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Upon my palfrey's neck, and let him loose.
Within an hour he stands before my gate;
And Magdalen will need no other token
To bid the Melrose monks say masses for me.

SWINTON.

Thou art resolved to cheat the halter, then?

HOB HATTELY.

It is my purpose,

Having lived a thief, to die a brave man's death; And never had I a more glorious chance for 't.

SWINTON.

Here lies the way to it, knave.-Make in, make in,
And aid young Gordon!

[Exeunt. Loud and long alarums. After
which the back scene rises, and discovers
SWINTON on the ground, GORDON supporting
him; both much wounded.

SWINTON.

All are cut down-the reapers have pass'd o'er us, And hie to distant harvest.- My toil's over;

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Fly, fly, brave youth!--A handful of thy followers,
The scatter'd gleaning of this desperate day,

There lies my sickle. (Dropping his sword.) Hand of Still hover yonder to essay thy rescue.—

mine again

Shall never, never wield it!

GORDON.

O valiant leader, is thy light extinguish'd!

That only beacon-flame which promised safety In this day's deadly wrack!

SWINTON.

My lamp hath long been dim. don,

O linger not! I'll be your guide to them.

GORDON.

Look there, and bid me fly!-The oak has fallen; And the young ivy-bush, which learn'd to climb By its support, must needs partake its fall.

VIPONT.

Swinton? Alas! the best, the bravest, strongest,

But thine, young Gor- And sagest of our Scottish chivalry!

Just kindled, to be quench'd so suddenly, Ere Scotland saw its splendour!

GORDON.

Five thousand horse hung idly on yon hill,
Saw us o'erpower'd, and no one stirr❜d to aid us!

SWINTON.

It was the Regent's envy-Out!-alas!
Why blame I him?-It was our civil discord,
Our selfish vanity, our jealous hatred,
Which framed this day of dole for our poor country.
Had thy brave father held yon leading staff,

As well his rank and valour might have claim'd it,
We had not fall'n unaided.-How, O how
Is he to answer it, whose deed prevented!

GORDON.

Alas! alas! the author of the death-feud,
He has his reckoning too! for had your sons
And numerous vassals lived, we had lack'd no aid.

SWINTON.

May God assoil the dead, and him who follows!-
We've drank the poison'd beverage which we brew'd;
Have sown the wind, and reap'd the tenfold whirl-
wind!-

But thou, brave youth, whose nobleness of heart
Pour'd oil upon the wounds our hate inflicted;
Thou, who hast done no wrong, need'st no forgiveness,
Why shouldst thou share our punishment?

GORDON.

Forgive one moment, if to save the living,

My tongue should wrong the dead.—Gordon, bethink

thee,

Thou dost but stay to perish with the corpse Of him who slew thy father.

GORDON.

Ay, but he was my sire in chivalry,

He taught my youth to soar above the promptings
Of mean and selfish vengeance; gave my youth
A name that shall not die even on this death-spot.
Records shall tell this field had not been lost,
Had all men fought like Swinton and like Gordon.
Save thee, De Vipont-Hark! the southron trumpets.

VIPONT.

Nay, without thee I stir not.

Enter EDWARD, CHANDOS, PERCY, BALIOL, etc.

GORDON.

Ay, they come on, the tyrant and the traitor,
Workman and tool, Plantagenet and Baliol,
O for a moment's strength in this poor arm,
To do one glorious deed!

[He rushes on the English, but is made pri-
soner with VIPONT.

KING EDWARD.

Disarm them-harm them not; though it was they
Made havoc on the archers of our van-guard,
They and that bulky champion. Where is he?

CHANDOS.

All need forgiveness-(Distant alarum.)-Hark! in Here lies the giant! Say his name, young knight! yonder shout

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singing. One of the hunters was seduced by the syren, who attached herself particularly to him, to leave the hut: the other remained, and, suspicious of the fair seducers, continued to play upon a trump, or Jew's harp, some strain consecrated to the Virgin Mary. Day at length came, and the temptress vanished. Searching in the forest, he found the bones of his unfortunate friend, who had been torn to pieces and devoured by the fiend, into whose toils he had fallen. The place was from thence called, The Glen of the Green Women.

Glenfiulas is a tract of forest ground, lying in the Highlands of Perthshire, not far from Callender, in Menteith. It was formerly a royal forest, and now belongs to the Earl of Moray. This country, as well as the adjacent district of Balquidder, was, in times of yore, chiefly inhabited by the Macgregors. To the west of the forest of Glenfinlas lies Loch Katrine, and its romantic avenue called the Trosachs. Benledi, Benmore, and Benvoirlich, are mountains in the same district, The river and at no great distance from Glenfinlas. Teith passes Callender and the castle of Doune, and

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442

«The bark thou saw'st yon summer morn,

So gaily part from Oban's bay,
beheld her dash'd and torn,

My eye

Far on the rocky Colonsay.

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<< First, three times tell each Ave-bead,
And thrice a Pater-noster say;

Then kiss with me the holy reed:
So shall we safely wind our way.»

<< O shame to knighthood, strange and foul! Go, doff the bonnet from thy brow, And shroud thee in the monkish cowl, Which best befits thy sullen vow.

<< Not so, by high Dunlathmon's fire, Thy heart was froze to love and joy, When gaily rung thy raptured lyre, To wanton Morna's melting eye.»>

Wild stared the minstrel's eye of flame,
And high his sable locks arose,
And quick his colour went and came,
As fear and rage alternate rose.

<< And thou! when by the blazing oak I lay, to her and love resign'd, Say, rode ye on the eddying smoke, Or sail'd ye on the midnight wind?

<< Not thine a race of mortal blood, Nor old Glengyle's pretended line; Thy dame, the Lady of the Flood,

Thy sire, the Monarch of the Mine.>>

He mutter'd thrice St Oran's rhyme,

And thrice St Fillan's powerful prayer; (5) Then turn'd him to the eastern clime, And sternly shook his coal-black hair.

And, bending o'er his harp, he flung

His wildest witch-notes on the wind;

And loud, and high, and strange, they rung, As many a magic change they find.

Tall wax'd the Spirit's altering form, Till to the roof her stature grew; Then, mingling with the rising storm, With one wild yell, away she flew.

Rain beats, hail rattles, whirlwinds tear :
The slender hut in fragments flew;
But not a lock of Moy's loose hair
Was waved by wind, or wet by dew.

Wild mingling with the howling gale, Loud bursts of ghastly laughter rise; High o'er the minstrel's head they sail, And die amid the northern skies.

The voice of thunder shook the wood, As ceased the more than mortal yell; And, spattering foul, a shower of blood Upon the hissing firebrands fell.

Next, dropp'd from high a mangled arm; The fingers strain'd a half-drawn blade; And last, the life-blood streaming warm,

Torn from the trunk, a gasping head.

Oft o'er that head, in battling field,

Stream'd the proud crest of high Benmore; That arm the broad claymore could wield, Which dyed the Teith with Saxon gore.

Woe to Moneira's sullen rills!

Woe to Glenfinlas' dreary glen!

There never son of Albyn's hills

Shall draw the hunter's shaft agen!

E'en the tired pilgrim's burning feet

At noon shall shun that sheltering den, Lest, journeying in their rage, he meet The wayward Ladies of the Glen.

And we-behind the chieftain's shield, No more shall we in safety dwell; None leads the people to the fieldAnd we the loud lament must swell.

O hone a rie'! O hone a rie'!

The pride of Albyn's line is o'er, And fallen Glenartney's stateliest tree; We ne'er shall see Lord Ronald more!

NOTES.

Note 1. Stanza iii.

Well can the Saxon widows tell.

The term Sassenach, or Saxon, is applied by the Highlanders to their Low-country neighbours.

Note 2. Stanza iv.

How blazed Lord Ronald's beltane-tree.

The fires lighted by the Highlanders on the first of May, in compliance with a custom derived from the Pagan times, are termed, the Beltane Tree. It is a festival celebrated with various superstitious rites, both in the north of Scotland and in Wales.

Note 3. Stanza vii.

The seer's prophetic spirit found, etc.

I can only describe the second sight, by adopting Dr Johnson's definition, who calls it « an impression, either by 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.

Note 4. Stanza xxii. Will good St Oran's rule prevail.

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 Reilig 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.

Note 5. Stanza lv.

And thrice St Fillan's powerful prayer. St Fillan has given his name to many chapels, holy

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