The signals of impending woe,
And now stood prompt to bless or ban, As bade the Chieftain of his clan.
"Twas all prepared; - and from the rock A goat, the patriarch of the flock, Before the kindling pile was laid, And pierced by Roderick's ready blade. Patient the sickening victim eyed The life-blood ebb in crimson tide Down his clogged beard and shaggy limb, Till darkness glazed his eyeballs dim. The grisly priest, with murmuring prayer, A slender crosslet framed with care, A cubit's length in measure due; The shaft and limbs were rods of yew, Whose parents in Inch-Cailliach wave Their shadows o'er Clan-Alpine's grave, And, answering Lomond's breezes deep, Soothe many a chieftain's endless sleep. The Cross thus formed he held on high, With wasted hand and haggard eye, And strange and mingled feelings woke, While his anathema he spoke :
"Woe to the clansman who shall view This symbol of sepulchral yew,
Forgetful that its branches grew
Where weep the heavens their holiest dew On Alpine's dwelling low!
Deserter of his Chieftain's trust, He ne'er shall mingle with their dust, But, from his sires and kindred thrust, Each clansman's execration just
Shall doom him wrath and woe.'
He paused; the word the vassals took, With forward step and fiery look, On high their naked brands they shook, Their clattering targets wildly strook; And first in murmur low,
Then, like the billow in his course, That far to seaward finds his source, And flings to shore his mustered force, Burst with loud roar their answer hoarse, "Woe to the traitor, woe!"
Bon-an's gray scalp the accents knew, The joyous wolf from covert drew, The exulting eagle screamed afar,- They knew the voice of Alpine's war.
The shout was hushed on lake and fell, The Monk resumed his muttered spell: Dismal and low its accents came,
The while he scathed the Cross with flame; And the few words that reached the air, Although the holiest name was there, Had more of blasphemy than prayer. But when he shook above the crowd Its kindled points, he spoke aloud:
Woe to the wretch who fails to rear At this dread sign the ready spear! For, as the flames this symbol sear,
His home, the refuge of his fear,
A kindred fate shall know
Far o'er its roof the volumed time
Clan-Alpine's vengeance shall proclaim, While maids and matrons on his name Shall call down wretchedness and shame, And infamy and woe."
Then rose the cry of females, shrill As goshawk's whistle on the hill, Denouncing misery and ill,
Mingled with childhood's babbling trill Of curses stammered slow; Answering with imprecation dread, "Sunk be his home in embers red!
And cursed be the meanest shed
That e'er shall hide the houseless head We doom to want and woe!"
A sharp and shrieking echo gave, Coir-Uriskin, thy goblin cave!
And the gray pass where birches wave On 'Beala-nam-bo.
Then deeper paused the priest anew, And hard his laboring breath he drew, While, with set teeth and clenched hand, And eyes that glowed like fiery brand, He meditated curse more dread, And deadlier, on the clansman's head Who, summoned to his chieftain's aid, The signal saw and disobeyed.
The crosslet's points of sparkling wood He quenched among the bubbling blood,
And, as again the sign he reared,
Hollow and hoarse his voice was heard: "When flits this Cross from man to man, Vich-Alpine's summons to his clan, Burst be the ear that fails to heed! Palsied the foot that shuns to speed! May ravens tear the careless eyes, Wolves make the coward heart their prize! As sinks that blood-stream in the earth, So may his heart's-blood drench his hearth! As dies in hissing gore the spark,
Quench thou his light, Destruction dark! And be the grace to him denied,
Bought by this sign to all beside!" He ceased; no echo gave again The murmur of the deep Amen.
Then Roderick with impatient look From Brian's hand the symbol took: "Speed, Malise, speed!" he said, and gave The crosslet to his henchman brave. "The muster-place be 'Lanrick mead Instant the time-speed, Malise, speed! Like heath-bird, when the hawks pursue, A barge across Loch Katrine flew: High stood the henchman on the prow; So rapidly the barge-men row,
The bubbles, where they launched the boat, Were all unbroken and afloat,
Dancing in foam and ripple still, When it had neared the mainland hill;
And from the silver beach's side
Still was the prow three fathom wide, When lightly bounded to the land The messenger of blood and brand.
Speed, Malise, speed! the 'dun deer's hide On fleeter foot was never tied.
Speed, Malise, speed! such cause of haste Thine active sinews never braced.
Bend 'gainst the steepy hill thy breast, Burst down like torrent from its crest; With short and springing footstep pass The trembling bog and false morass; Across the brook like roebuck bound, And thread the brake like questing hound; The crag is high, the 'scaur is deep, Yet shrink not from the desperate leap: Parched are thy burning lips and brow, Yet by the fountain pause not now; Herald of battle, fate, and fear,
Stretch onward in thy fleet.career!
The wounded hind thou track'st not now, Pursuest not maid through greenwood bough, Nor pliest thou now thy flying pace
With rivals in the mountain race; But danger, death, and warrior deed Are in thy course-speed, Malise, speed!
"Fast as the fatal symbol flies,
In arms the huts and hamlets rise; From winding glen, from upland brown,
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