Full many a spell to him was known, Which wandering spirits shrink to hear; And many a lay of potent tone, Was never meant for mortal ear. For there, 'tis said, in mystic mood, That shall the future corpse enfold. O so it fell, that on a day, To rouse the red deer from their den, The Chiefs have ta'en their distant way, And scour'd the deep Glenfinlas glen. No vassals wait their sports to aid, To watch their safety, deck their board; Their simple dress, the Highland plaid, Their trusty guard, the Highland sword. Three summer days, through brake and dell, Their whistling shafts successful flew ; And still, when dewy evening fell, The quarry to their hut they drew. the mind upon the eye, or by the eye upon the mind, by which things distant and future are perceived and seen as if they were present." To which I would only add, that the spectral appearances thus presented, usually presage misfortune: that the faculty is painful to those who suppose they possess it; and that they usually acquire it while themselves under the pressure of melancholy. In grey Glenfinlas' deepest nook Fast by Moneira's sullen brook, Which murmurs through that lonely wood. Soft fell the night, the sky was calm, Steep'd heathy bank, and mossy stone. The moon, half-hid in silvery flakes, Now in their hut, in social guise, "What lack we here to crown our bliss, "To chase the deer of yonder shades, This morning left their father's pile The fairest of our mountain maids, The daughters of the proud Glengyle. "Long have I sought sweet Mary's heart, And dropp'd the tear, and heaved the sigh: But vain the lover's wily art, Beneath a sister's watchful eye. "But thou mayst teach that guardian fair, Of other hearts to cease her care, "Touch but thy harp, thou soon shalt see The lovely Flora of Glengyle, Unmindful of her charge and me, Hang on thy notes, 'twixt tear and smile. "Or, if she choose a melting tale, Stern huntsman of the rigid brow?" 1 St. Oran was a friend and follower of St. Columba, and was buried in Icolmkill. His pretensions to be a saint were rather dubious. According to the legend, he consented to be buried alive, in order to propitiate certain demons of the soil, who obstructed the attempts of Columba to build a chapel. Columba caused the body of his friend to be dug up, after three days had elapsed; when Oran, to the horror and scandal of the assistants, declared, that there was neither a God, a judgment, nor a future state! He had no time to make further discoveries, for Columba caused the earth once more to be shovelled over him with the utmost dispatch. The chapel, however, and the cemetery, was called Relig Ouran ; and, in memory of his rigid celibacy, no female was permitted to pay her devotions, or be buried, in that place. This is the rule alluded to in the poem. "Since Enrick's fight, since Morna's death, "E'en then, when o'er the heath of woe, Where sunk my hopes of love and fame, "The last dread curse of angry heaven, "The bark thou saw'st, yon summer morn, "Thy Fergus too-thy sister's son, Thou saw'st, with pride, the gallant's power, "Thou only saw'st their tartans 1 wave, 1 Tartans-The full Highland dress, made of the chequered stuff so termed. 2 Pibroch-A piece of martial music, adapted to the Highland bagpipe. "I heard the groans, I mark'd the tears, "And thou, who bidst me think of bliss, "I see the death-damps chill thy brow; "Alone enjoy thy dreary dreams, "Or false, or sooth, thy words of woe, "E'en now, to meet me in yon dell, |