V.

’Thy secret keep, I urge thee not;—­
Yet, ere again ye sought this spot,
Say, heard ye naught of Lowland war,
Against Clan-Alpine, raised by Mar?’
’No, by my word;—­of bands prepared
To guard King James’s sports I heard;
Nor doubt I aught, but, when they hear
This muster of the mountaineer,
Their pennons will abroad be flung,
Which else in Doune had peaceful hung.’ 
’Free be they flung! for we were loath
Their silken folds should feast the moth. 
Free be they flung!—­as free shall wave
Clan-Alpine’s pine in banner brave. 
But, stranger, peaceful since you came,
Bewildered in the mountain-game,
Whence the bold boast by which you show
Vich-Alpine’s vowed and mortal foe?’
’Warrior, but yester-morn I knew
Naught of thy Chieftain, Roderick Dhu,
Save as an outlawed desperate man,
The chief of a rebellious clan,
Who, in the Regent’s court and sight,
With ruffian dagger stabbed a knight;
Yet this alone might from his part
Sever each true and loyal heart.’

VI.

Wrathful at such arraignment foul,
Dark lowered the clansman’s sable scowl. 
A space he paused, then sternly said,
’And heardst thou why he drew his blade? 
Heardst thou that shameful word and blow
Brought Roderick’s vengeance on his foe? 
What recked the Chieftain if he stood
On Highland heath or Holy-Rood? 
He rights such wrong where it is given,
If it were in the court of heaven.’ 
’Still was it outrage;—­yet, ’tis true,
Not then claimed sovereignty his due;
While Albany with feeble hand
Held borrowed truncheon of command,
The young King, mewed in Stirling tower,
Was stranger to respect and power. 
But then, thy Chieftain’s robber life!—­
Winning mean prey by causeless strife,
Wrenching from ruined Lowland swain
His herds and harvest reared in vain,—­
Methinks a soul like thine should scorn
The spoils from such foul foray borne.’

VII.

The Gael beheld him grim the while,
And answered with disdainful smile: 
’Saxon, from yonder mountain high,
I marked thee send delighted eye
Far to the south and east, where lay,
Extended in succession gay,
Deep waving fields and pastures green,
With gentle slopes and groves between:—­
These fertile plains, that softened vale,
Were once the birthright of the Gael;
The stranger came with iron hand,
And from our fathers reft the land. 
Where dwell we now?  See, rudely swell
Crag over crag, and fell o’er fell. 
Ask we this savage hill we tread
For fattened steer or household bread,
Ask we for flocks these shingles dry,
And well the mountain might reply,—­
“To you, as to your sires of yore,
Belong the target and claymore!