The princess smiled, and sore was flushed, O, but her heart was fain! And aye her cheek of beauty blushed Like rose-bud in the rain. From this the Hamiltons of Clyde Their royal lineage draw; And thus was won the fairest bride When ceased the lay, the plaudits rung, But every eye with pleasure shone, Again is every courtier's gaze Speaking suspense, and deep amaze; The bard was stately, dark and stern,- His look was like a winter day, When storms and winds have sunk away. Well versed was he in holy lore; In gray Glen-Ample's forest deep, Hid from the rains and tempest's sweep, In bosom of an aged wood His solitary cottage stood. Its walls were bastioned, dark, and dern, Dark was its roof of filmot fern, And green wood on her banks that grew, In answer to his bounding string, Had learned the hymns of Heaven to sing; With many a song of mystic lore, Rude as when sung in days of yore. His were the snowy flocks, that strayed Adown Glen-Airtney's forest glade ; And his the goat, and chesnut hind, Where proud Ben-Vorlich cleaves the wind: There oft, when suns of summer shone, The bard would sit, and muse alone, Of innocence, expelled by man; Of nature's fair and wonderous plan; Of the eternal throne sublime, Of visions seen in ancient time, Till his rapt soul would leave her home In visionary worlds to roam. Then would the mists that wandered bye Seem hovering spirits to his eye: Then would the breeze's whistling sweep, Soft lulling in the cavern deep, Seem to the enthusiast's dreaming ear The words of spirits whispered near. Loathed his firm soul the measured chime And florid films of modern rhyme; No other lays became his tongue But those his rude forefathers sung. And when, by wandering minstrel warned, The mandate of his queen he learned, With modest, yet majestic mien, He tuned his harp of solemn strain : A lay so strange was never sung! Kilmeny. THE THIRTEENTH BARD'S SONG. Bonny Kilmeny gaed up the glen; But it wasna to meet Duneira's men, rosy For Kilmeny was pure as pure could be. And pu' the cress-flower round the spring; And lang, lang greet or Kilmeny come hame! |