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As studying phrase that might avail
Best to convey unpleasant tale.
Long with his dagger's hilt he play'd,
Then raised his haughty brow, and said:

XXVIII.

"Short be my speech;-nor time affords,
Nor my plain temper, glozing words.
Kinsman and father,—if such name
Douglas vouchsafe to Roderick's claim;
Mine honour'd mother;-Ellen-why,
My cousin, turn away thine eye?—
And Græme; in whom I hope to know
Full soon a noble friend or foe,
When age shall give thee thy command,
And leading in thy native land,-
List all! The King's vindictive pride
Boasts to have tamed the border side.'

1 In 1529, James V. made a convention at Edinburgh for the purpose of considering the best mode of quelling the Border robbers, who, during the license of his minority, and the troubles which followed, had committed many exorbitances. Accordingly, he assembled a flying army of ten thousand men, consisting of his principal nobility and their followers, who were directed to bring their hawks and dogs with them, that the monarch might refresh himself with sport during the intervals of military execution. With this array he swept through Ettrick Forest, where he hanged over the gate of his own castle Piers Cockburn of Henderland, who had prepared, according to tradition, a feast for his reception. He caused Adam Scott of Tushielaw also to be executed, who was distinguished by the title of King of the

Where chiefs, with hound and hawk, who came
To share their monarch's silvan game,
Themselves in bloody toils were snared;
And when the banquet they prepared,
And wide their loyal portals flung,
O'er their own gateway struggling hung.
Loud cries their blood from Meggat's mead,
From Yarrow braes, and banks of Tweed,
Where the lone streams of Ettrick glide,
And from the silver Teviot's side;
The dales, where martial clans did ride,1
Are now one sheep-walk, waste and wide.
This tyrant of the Scottish throne,
So faithless, and so ruthless known,
Now hither comes; his end the same,
The same pretext of silvan game.

What grace for Highland Chiefs, judge ye
By fate of Border chivalry."

Border. But the most noted victim of justice, during that expe-
dition, was John Armstrong of Gilnockie, famous in Scottish
song, who, confiding in his own supposed innocence, met the
King, with a retinue of thirty-six persons, all of whom were
hanged at Carlenrig, near the source of the Teviot. The effect
of this severity was such, that, as the vulgar expressed it,
"the
rush-bush kept the cow," and, "thereafter was great peace and
rest a long time, wherethrough the King had great profit; for he
had ten thousand sheep going in the Ettrick Forest in keeping by
Andrew Bell, who made the King as good count of them as they
had gone in the bounds of Fife."-PITSCOTTIE's History, p. 153,
1 [MS.-"The dales where clans were wont to bide."]

2 James was in fact equally attentive to restrain rapine and 3 [See Border Minstrelsy, vol. i. p 392.].

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Yet more; amid Glenfinlas green,
Douglas, thy stately form was seen.
This by espial sure I know;

Your counsel in the streight I show."

XXIX.

Ellen and Margaret fearfully

Sought comfort in each other's eye,
Then turn'd their ghastly look, each one,
This to her sire, that to her son.

The hasty colour went and came
In the bold cheek of Malcolm Græme;
But from his glance it well appear'd,
"Twas but for Ellen that he fear'd;

feudal oppression in every part of his dominions. "The king past to the Isles, and there held justice courts, and punished both thief and traitor according to their demerit. And also he caused great men to show their holdings, wherethrough he found many of the said lands in non-entry; the which he confiscate and brought home to his own use, and afterward annexed them to the crown, as ye shall hear. Syne brought many of the great men of the Isles captive with him, such as Mudyart, M'Connel, M'Leod of the Lewes, M'Neil, M'Lane, M'Intosh, John Mudyart M'Kay, M'Kenzie, with many other that I cannot rehearse at this time. Some of them he put in ward and some in court, and some he took pledges for good rule in time coming. So he brought the isles, both north and south, in good rule and peace wherefore he had great profit, service, and obedience of people a long time thereafter; and as long as he had the heads of the country in subjection, they lived in great peace and rest, and there was great riches and policy by the King's justice.”—PIT3COTTIE, p. 152.

While, sorrowful, but undismay'd,
The Douglas thus his counsel said:
"Brave Roderick, though the tempest roar,
It but thunder and pass o'er;

may

Nor will I here remain an hour,
To draw the lightning on thy bower;
For well thou know'st, at this grey
head
The royal bolt were fiercest sped.
For thee, who, at thy King's command,
Canst aid him with a gallant band,
Submission, homage, humbled pride,
Shall turn the Monarch's wrath aside.
Poor remnants of the Bleeding Heart,
Ellen and I will seek, apart,
The refuge of some forest cell,
There, like the hunted quarry, dwell,
Till on the mountain and the moor,
The stern pursuit be pass'd and o'er."-

XXX.

"No, by mine honour," Roderick said, "So help me, Heaven, and my good blade! No, never! Blasted be yon Pine,

My fathers' ancient crest and mine,

If from its shade in danger part
The lineage of the Bleeding Heart!
Hear my blunt speech; grant me this maid

To wife, thy counsel to mine aid;

To Douglas, leagued with Roderick Dhu,
Will friends and allies flock enow;
Like cause of doubt, distrust, and grief,
Will bind to us each Western Chief.
When the loud pipes my bridal tell,
The Links of Forth shall hear the knell,
The guards shall start in Stirling's porch;
And, when I light the nuptial torch,
A thousand villages in flames,

Shall scare the slumbers of King James!
-Nay, Ellen, blench not thus away,
And, mother, cease these signs, I pray ;
I meant not all my heart might say.—
Small need of inroad, or of fight,
When the sage Douglas may unite
Each mountain clan in friendly band,
To guard the passes of their land,
Till the foil'd king, from pathless glen,'
Shall bootless turn him home agen."

XXXI.

There are who have, at midnight hour,

In slumber scaled a dizzy tower,

And on the verge that beetled o'er
The ocean tide's incessant roar,
Dream'd calmly out their dangerous dream,*
Till waken'd by the morning beam;

1 [MS." Till the foil'd king, from hill and glen."] 2 [MS.-" Dream'd calmly out their desperate dream."¡

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