4 8 THE DEER FORESTS OF SCOTLAND. 



Hearing was with them obeying, 

 And the hunter's strong limbs lie, 



Bound with thongs from tawny oxen, 

 'Neath the Chieftain's cruel eye. 



" More than two score stags have passed him ; 

 Mark the number on his flesh 

 With red stripes of this good ashwood. 

 Mend we thus this broken mesh ! " 



" Ah ! Lochbuie ! faint and sullen 



Beats the heart, once leal and free, 

 That had yielded life exulting, 

 If it bled for thine and thee. 



" Deem'st thou that no honour liveth, 

 Save in haughty breast like thine ? 

 Think'st thou men, like dogs in spirit, 

 At such blows but wince and whine? 



" Often, in the dangerous tempest, 

 When the winds before the blast, 

 Surging, charged like crested horsemen 

 Over helm, and plank, and mast, 



" He, and all his kin before him, 



Well have kept the Clansman's faith, 

 Serving thee in every danger, 



Shielding thee from harm and skaith. 



"Mid the glens and hills in combat, 



Where the blades of swordsmen meet, 



