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The quintain was set, and the garlands The smith of the town his liquor so

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LINES BY CAPTAIN WAVERLEY

ON RECEIVING HIS COMMISSION IN
COLONEL GARDINER'S REGIMENT.

LATE, when the autumn evening fell
On Mirkwood-Mere's romantic dell,
The lake return'd, in chasten'd gleam,
The purple cloud, the golden beam:
Reflected in the crystal pool,
Headland and bank lay fair and cool;
The weather-tinted rock and tower,
Each drooping tree, each fairy flower,
So true, so soft, the mirror gave,
As if there lay beneath the wave,
Secure from trouble, toil, and care,
A world than earthly world more fair.

But distant winds began to wake,
And roused the Genius of the Lake!
He heard the groaning of the oak,
And donn'd at once his sable cloak,
As warrior, at the battle cry,
Invests him with his panoply :
Then, as the whirlwind nearer press'd,
He 'gan to shake his foamy crest
O'er furrow'd brow and blacken'd
cheek,

And bade his surge in thunder speak.
In wild and broken eddies whirl'd,
Flitted that fond ideal world;
And, to the shore in tumult tost,
The realms of fairy bliss were lost.

Yet, with a stern delight and strange,
I saw the spirit-stirring change.
As warr'd the wind with wave and
wood,

Upon the ruin'd tower I stood,
And felt my heart more strongly bound,
Responsive to the lofty sound,
While, joying in the mighty roar,
I mourn'd that tranquil scene no more.

So, on the idle dreams of youth
Breaks the loud trumpet-call of truth,
Bids each fair vision pass away,
Like landscape on the lake that lay,

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The calm was more dreadful than raging storm,

When the cold grey mist brought the ghastly form!

Chap. XIII.

GELLATLEY sings:

YOUNG men will love thee more fair and more fast;

The dirk and the target lie sordid with dust,

The bloodless claymore is but redden'd with rust;

On the hill or the glen if a gun should appear,

It is only to war with the heath-cock or deer.

The deeds of our sires if our bards should rehearse,

Let a blush or a blow be the meed of their verse!

Heard ye so merry the little bird sing? Be mute every string, and be hush'd Old men's love the longest will last, And the throstle-cock's head is under

his wing.

The young man's wrath is like light straw on fire;

Heard ye so merry the little bird sing? But like red-hot steel is the old man's ire,

And the throstle-cock's head is under his wing.

every tone,

That shall bid us remember the fame that is flown.

But the dark hours of night and of slumber are past,

The morn on our mountains is dawning at last;

Glenaladale's' peaks are illumed with the rays,

And the streams of Glenfinnan 2 leap bright in the blaze.

O high-minded Moray!"-the exiledthe dear!

The young man will brawl at the
evening board;
Heard ye so merry the little bird sing? In the blush of the dawning the
STANDARD uprear!

But the old man will draw at the

dawning the sword,

And the throstle-cock's head is under Wide, wide on the winds of the north

his wing.

Chap. XIV.

FLORA MACIVOR'S SONG.

THERE is mist on the mountain, and night on the vale,

But more dark is the sleep of the sons of the Gael.

A stranger commanded-it sunk on

the land,

It has frozen each heart, and benumb'd every hand!

let it fly,

Like the sun's latest flash when the

tempest is nigh!

Ye sons of the strong, when that dawning shall break,

Need the harp of the aged remind you to wake?

That dawn never beam'd on your forefathers' eye,

But it roused each high chieftain to vanquish or die.

[ In Moidart, where Prince Charlie landed in 1745[2 Where he displayed his standard.]

[3 Brother of the Marquis of Tullibardine, long a Jacobite exile.]

O, sprung from the kings who in
Islay kept state,
Proud chiefs of Clan-Ranald, Glen-
garry, and Sleat!

Combine like three streams from one

mountain of snow,

And resistless in union rush down on the foe.

True son of Sir Evan, undaunted Lochiel,

Place thy targe on thy shoulder and burnish thy steel!

Rough Keppoch, give breath to thy bugle's bold swell,

Till far Coryarrick resound to the knell!

Stern son of Lord Kenneth, high chief of Kintail,

Let the stag in thy standard bound

wild in the gale!

May the race of Clan-Gillean, the
fearless and free,
Remember Glenlivat, Harlaw, and
Dundee !

Let the clan of grey Fingon, whose offspring has given

Such heroes to earth, and such martyrs to heaven,

Unite with the race of renown'd Rorri More,

To launch the long galley, and stretch

to the oar!

How Mac-Shinei will joy when their chief shall display

The yew-crested bonnet o'er tresses of grey !

How the race of wrong'd Alpine and murder'd Glencoe

Shall shout for revenge when they pour on the foe!

Ye sons of brown Dermid, who slew the wild boar,

Resume the pure faith of the great Callum-More!

Mac-Niel of the Islands, and Moy of the Lake,

For honour, for freedom, for vengeance awake!

Awake on your hills, on your islands awake,

Brave sons of the mountain, the frith, and the lake!

'Tis the bugle-but not for the chase is the call;

'Tis the pibroch's shrill summonsbut not to the hall.

'Tis the summons of heroes for conquest or death,

When the banners are blazing on mountain and heath;

They call to the dirk, the claymore, and the targe,

To the march and the muster, the line and the charge.

Be the brand of each chieftain like Fin's in his ire!

May the blood through his veins flow like currents of fire! Burst the base foreign yoke as your sires did of yore!

Or die, like your sires, and endure it no more!

Chap. XXII.

FERGUS sings:

O LADY of the desert, hail!
That lovest the harping of the Gael,
Through fair and fertile regions borne,
Where never yet grew grass or corn.

And again :

O vous, qui buvez à tasse pleine,
A cette heureuse fontaine,
Où on ne voit sur le rivage

Que quelques vilains troupeaux,
Suivis de nymphes de village,
Qui les escortent sans sabots
Chap. XXIII.

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