POETRY. 707 



For, as the flames this symbols ear, 

 His home the refuge of his fear, 



A kindred fate shall know ; 

 Far o'er its roof the volumed flame 

 Clan-Alpine's vengeance shall proclaim. 

 While maids and matrons on his name 

 Shall call down wretchedness and shame, 



And infamy and woe." — 

 Then rose the cry of females, shrill 

 As goss-hawk's whistle on the hill. 

 Denouncing misery and ill, 

 Mingled with childhood^s babbling trill 



Of curses stammered slow; 

 Answering, with imprecation dread, 

 •' Sunk be his home in embers red ! 

 And cursed be the meanest shed 

 That e'er shall hide the houseless head, 



We doom to want and woe !" 

 A sharp and shrieking echo gave, 

 Coir-Uaiskin, thy goblin cave ! 

 And the grey pass where birches wave, 



On BeaIa>nam-bo. 



Then deeper paused the priest anew, 

 And hard his labouring breath he drew. 

 While, with set teeth and clenched hand, 

 And eyes that glowed like fiery brand, 

 He meditated curse more dread, 

 And deadlier, on the clansman's head. 

 Who, summoned to his Chieftain's aid. 

 The signal saw and disobeyed. 

 The crosslet's points of sparkling wood. 

 He quenched among the bubbling blood, 

 And, as again the sign he reared, 

 Hollow and hoarse his voice was heard, 

 *' When flits this cross from man to man, 

 Vich- Alpine's summons to his clan. 

 Burst be the ear that fails to heed ! 

 Palsied the foot that shuns to speed ! 

 May ravens tear the careless eyes. 

 Wolves make the coward heart their prize ! 

 As sinks that blood-stream in the earth. 

 So may his heart's-blood drench this hearth ! 

 As dies in hissing gore the spark. 

 Quench thou his light, Destruction dark ! 

 And be the grace to him denied. 

 Bought by this sign to all beside !" — 



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