FROM "OLD MORTALITY."

1816.

MAJOR BELLENDEN'S SONG.

AND what though winter will pinch severo

MOTTOES. CHAP. V.

AROUSE thee, youth!--it is no common call, God's Church is leaguer'd-haste to man the

wall;

Haste where the Red-cross banners wave on

high,

Yet keep up thy heart, bold cavalier,

For a cup of sack shall fence the cold. For time will rust the brightest blade,

And years will break the strongest bow; Was never wight so starkly made,

But time and years would overthrow? Chap. xix.

THE LOCK OF HAIR.

THY hue, dear pledge, is pure and bright,
As in that well-remember'd night,

When first thy mystic braid was wove,
And first my Agnes whisper'd love.

Since then how often hast thou press'd

The torrid zone of this wild breast,

Whose wrath and hate have sworn to dwell

With the first sin which peopled hell,

A breast whose blood's a troubled ocean,

CHAP. XIV.

James Duff.

My hounds may a' rin masterless,
My hawks may fly frae tree to tree,
My lord may grip my vassal lands,
For there again maun I never be!
Old Ballad.

CHAP. XXXIV.

Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife!
To all the sensual world proclaim,
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name.
Anonymous.

FROM "ROB ROY."

1817.

tion!

O, if such clime thou canst endure,
Yet keep thy hue unstain'd and pure,
What conquest o'er each erring thought

Of that fierce realm had Agnes wrought!
I had not wander'd wild and wide,
With such an angel for my guide;

Nor heaven nor earth could then reprove me,
If she had lived, and lived to love me.

Not then this world's wild joys had been To me one savage hunting scene, My sole delight the headlong race, And frantic hurry of the chase; To start, pursue, and bring to bay. Rush in, drag down and rend my prey, Then-from the carcass turn away! Mine ireful mood had sweetness tamed, And soothed each wound which pride inflamed!

Yes, God and man might now approve me, If thou hadst lived, and lived to love me. Chap. xxiii.

EPITAPH ON BALFOUR OF BURLEY.

HERE lyes ane saint to prelates surly,
Being John Balfour, soinetime of Burley,
Who, stirred up to vengeance take,
For Solemn League and Cov'nant's sake,
Upon the Magus-Moor, in Fife,

Did tak' James Sharpe the apostate's life;
By Dutchman's hands was hacked and shot,
Then drowned in Clyde near this saam spot.
Chap. xliv.

BLACK PRINCE.

O FOR the voice of that wild horn,
On Fontarabian echoes borne,
The dying hero's call,
That told imperial Charlemagne,
How Paynim sons of swarthy Spain

Had wrought his champion's fall.

Sad over earth and ocean sounding,
And England's distant cliffs astounding,
Such are the notes should say
How Britain s hope, and France's fear,
Victor of Cressy and Poitier,

In Bourdeaux dying lay.

"Raise my faint head, my squires," he said, "And let the casement be display'd,

That I may see once more

The splendour of the setting sun
Gleani on thy mirror'd wave, Garonne,
And Blaye's empurpled shore."
"Like me, he sinks to Glory's sleep.
His fall the dews of evening steep,
As if in sorrow shed.

THE ORPHAN MAID.

(Sung by Annot Lyle.)

NOVEMBER'S hail-cloud drifts away,
November's sun-beam wan
Looks coldly on the castle grey,
When forth comes Lady Anno.

The orphan by the oak was set, Her arms, her feet, were bare; The hail-drops had not melted yet, Amid her raven hair.

"And, dame," she said, "by all the ties
That child and mother know,
Aid one who never knew these joys,-
Relieve an orphan's woc.'

The lady said, "An orphan's state
Is hard and sad to bear;
Yet worse the widow'd mother's fate,
Who mourns both lord and heir.

"Twelve times the rolling year has sped,
Since, while from vengeance wild

Of fierce Strathallan's chief I fled,
Forth's eddies whelm'd my child."--

"Twelve times the year its course has borne,"
The wandering maid replied;
"Since fishers on St. Bridget's morn

Drew nets on Campsie side.

"St. Bridget sent no scaly spoil;
An infant, wellnigh dead,"

They saved, and rear'd in want and toil,
To beg from you her bread."

That orphan maid the lady kiss'd,-
"My husband's looks you bear;
St. Bridget and her morn be bless'd!
You are his widow's heir."