Resigning lordship, lands, and state,
Not then to fortune more resigned
Than yonder oak might give the wind;
The graceful °foliage storms may reave,
The noble stem they cannot grieve.
For me"-she stooped, and, looking round,
Plucked a blue harebell from the ground, -
"For me, whose memory scarce conveys

170

An image of more splendid days, She does not This little flower that loves the lea Member the May well my simple emblem be; court the is It drinks heaven's dew as blithe as rose.

fustas That in the King's own garden grows;appey hel And when I place it in my hair, woul Allan, a bard is bound to swear he in the Rings

He ne'er saw coronet so fair."

Then playfully the chaplet wild

She wreathed in her dark locks, and smiled.

X

Her smile, her speech, with winning sway,
Wiled the old Harper's mood away.
With such a look as hermits throw,

haky

a

190

out the

When angels stoop to soothe their woeing to
He gazed, till fond regret and pride
Thrilled to a tear, then thus replied:
"Loveliest and best! thou little know'st
The rank, the honors, thou hast lost!
O, might I live to see thee grace,
In Scotland's court, thy birthright place,
To see my favorite's step advance
The lightest in the courtly dance,
The cause of every gallant's sigh,

Harp

And leading star of every eye,pol primairall
And theme of every minstrel's art,modi değ
The Lady of the Bleeding Heart!"

XI

"Fair dreams are these," the maiden cried,-
Light was her accent, yet she sighed,-

The would " Yet is this mossy rock to me

rather have Worth splendid chair and canopy;

200

a morry Nor would my footstep spring more gay uch In courtly dance than blithe strathspey, dance a three Nor half so pleased mine ear incline

and the To royal minstrel's lay as thine.
would And then for suitors proud and high,
rather hear To bend before my conquering eye, kl
his murie Thou, flattering bard! thyself wilt say,
than the That grim Sir Roderick owns its sway.

music личне court.

--

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."-

Jaking matter

XII

The ancient bard her glee repressed: "Ill hast thou chosen theme for jest! out joke Named Black Sir Roderick e'er, and smiled? toke For who, through all this western wild, Roderick In 'Holy-Rood a knight he slew; I saw, when back the dirk he drew,

They were courtiers give place before the stridejotkut afraid to Of the undaunted homicide;

And since, though outlawed, hath his hand
Full sternly kept his mountain land.

210

220

Who else dared give—ah! woe the day, Roderick
That I such hated truth should say!the
The Douglas, like a stricken deer, only man in
Disowned by every noble peer, count of whe
Even the rude refuge we have here ?would ted
Alas, this wild marauding Chief Couglas have
Alone might hazard our relief, e

And now thy maiden charms expand,

Looks for his guerdon in thy hand; If you

Full soon may dispensation sought, mary Roding
To back his suit, from Rome be brought.will
Then, though an exile on the hill, t your hath
Thy father, as the Douglas, still

Be held in reverence and fear;

And though to Roderick thou'rt so dear off
"That thou mightst guide with silken thread,
Slave of thy will, this chieftain dread, A
Yet, O loved maid, thy mirth refrain! was a
Thy hand is on a lion's mane."-

XIII

dangerous

mean to "make mad.

"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 nor
Of Scotland's king who shrouds my sire,

A deeper, holier debt is owed;

prouectly

And, could I pay it with my blood, father from
Allan! Sir Roderick should command & the Certory

allha

She would My blood, my life, but not my hand.
hilling Rather will Ellen Douglas dwell
to die fat A votaress in 'Maronnan's cell; nun
for him Rather through realms beyond the sea, life
hut she seeking the world's cold charity,

will not Where ne'er was spoke a Scottish word,
marry
him!

And ne'er the name of Douglas heard,

An outcast pilgrim will she rove,
Than wed the man she cannot love.

260

XIV

"Thou shak'st, good friend, thy tresses gray,-
That pleading look, what can it say

admit But what I own? I grant him brave,
But wild as 'Bracklinn's thundering wave; ad
And generous,
save vindictive mood

Or jealous transport chafe his blood: mane
I grant him true to friendly band, the infrinedly
As his claymore is to his hand;

But O! that very blade of steel to his county

More mercy for a foe would feel:

I grant him liberal, to flingtonite
Among his clan the wealth they bring,
When back by lake and glen they wind,

And in the Lowland leave behind,

o

Where once some pleasant hamlet stood, divid, huis
A mass of ashes slaked with blood. money with.
The hand that for my father fought

I honor, as his daughter ought;

But can I clasp it reeking red

sompamin

From peasants slaughtered in their shed?
"No! wildly while his virtues gleam,akes it

They make his passions darker seem, look warst

This we hace charcter

except for the little privedly

And flash along his spirit high,
Like lightning o'er the midnight sky.

290

While yet a child, and children know, children ha
Instinctive taught, the friend and foe, Teen taught

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 childshi
I thrill with anguish! or, if e'er
was afraid and
A Douglas knew the word, with fear. 1300
To change such odious theme were best,ullas
What think'st thou of our stranger guest?"

when he was they

was

wai

XV

"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 magic award
The footstep of a secret foe.
He was errory

If courtly spy hath harbored here, he cause the What may we for the Douglas fear? helt fell would what for this island, deemed of old from the door, afraan-Alpine's last and surest hold? fth If neither spy nor foe, I pray

What yet may jealous Roderick say?-
Nay, wave not thy disdainful head!
Bethink thee of the discord dread

That kindled when at Beltane game