At blush of morn, the silver horn Was loudly blown at the castle gate; And, from the wall, the Seneschal Saw there a weary pilgrim wait. "What news--what news, thou stranger bold? Thy looks are rough, thy raiment old! And little does Lady Isabel care To know how want and poverty fare." "Ah let me straight that lady see, For far I come from the North Country!" "And who art thou, bold wight, I trow, That would to Lady Isabel speak!" "One who, long since shone as a prince, And kiss'd her damask cheek: But oh, my trusty sword has fail'd, The cruel Paynim has prevail'd, My lands are lost, my friends are few, Trifles all, if my lady's true!" "Poor prince! ah when did woman's truth, Outlive the loss of lands and youth!" * * * * * THE SKETCH-BOOK. THE SPLENDID ANNUAL. _By the Author of "Sayings and Doings_." Literature, even in this literary age, is not the ordinary pursuit of the citizens of London, although every merchant is necessarily a man of letters, and underwriters are as common as cucumbers. Notwithstanding, however, my being a citizen, I am tempted to disclose the miseries and misfortunes of my life in these pages, because having heard the "ANNIVERSARY" called a splendid annual, I hope for sympathy from its readers, seeing that I have been a "_splendid annual_" myself. My name is Scropps--I _am_ an Alderman--I _was_ Sheriff--I _have been_ Lord Mayor--and the three great eras of my existence were the year of my shrievalty, the year of my mayoralty, and the year after it. Until I had passed through this ordeal I had no conception of the extremes of happiness and wretchedness to which a human being may be carried, nor ever believed that society presented to its members an eminence so exalted as that which I once touched, or imagined a fall so great as that which I experienced. I came originally from that place to which persons of bad character are said to be sent--I mean Coventry, where my father for many years contributed his share to the success of parliamentary candidates, the happiness of new married couples, and even the gratification of ambitious courtiers, by taking part in the manufacture of ribands for election cockades, wedding favours, and cordons of chivalry; but trade failed, and, like his betters, he became bankrupt, but, unlike his betters, without any consequent advantage to himself; and I, at the age of fifteen, was thrown upon the world with nothing but a strong constitution, a moderate education, and fifteen shillings and eleven pence three farthings in my pocket.