Forth at full speed the Clans-man flew,
But in his race his bow he drew.

The shaft just grazed Fitz-James's crest,
And thrilled in Blanche's faded breast.-
Murdoch of Alpine! prove thy speed,

For ne'er had Alpine's son such need!
With heart of fire, and foot of wind,
The fierce avenger is behind!

Fate judges of the rapid strife

The forfeit death-the prize is life!

Thy kindred ambush lies before,

Close couched upon the heathery moor;

Them couldst thou reach !-it may not be

Thine ambushed kin thou ne'er shalt see,

The fiery Saxon gains on thee!

-Resistless speeds the deadly thrust,

As lightning strikes the pine to dust;

With foot and hand Fitz-James must strain,

Ere he can win his blade again.

Bent o'er the fall'n, with falcon eye,

He grimly smiled to see him die;
Then slower wended back his way,

Where the poor maiden bleeding lay.

XXVII.

She sate beneath the birchen tree,

Her elbow resting on her knee;

She had withdrawn the fatal shaft,

And gazed on it, and feebly laughed ;

Her wreath of broom and feathers grey,

Daggled with blood, beside her lay.

The Knight to staunch the life-stream tried,—

"Stranger, it is in vain !" she cried.

"This hour of death has given me more

Of reason's power than years before;

For, as these ebbing veins decay,

My frenzied visions fade away.

A helpless injured wretch I die,

And something tells me in thine eye,

That thou wert mine avenger born.

Seest thou this tress?-O! still I've worn

This little tress of yellow hair,

Through danger, frenzy, and despair!

It once was bright and clear as thine,

But blood and tears have dimmed its shine.

I will not tell thee when 'twas shred,
Nor from what guiltless victim's head-
My brain would turn !—but it shall wave
Like plumage on thy helmet brave,

Till sun and wind shall bleach the stain,
And thou wilt bring it me again.-

I waver still!-O God! more bright
Let Reason beam her parting light!-
O! by thy knighthood's honoured sign,
And for thy life preserved by mine,
When thou shalt see a darksome man,
Who boasts him Chief of Alpine's clan,
With tartans broad and shadowy plume,
And hand of blood, and brow of gloom,

Be thy heart bold, thy weapon strong,

And wreak poor Blanche of Devan's wrong!They watch for thee by pass and fell, . .

Avoid the path O God!... farewell."

XXVIII.

A kindly heart had brave Fitz-James;
Fast poured his eye at pity's claims,
And now, with mingled grief and ire,
He saw the murdered maid expire.
"God, in my need, be my relief,
As I wreak this on yonder Chief!"--

A lock from Blanche's tresses fair
He blended with her bridegroom's hair;

The mingled braid in blood he dyed,

And placed it on his bonnet side:

"By Him whose word is truth! I swear,

No other favour will I wear,

Till this sad token I embrue

In the best blood of Roderick Dhu!

-But hark! what means yon faint halloo ?

The chase is up,-but they shall know,

The stag at bay's a dangerous foe.".

Barred from the known but guarded way,

Through copse and cliffs Fitz-James must stray,
And oft must change his desperate track,
By stream and precipice turned back.
Heartless, fatigued, and faint, at length,
From lack of food and loss of strength,

He couched him in a thicket hoar,

And thought his toils and perils o'er :—

"Of all my rash adventures past,

This frantic feat must prove the last!

Who e'er so mad but might have guess'd,

That all this highland hornet's nest

Would muster up in swarms so soon

As e'er they heard of bands at Doune?—

Like blood-hounds now they search me out,

Hark, to the whistle and the shout!

If farther through the wilds I go,

I only fall upon the foe;