Speed messengers the country through;
Arouse old friends, and gather new;

Warn Lanark's knights to gird their mail,
Rouse the brave sons of Teviotdale,

Let Ettrick's archers sharp their darts,
The fairest forms, the truest hearts!
Call all, call all! from Reedswair-path,
To the wild confines of Cape-Wrath;
Wide let the news through Scotland ring,
The Northern Eagle claps his wing !"-

END OF CANTO FIFTH.

THE

LORD OF THE ISLES.

CANTO SIXTH.

THE

LORD OF THE ISLES.

CANTO SIXTH.

O WHO, that shared them, ever shall forget,
The emotions of the spirit-rousing time,
When breathless in the mart the couriers met,
Early and late, at evening and at prime;

When the loud cannon and the merry chime

Hail'd news on news, as field on field was won,

When Hope, long doubtful, soar'd at length sublime,

And our glad eyes, awake as day begun,

Watch'd Joy's broad banner rise, to meet the rising sun!

O these were hours, when thrilling joy repaid

A long, long course of darkness, doubts, and fears ! The heart-sick faintness of the hope delay'd,

The waste, the woe, the bloodshed, and the tears, That track'd with terror twenty rolling years,

All was forgot in that blithe jubilee !
Her down-cast eye even pale Affliction rears,
To sigh a thankful prayer, amid the glee,
That hail'd the Despot's fall, and peace and liberty!

Such news o'er Scotland's hills triumphant rode, When 'gainst the invaders turn'd the battle's scale, When Bruce's banner had victorious flow'd

O'er Loudoun's mountain, and in Ury's vale; When English blood oft deluged Douglas-dale, And fiery Edward routed stout St John,

When Randolph's war-cry swell'd the southern gale, And many a fortress, town, and tower, was won,

And Fame still sounded forth fresh deeds of glory done.