possession of the magic book) to escort him to the castle for attention. Horner entices the Lady's young son into the woods before abandoning him: the boy is taken captive by Lord Dacre's men. The Lady tends Deloraine, and a lighted beacon warns of the approach of hostile forces. Canto 4: The English forces under Dacre and Howard, arrive at Branksome with young Buccleuch. They demand that Deloraine be handed over to them to suffer for Border treason and agree with the Lady that her son's fate should be determined by single combat between Deloraine and his enemy Richard Musgrave. Canto 5: A large Scottish force arrives and the two armies observe a truce in anticipation of the combat. Horner causes Henry to resemble a Scottish knight to facilitate a meeting with Margaret. Musgrave is killed in the combat, but it turns out that Henry has taken Deloraine's place. The Lady withdraws her opposition to the marriage of Henry and Margaret. Deloraine nobly laments Musgrave's death. Canto 6: During the celebration of the marriage Horner creates mischief. Three minstrels entertain the company: Albert Græme from the Debateable Land sings of love fatally frustrated by national rivalry; the English Fitztraver recalls the fate of the Earl of Surrey, lover of Geraldine, at the hands of Henry VIII; and Harold from Orkney laments the loss at sea of lovely Rosabelle. Michael Scott reclaims Horner with apocalyptic fury, and the humbled company turn to penitence and prayers for the departed. Reception The critical reception of The Lay was almost entirely positive. Most of the reviewers praised Scott's choice of a picturesque subject and his authentic portrayal of 16th-century Border society. The minstrel's own interludes attracted favourable comment. Cultural allusions The lines that begin the final canto, "Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, / This is my own, my native land!", are cited in Edward Everett Hale's story "The Man Without a Country" (1863). The title of the concert overture The Land of the Mountain and the Flood (1867) by Hamish MacCunn is also taken from Canto 6 (stanza 2). Lord Peter Wimsey refers to the goblin page in Canto 6 ('The elvish page fell to the ground, And, shuddering, mutter’d, “Found! found! found!”') in Chapter III of Dorothy L.Sayers's Clouds of Witness (1926). References External links The Lay of the Last Minstrel in The Poetical