214 THE BAY. 



" Uncouple the lurchers ! " right onward they fly, 

 With outstretching limb., and with fire-flashing eye : 

 On the track of his blood they are winging their way ; 

 They gain on his traces, he stands at bay ! 



Magnificent creature ! to reach thee I strain 

 Through forest and glen, over mountain and plain ; 

 Yet, now thou art fallen, thy fate I deplore, 

 And lament that the reign of thy greatness is o'er. 



Where now is that courage, late bounding so high, 

 That acuteness of scent, and that brilliance of eye ; 

 That fleetness of foot, which, out-speeding the wind, 

 Has so often left death and destruction behind ? 



Thine heart's blood is streaming, thy vigour gone by, 

 Thy fleet foot is palsied, and glazed is thine eye ; 

 The last hard convulsion of death has come o'er thee, 

 Magnificent creature ! who would not deplore thee ? 



Coir-na-Minghie has rung to the rifle's first crack, 

 And the heights of Cairn- chlamain shall echo it back; 

 Glen Croinie's wild caverns the yelling shall hear 

 Of the blood-hound that traces the fugitive deer. 



By the gods, 't is a gallant beginning : Hurra ! 

 Diana has smiled on the hunters to-day ! 

 In the sports of the morning come, goddess, and share, 

 And Bacchus shall welcome thee homeward to Blair. 



