgauntlet," where it is denominated" Wandering Willies Tale," and it is written with all that grace and power which so strongly characterizes every production of its highly-gifted author. The scene where Steenie receives the receipt from Sir Robert, is wonderfully told and produces a most powerful effect on the feelings of the reader. It is altogether one of the finest "auld warld stories" which his pen has produced; and is introduced by a blind fiddler, named Wandering Willie, (who is drawn in the authors best manner after Wilkie), and who relates it to the hero of the novel, who has expressed his doubts as to the agency of the world of spirits. As the nature of the tale appears highly appropriate to that of our work, we have enriched our pages with it, only making such trifling alterations as were deemed necessary. "YE maun have heard of Sir Robert Redgauntlet of that Ilk, who lived in these parts before the dear years. The country will lang mind him; and our fathers used to draw breath thick if ever they heard him named. He was out wi' the Hielandmen in Montrose's time; and again he was in the hills wi' Glencairn in the yearsaxteen hundred and fifty-twa; and sae when King Charles the Second came in, wha was in sic favour as the Laird of Redgauntlet? He was knighted at Lonon court, wi' the king's ain sword; and being a red-hot prelatist, he came down here, rampauging like a lion, with commissions of lieutenancy, and of lunacy for what I ken, to put down a' the Whigs and Covenanters in the country. Wild wark they made of it; for the Whigs were as dour as the Cavaliers were fierce, and it was which should first tire the other. Redgauntlet was aye for the strong hand; and his name is kenn'd as wide in the country as Claverhouse's or Tam Dalywell's. Glen, nor dargle, nor mountain, nor cave, could hide the puir hill-folk when Redgauntlet was out with bugle and bloodhound after them, as if they had been sae mony deer. And troth when they found them, they didna mak muckle mair ceremony than a Hieland man wi' a roe-buckIt was just, Will ye tak the test?'-if not, Make ready-present—fire !'— and there lay the recusant. "Far and wide was Sir Robert hated and feared. Men thought he had a direct compact with Satan--that he was proof against steel-and that bullets hopped off his buff-coat like hail-stones from a hearth--that he had a mear that would turn a hare on the side of Carrifragawns-and muckle to the same pur pose, of whilk mair anon. The best blessing they wared on him was, ' De'il Scowp wi' Redgauntlet!' He wasna a bad master to his ain folk though, and was weel aneugh liked by his tenants; and as for the lackies and troopers that raid out wi' him to the persecutions, as the Whigs ca'ad these killing times, they wad hae drunken themsels blind to his health at ony time. "Now ye are to ken that my gudesire lived on Redgauntlet's grund-they ca' the place Primrose-Knowe. We had lived on the grund, and under the Redgauntlets, since the riding days, and lang before. It was a pleasant bit; and I think the air is callerer and fresher there than onywhere else in the country. It's a' deserted now; and I sat on the broken door-cheek three days since, and was glad I couldna see the plight the place was in; but that's a wide o' the mark. There dwelt my gudesire, Steenie Steenson, a rambling, rattling chiel' he had been in his young days, and could play weel on the pipes; he was famous at Hoopers and Girders'-a' Cumberland couldna touch him at Jockie Lattin'..and he had the finest finger for the back-lill between Berwick and Carlisle. The like o' Steenie wasna the sort that they made Whigs o'. And so he became a Tory, as they ca' it, which we now ca' Jacobites, just out of a kind of needcessity, that he might belang to some side or other. He had nae illwill to the Whig bodies, and likedna to see the blude rin, though, being obliged to follow Sir Robert in hunting and hosting, watching and warding, he saw muckle mischief, and maybe did some, that he couldna avoid. "Now Steenie was a kind of favou rite with his master, and kenn'd a' the folks about the castle, and was often sent for to play the pipes when they were > at their merriment. Auld Dougal Mac Callum, the butler, that had followed Sir Robert through gude and ill, thick and thin, pool and stream, was specially fond of the pipes, and aye gae my gudesire his gude word wi' the Laird; for Dougal could turn his master round his finger. "Weel, round came the Revolution, and it like to have broken the hearts baith of Dougal and his master. But the change was not a'thegether sae great as they feared, and other folk thought for. The Whigs made an unca crawing what they wad do with their auld enemies, and in special wi' Sir Robert Redgauntlet. But there were ower mony great folks dipped in the same doings, to make a spick and span new warld. So Parliament passed it a' ower easy; and Sir Robert, bating that he was held to hunting foxes instead of Covenanters, remained just the man he was. His revel was as loud, and his hall as weel lighted, as ever it had been, though maybe he lacked the fines of the nonconformists, that used to come to stock larder and cellar; for it is certain he began to bekeener about the rents than his tenants used to find him before, and it behoved them to be prompt to the rent-day, or else the laird wasna pleased. And he was sic an awsome body, that naebody cared to anger him; for the oaths he swore, and the rage that he used to get into, and the looks that he put on, made men sometimes think him a devil incarnate. | freended, and at last he got the whole scraped thegether-a thousand merks→→ the maist of it was from a neighbour they ca'ad Laurie Lapraik-a sly tod Laurie had walth o' gear-could hunt wi' the hound and rin wi' the hareand be Whig or Tory, saunt or sinner, as the wind stood. He was a professor of religious music in this Revolution warld, but he liked another sound and a tune on the pipes weel aneughat a bye-time; and abune a', he thought he had gude security for the siller he lent my gudesire over the stocking at Primrose-Knowe. "Away trots my gudesire to Redgauntlet Castle wi' a heavy purse and a light heart, glad to be out ofthe Laird's danger. Weel, the first thing he learned at the castle was, that Sir Robert had fretted himself into a fit of the gout, because he did not appear before twelve o'clock. It wasna a'thegether for the sake of the money, Dougal thought; but because he didna like to part wi' my gudesire aff the grund. Dougal was glad to see Steenie, and brought him into the great oak parlour, and there sat the Laird his leesome lane, excepting that he had beside him a great, ill-favoured jack-an-ape, that was a special pet of his; a cankered beast it was, and many an ill-natured trick it played-ill to please it was, and easily angeredran about the whole castle, chattering and yowling, and pinching, and biting folk, especially before ill-weather, or distarbances in the state. Sir Robert ca'ad it Major Weir, after the warlock that was burned; and few folk liked either the name or the conditions of the creature-they thought there was something in it by ordinar-and my gudesire was not just easy in mind when the door shut on him, and he saw himself in the room wi' naebody but the Laird, Dougal Mac Allum, and the Major, a thing that hadna chanced to him before. "Sir Robert sat, or, I should say, lay, in a great armed chair, wi' his grand velvet gown, and his feet on a cradle; for he had baith gout and gravel, and his face looked as gash and ghastly as |