"Fair dreams are these," the maiden cried, - Light was her accent, yet she sighed, - "Yet is this mossy rock to me Worth splendid chair and canopy ; Nor would my footstep spring more gay In courtly dance than blithe strathspey, Nor half so pleased mine ear incline To royal minstrel's lay as thine. And then for suitors proud and high, To bend before my conquering eye, Thou, flattering bard! thyself wilt say, That grim Sir Roderick owns its sway. The Saxon scourge, Clan-Alpine's pride, The terror of Loch Lomond's side, Would, at my suit, thou know'st, delay A Lennox foray for a day."—
The ancient bard her glee repressed: "Ill hast thou chosen theme for jest! For who, through all this western wild, Named Black Sir Roderick e'er, and smiled? In Holy-Rood a knight he slew;
I saw, when back the dirk he drew,
Courtiers give place before the stride Of the undaunted homicide;
And since, though outlawed, hath his hand
Full sternly kept his mountain land. Who else dared give-ah! woe the day, That I such hated truth should say! The Douglas, like a stricken deer, Disowned by every noble peer,
Even the rude refuge we have here? Alas, this wild marauding Chief Alone might hazard our relief, And now thy maiden charms expand, Looks for his guerdon in thy hand; Full soon may dispensation sought, To back his suit, from Rome be brought. Then, though an exile on the hill,
Thy father, as the Douglas, still Be held in reverence and fear;
And though to Roderick thou'rt so dear
That thou mightst guide with silken thread, Slave of thy will, this chieftain dread, Yet, O loved maid, thy mirth refrain ! Thy hand is on a lion's mane.".
"Minstrel," the maid replied, and high Her father's soul glanced from her eye, "My debts to Roderick's house I know: All that a mother could bestow To Lady Margaret's care I owe, Since first an orphan in the wild She sorrowed o'er her sister's child;
To her brave chieftain son, from ire Of Scotland's king who shrouds my sire, A deeper, holier debt is owed;
And, could I pay it with my blood, Allan! Sir Roderick should command
Rather will Ellen Douglas dwell
A votaress in Maronnan's cell; Rather through realms beyond the sea, Seeking the world's cold charity,
Where ne'er was spoke a Scottish word, And ne'er the name of Douglas heard, An outcast pilgrim will she rove, Than wed the man she cannot love.
"Thou shak'st, good friend, thy tresses gray, That pleading look, what can it say
But wild as Bracklinn's thundering wave;
Or jealous transport chafe his blood:
I grant him true to friendly band, As his claymore is to his hand ; But oh! that very blade of steel, More mercy for a foe would feel: I grant him liberal, to fling Among his clan the wealth they bring,
When back by lake and glen they wind,
And in the Lowland leave behind,
Where once some pleasant hamlet stood, A mass of ashes slaked with blood. The hand that for my father fought I honor, as his daughter ought; But can I clasp it reeking red
From peasants slaughtered in their shed ? No! wildly while his virtues gleam, They make his passions darker seem, And flash along his spirit high, Like lightning o'er the midnight sky. While yet a child, and children know, Instinctive taught, the friend and foe, I shuddered at his brow of gloom, His shadowy plaid and sable plume; A maiden grown, I ill could bear His haughty mien and lordly air: But, if thou join'st a suitor's claim, In serious mood, to Roderick's name, I thrill with anguish! or, if e'er A Douglas knew the word, with fear. To change such odious theme were best, What think'st thou of our stranger guest?
"What think I of him ?-woe the while That brought such wanderer to our isle! Thy father's battle-brand, of yore For Tine-man forged by fairy lore, What time he leagued, no longer foes, His Border spears with Hotspur's bows, Did, self-unscabbarded, foreshow The footstep of a secret foe.
If courtly spy hath harbored here, What may we for the Douglas fear?
« AnteriorContinuar » |