His hand on the harp of the ancient should cast, And bid its wild numbers mix high with the blast; But no bard was there left in the land of the Gael, To lament for Mackenzie, last Chief of Kintail. And shalt thou then sleep, did the Minstrel exclaim, Like the son of the lowly, unnoticed by fame? In vain, the bright course of thy talents to wrong, Fate deaden'd thine ear and imprisoned thy tongue; For brighter o'er all her obstructions arose The glow of the genius they could not oppose; And who in the land of the Saxon or Gael, Might match with Mackenzie, High Chief of Kintail? Thy sons rose around thee in light and in love, Of the line of Fitzgerald remains not a male, To bear the proud name of the Chief of Kintail. And thou, gentle Dame, who must bear, to thy grief, For thy clan and thy country the cares of a Chief, Whom brief rolling moons in six changes have left, Of thy husband, and father, and brethren bereft, To thine ear of affection, how sad is the hail, That salutes thee the Heir of the line of Kintail! 1 1 [The Honourable Lady Hood, daughter of the last Lord Seaforth, widow of Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, now Mrs. Stewart Mackenzie of Seaford and Glasserton, 1833.] WAR-SONG OF LACHLAN HIGH CHIEF OF MACLEAN. FROM THE GAELIC. This song appears to be imperfect, or, at least, like many of the early Gaelic poems, makes a rapid transition, from one subject to another; from the situation, namely, of one of the daughters of the clan, who opens the song by lamenting the absence of her lover, to an eulogium over the military glories of the Chieftain. The translator has endeavoured to imitate the abrupt style of the original. A WEARY month has wandered o'er "Twas valiant Lachlan gave the word : He call'd his kindred bands on board, And launch'd them on the main. 17 VOL. VI. Clan-Gillian1 is to ocean gone; In many a bloody broil : For wide is heard the thundering fray, Woe to the hills that shall rebound Shall shake their inmost cell. Woe to the bark whose crew shall gaze, 1 i. e. The clan of Maclean,-literally, the race of Gillian. ROMANCE OF DUNOIS.1 FROM THE FRENCH. [The original of this little Romance makes part of a manuscript collection of French Songs, probably compiled by some young officer, which was found on the Field of Waterloo, so much stained with clay and with blood, as sufficiently to indicate what had been The song is popular in the fate of its late owner. France, and is rather a good specimen of the style of composition to which it belongs. The translation is strictly literal.] 2 Ir was Dunois, the young and brave, was bound for Palestine, But first he made his orisons before St. Mary's shrine: [This ballad appeared in 1815, in Paul's Letters, and in the Edinburgh Annual Register. It has since been set to music by G. F. Graham, Esq., in Mr. Thomson's Select Melodies, &c.] 2 [The original romance, "Partant pour la Syrie, Le jeune et brave Dunois," &c. was written, and set to music also, by Hortense Beauharnois, Duchesse de St. Leu, Ex-Queen of Holland. |