CANTO FOURTH

THE PROPHECY

I.

'THE rose is fairest when 't is budding new,
And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears;
The rose is sweetest washed with morning dew,
And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears.
O wilding rose, whom fancy thus endears,
I bid your blossoms in my bonnet wave,

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Emblem of hope and love through future years!' Thus spoke young Norman, heir of Armandave, What time the sun arose on Vennachar's broad

wave.

II.

Such fond conceit, half said, half sung,
Love prompted to the bridegroom's tongue.

All while he stripped the wild-rose spray,
His axe and bow beside him lay,

For on a pass 'twixt lake and wood

A wakeful sentinel he stood.

Hark! — on the rock a footstep rung,
And instant to his arms he sprung.

5. wilding, wild.

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15

'Stand, or thou diest!

What, Malise?

soon

Art thou returned from Braes of Doune.
By thy keen step and glance I know,
Thou bring'st us tidings of the foe.'-
For while the Fiery Cross hied on,
On distant scout had Malise gone.

'Where sleeps the Chief?' the henchman said. 'Apart, in yonder misty glade;

To his lone couch I'll be your guide.' -
Then called a slumberer by his side,
And stirred him with his slackened bow, -
'Up, up, Glentarkin! rouse thee, ho!
We seek the Chieftain; on the track
Keep eagle watch till I come back.'

III.

Together up the pass they sped.

'What of the foeman?' Norman said. 'Varying reports from near and far;

This certain, that a band of war

Has for two days been ready boune,

At prompt command to march from Doune;

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King James the while, with princely powers,
Holds revelry in Stirling towers.

Soon will this dark and gathering cloud

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Speak on our glens in thunder loud.

Inured to bide such bitter bout,

19. Braes of Doune, hills on the north side of the Teith.

36. boune, prepared. See note on 1. 157 below.

42. Inured, hardened. bide, endure.

The warrior's plaid may bear it out;
But, Norman, how wilt thou provide
A shelter for thy bonny bride?' —
'What! know ye not that Roderick's care
To the lone isle hath caused repair
Each maid and matron of the clan,
And every child and aged man
Unfit for arms; and given his charge,
Nor skiff nor shallop, boat nor barge,
Upon these lakes shall float at large,
But all beside the islet moor,

That such dear pledge may rest secure?'

IV.

"T is well advised, the Chieftain's plan
Bespeaks the father of his clan.

But wherefore sleeps Sir Roderick Dhu
Apart from all his followers true?'
'It is because last evening-tide

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Brian an augury hath tried,

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Of that dread kind which must not be
Unless in dread extremity,

The Taghairm called; by which, afar,

63. Taghairm. "The Highlanders, like all rude people, had various superstitious modes of inquiring into futurity. One of the most noted was the Taghairm mentioned in the text. A person was wrapped up in the skin of a newly slain bullock, and deposited beside a waterfall, or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some other strange, wild, and unusual situation, where the scenery around him suggested nothing but objects of horror. In this situation he revolved in his mind the question proposed, and whatever was impressed upon him by his exalted imagina

Our sires foresaw the events of war.

Duncraggan's milk-white bull they slew,'- 65

MALISE

'Ah! well the gallant brute I knew!
The choicest of the prey we had
When swept our merrymen Gallangad.
His hide was snow, his horns were dark,
His red eye glowed like fiery spark;
So fierce, so tameless, and so fleet,
Sore did he cumber our retreat,
And kept our stoutest kerns in awe,
Even at the pass of Beal 'maha.
But steep and flinty was the road,
And sharp the hurrying pikeman's goad,
And when we came to Dennan's Row
A child might scathless stroke his brow.'

V.

NORMAN

"That bull was slain; his reeking hide
They stretched the cataract beside,
Whose waters their wild tumult toss
Adown the black and craggy boss

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75

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tion passed for the inspiration of the disembodied spirits who haunt the desolate recesses."- Scott.

73. kerns, foot soldiers.

74. Beal 'maha," the pass of the plain," east of Loch Lomond.

77. Dennan's Row, the point at which the ascent of Ben Lomond commences.

82. boss, a knob.

Of that huge cliff whose ample verge
Tradition calls the Hero's Targe.
Couched on a shelf beneath its brink,
Close where the thundering torrents sink,
Rocking beneath their headlong sway,
And drizzled by the ceaseless spray,
Midst groan of rock and roar of stream,
The wizard waits prophetic dream.
Nor distant rests the Chief; but hush!
See, gliding slow through mist and bush,
The hermit gains yon rock, and stands
To gaze upon our slumbering bands.
Seems he not, Malise, like a ghost,
That hovers o'er a slaughtered host?
Or raven on the blasted oak,

That, watching while the deer is broke,
His morsel claims with sullen croak?'

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95

MALISE

'Peace! peace! to other than to me
Thy words were evil augury;
But still I hold Sir Roderick's blade
Clan-Alpine's omen and her aid,

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84. Hero's Targe. This rock is in the woods of Glenfinlas. 98. broke. "Everything belonging to the chase was matter of solemnity among our ancestors; but nothing was more so than the mode of cutting up, or, as it was technically called, breaking the slaughtered stag. The forester had his allotted portion; the hounds had a certain allowance; and, to make the division as general as possible, the very birds had their share also."-Scott.