BLANNAID. 



All, all those fears from conscience prove 

 That clasp is not of lawful love ! 

 She murmurs in that lowly tone 

 Which breathe the sinking lungs alone 

 When every fibre hath been broken, 

 And Death its certain doom hath spoken ; 

 He whispers to her ear " My love, 



Cuthullin lives and comes for thee 

 There's silence round, and from above 



The starlight trembles o'er the sea ; 

 Beneath yon dark and distant cliff 

 Impatient swings my winged skiff, 

 And wooes the wind to waft us o'er 

 Where pain or sorrow never more 

 Shall shed again its bitter wrath 

 Upon our wild and wayward path : 

 And see, within those mountain heights 

 Are waiting full five hundred knights, 

 Impatient for the hour when I 



Will lead them to revenge, and thou, 

 My faithful trembler, from on high 



The path to their revenge shall show : 

 For they, my followers, all have sworn 

 The wrongs and insults I have borne, 

 In such a way shall be repaid 

 As eye ne'er saw, or tongue ne'er said ! " 



VII. 



" Thy skiff is floating on the bay, 

 This night shall see us far away, 

 But shed not blood his followers all 

 Have long departed from his hall, 

 And I have cared no hand or eye 

 Shall mar, or see us when we fly. 

 He is alone his death can ne'er 

 Avail thee in thy purpose here ; 

 And 'twere unknightly that his doom 

 Should from an hundred daggers come." 

 " Speak not to me of knightly faith 



Nor yet of silent scorn 

 Think'st thou I would not fly to death 



Than bear what I have borne, 

 Did I not hope some happy hour 

 Would bring Conree within my power 

 Did I not cherish, mid my grief, 

 The only thought which brought relief, 

 The hope that I might live to see 

 Without one friend, my enemy ? 

 Oh ! no thy woman's heart may melt 

 Because it cannot e'er have felt 

 Th' undying, slow, consuming thirst 

 The silent rage that longs to burst 

 The gnawing pain that will not slumber 

 One hour of all that time can number, 

 Until revenge hath cleared the debt 

 Which, day or night, she can't forget. 



