This little flower, that loves the lea, It drinks heaven's dew as blithe as rose1 She wreath'd in her dark locks, and smiled. X. Her smile, her speech, with winning sway, With such a look as hermits throw, In Scotland's court, thy birth-right place, [MS.-"No blither dew-drop cheers the rose."] 2 [This couplet is not in the MS.] The well-known cognizance of the Douglas family. XI. 1 "Fair dreams are these," the maiden cried, XII. The ancient bard his glee repress'd : "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; 2 I saw, when back the dirk he drew, 1 [MS.-"This mossy rock, my friend, to me Is worth gay chair and canopy."] [See Appendix, Note C.] Courtiers give place before the stride Of the undaunted homicide;1 And since, though outlaw'd, hath his hand, Who else dare give-ah! woe the day," 1 [MS.-"Courtiers gave place with heartless stride Of the retiring homicide."] [MS.-"Who else dared own the kindred claim That bound him to thy mother's name? Who else dared give," &c., 3 The exiled state of this powerful race is not exaggerated in this and subsequent passages. The hatred of James against the race of Douglas was so inveterate, that numerous as their allies were, and disregarded as the regal authority had usually been in similar cases, their nearest friends, even in the most remote parts of Scotland, durst not entertain them, unless under the strictest and closest disguise. James Douglas, son of the ba nished Earl of Angus, afterwards well known by the title of Earl of Morton, lurked, during the exile of his family, in the north of Scotland, under the assumed name of James Innes, otherwise James the Grieve, (i. e. Reve or Bailiff). "And as he bore the name," says Godscroft, "so did he also execute the office of a grieve or overseer of the lands and rents, the corn and cattle of him with whom he lived." From the habits of frugality and observation which he acquired in his humble situation, the historian traces that intimate acquaintance with popular character, which enabled him to rise so high in the state, and that honourable economy by which he repaired and established the shattered estates of Angus and Morton.-History of the House of Douglas. Edinburgh, 1743, vol. ii. p. 160. Alas, this wild marauding Chief And though to Roderick thou'rt so dear, XIII. "Minstrel," the maid replied, and high And, could I pay it with my blood, My blood, my life,—but not my hand. Rather will Ellen Douglas dwell Than wed the man she cannot love.2 XIV. "Thou shakest, good friend, thy tresses greyThat pleading look, what can it say But what I own?—I grant him brave, But wild as Bracklinn's thundering wave;3 1 The parish of Kilmaronock, at the eastern extremity of Loch-Lomond, derives its name from a cell or chapel, dedicated to Saint Maronoch, or Marnoch, or Maronnan, about whose sanctity very little is now remembered. There is a fountain devoted to him in the same parish; but its virtues, like the merits of its patron, have fallen into oblivion. 2 ["Ellen is most exquisitely drawn, and could not have been improved by contrast. She is beautiful, frank, affectionate, rational, and playful, combining the innocence of a child with the elevated sentiments and courage of a heroine."—Quarterly Review.] 3 This is a beautiful cascade made by a mountain stream called the Keltie, at a place called the Bridge of Bracklinn, about a mile from the village of Callendar in Menteith. Above a chasm, where the brook precipitates itself from a height of at least fifty feet, there is thrown, for the convenience of the neighbourhood, a rustic footbridge, of about three feet in breadth, and without ledges, which is scarcely to be crossed by a stranger without awe and apprehension. |