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 honored mother;—­Ellen,—­why,
My cousin, turn away thine eye?—­
And Graeme, 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,
Where chiefs, with hound and trawl; who came
To share their monarch’s sylvan 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,
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 sylvan game. 
What grace for Highland Chiefs, judge ye
By fate of Border chivalry. 
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 turned their ghastly look, each one,
This to her sire, that to her son. 
The hasty color went and came
In the bold cheek of Malcohm Graeme,
But from his glance it well appeared
’T was but for Ellen that he feared;
While, sorrowful, but undismayed,
The Douglas thus his counsel said: 
’Brave Roderick, though the tempest roar,
It may but thunder and pass o’er;
Nor will I here remain an hour,
To draw the lightning on thy bower;
For well thou know’st, at this gray 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 passed and o’er,’—­

XXX.

‘No, by mine honor,’ Roderick said,
’So help me Heaven, and my good blade! 
No, never!  Blasted be yon Pine,
My father’s 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,