Lady of the Lake

by Walter Scott

  And reddening the dark lakes below;

  Nor faster speeds it, nor so far,

  As o'er thy heaths the voice of war.

  The signal roused to martial coil,

  The sullen margin of Loch Voil,

  Waked still Loch Doine, and to the source

  Alarmed, Balvaig, thy swampy course;

  Thence southward turned its rapid road

  Adown Strath-Gartney's valley broad,

  Till rose in arms each man might claim

  A portion in Clan-Alpine's name,

  From the gray sire, whose trembling hand

  Could hardly buckle on his brand,

  To the raw boy, whose shaft and bow

  Were yet scarce terror to the crow.

  Each valley, each sequestered glen,

  Mustered its little horde of men,

  That met as torrents from the height

  In Highland dales their streams unite,

  Still gathering, as they pour along,

  A voice more loud, a tide more strong,

  Till at the rendezvous they stood

  By hundreds prompt for blows and blood,

  Each trained to arms since life began,

  Owning no tie but to his clan,

  No oath, but by his chieftain's hand,

  No law, but Roderick Dhu's command.

  XXV

  That summer morn had Roderick Dhu

  Surveyed the skirts of Benvenue,

  And sent his scouts o'er hill and heath,

  To view the frontiers of Menteith.

  All backward came with news of truce;

  Still lay each martial Graeme and Bruce;

  In Rednoch courts no horsemen wait,

  No banner waved on Cardross gate,

  On Duchray's towers no beacon shone,

  Nor scared the herons from Loch Con;

  All seemed at peace. Now wot ye why

  The Chieftain, with such anxious eye,

  Ere to the muster he repair,

  This western frontier scanned with care?

  In Benvenue's most darksome cleft,

  A fair, though cruel, pledge was left;

  For Douglas, to his promise true,

  That morning from the isle withdrew,

  And in a deep sequestered dell

  Had sought a low and lonely cell.

  By many a bard, in Celtic tongue,

  Has Coir-nan-Uriskin been sung;

  A softer name the Saxons gave,

  And called the grot the Goblin-cave.

  XXVI

  It was a wild and strange retreat,

  As e'er was trod by outlaw's feet.

  The dell, upon the mountain's crest,

  Yawned like a gash on warrior's breast;

  Its trench had stayed full many a rock,

  Hurled by primeval earthquake shock

  From Benvenue's gray summit wild,

  And here, in random ruin piled,

  They frowned incumbent o'er the spot,

  And formed the rugged silvan grot.

  The oak and birch, with mingled shade,

  At noontide there a twilight made,

  Unless when short and sudden shone

  Some straggling beam on cliff or stone,

  With such a glimpse as prophet's eye

  Gains on thy depth, Futurity.

  No murmur waked the solemn still,

  Save tinkling of a fountain rill;

  But when the wind chafed with the lake,

  A sullen sound would upward break,

  With dashing hollow voice, that spoke

  The incessant war of wave and rock.

  Suspended cliffs, with hideous sway,

  Seemed nodding o'er the cavern gray.

  From such a den the wolf had sprung,

  In such the wild-cat leaves her young;

  Yet Douglas and his daughter fair

  Sought for a space their safety there.

  Gray Superstition's whisper dread

  Debarred the spot to vulgar tread;

  For there, she said, did fays resort,

  And satyrs hold their silvan court,

  By moonlight tread their mystic maze,

  And blast the rash beholder's gaze.

  XXVII

  Now eve, with western shadows long,

  Floated on Katrine bright and strong,

  When Roderick, with a chosen few,

  Repassed the heights of Benvenue.

  Above the Goblin-cave they go,

  Through the wild pass of Beal-nam-bo:

  The prompt retainers speed before,

  To launch the shallop from the shore,

  For 'cross Loch Katrine lies his way

  To view the passes of Achray,

  And place his clansmen in array.

  Yet lags the chief in musing mind,

  Unwonted sight, his men behind.

  A single page, to bear his sword,

  Alone attended on his lord;

  The rest their way through thickets break,

  And soon await him by the lake.

  It was a fair and gallant sight,

  To view them from the neighboring height,

  By the low-leveled sunbeam's light!

  For strength and stature, from the clan

  Each warrior was a chosen man,

  As even afar might well be seen,

  By their proud step and martial mien.

  Their feathers dance, their tartans float,

  Their targets gleam, as by the boat

  A wild and warlike group they stand,

  That well became such mountain-strand.

  XXVIII

  Their Chief, with step reluctant, still

  Was lingering on the craggy hill,

  Hard by where turned apart the road

  To Douglas's obscure abode.

  It was but with that dawning morn,

  That Roderick Dhu had proudly sworn

  To drown his love in war's wild roar,

  Nor think of Ellen Douglas more;

  But he who stems a stream with sand,

  And fetters flame with flaxen band,

  Has yet a harder task to prove—

  By firm resolve to conquer love!

  Eve finds the Chief, like restless ghost,

  Still hovering near his treasure lost;

  For though his haughty heart deny

  A parting meeting to his eye,

  Still fondly strains his anxious ear,

  The accents of her voice to hear,

  And inly did he curse the breeze

  That waked to sound the rustling trees.

  But hark! what mingles in the strain?

  It is the harp of Allan-bane,

  That wakes its measures slow and high,

  Attuned to sacred minstrelsy.

  What melting voice attends the strings?

  'Tis Ellen, or an angel, sings.

  XXIX

  HYMN TO THE VIRGIN

  Ave Maria! maiden mild!

  Listen to a maiden's prayer!

  Thou canst hear though from the wild,

  Thou canst save amid despair.

  Safe may we sleep beneath thy care,

  Though banished, outcast, and reviled—

  Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer;

  Mother, hear a suppliant child!

  Ave Maria! Ave Maria! undefiled!

  The flinty couch we now must share

  Shall seem with down of eider piled,

  If thy protection hover there.

  The murky cavern's heavy air

  Shall breathe of balm if thou hast smiled;

  Then, Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer;

  Mother, list a suppliant child!

  Ave Maria! Ave Maria! stainless styled!

  Foul demons of the earth and air,

  From this their wonted haunt exiled,

  Shall flee before thy presence fair.

  We bow us to our lot of care,

  Beneath thy guidance reconciled;

  Hear for a maid a
maiden's prayer,

  And for a father hear a child! Ave Maria!

  XXX

  Died on the harp the closing hymn—

  Unmoved in attitude and limb,

  As listening still, Clan-Alpine's lord

  Stood leaning on his heavy sword,

  Until the page, with humble sign,

  Twice pointed to the sun's decline.

  Then while his plaid he round him cast,

  "It is the last time—'tis the last,"

  He muttered thrice, "the last time e'er

  That angel voice shall Roderick hear!"

  It was a goading thought—his stride

  Hied hastier down the mountain side;

  Sullen he flung him in the boat,

  And instant 'cross the lake it shot.

  They landed in that silvery bay,

  And eastward held their hasty way,

  Till, with the latest beams of light,

  The band arrived on Lanrick height,

  Where mustered, in the vale below,

  Clan-Alpine's men in martial show.

  XXXI

  A various scene the clansmen made,

  Some sat, some stood, some slowly strayed;

  But most with mantles folded round,

  Were couched to rest upon the ground,

  Scarce to be known by curious eye,

  From the deep heather where they lie,

  So well was matched the tartan screen

  With heath-bell dark and brackens green,

  Unless where, here and there, a blade,

  Or lance's point, a glimmer made,

  Like glow-worm twinkling through the shade.

  But when, advancing through the gloom,

  They saw the Chieftain's eagle plume,

  Their shout of welcome, shrill and wide,

  Shook the steep mountain's steady side.

  Thrice it arose, and lake and fell

  Three times returned the martial yell;

  It died upon Bochastle's plain,

  And Silence claimed her evening reign.

  CANTO FOURTH

  THE PROPHECY

  I

  "The rose is fairest when 'tis budding new,

  And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears;

  The rose is sweetest washed with morning dew,

  And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears.

  O wilding rose, whom fancy thus endears,

  I bid your blossoms in my bonnet wave,

  Emblem of hope and love through future years!"

  Thus spake young Norman, heir of Armandave,

  What time the sun arose on Vennachar's broad wave.

  II

  Such fond conceit, half said, half sung,

  Love prompted to the bridegroom's tongue.

  All while he stripped the wild-rose spray,

  His ax and bow beside him lay,

  For on a pass 'twixt lake and wood,

  A wakeful sentinel he stood.

  Hark! on the rock a footstep rung,

  And instant to his arms he sprung.

  "Stand, or thou diest!—What, Malise?—soon

  Art thou returned from Braes of Doune.

  By thy keen step and glance I know,

  Thou bring'st us tidings of the foe."

  For while the Fiery Cross hied on,

  On distant scout had Malise gone.—

  "Where sleeps the Chief?" the henchman said.

  "Apart, in yonder misty glade;

  To his lone couch I'll be your guide."

  Then called a slumberer by his side,

  And stirred him with his slackened bow—

  "Up, up, Glantarkin! rouse thee, ho!

  We seek the Chieftain; on the track,

  Keep eagle watch till I come back."

  III

  Together up the pass they sped:

  "What of the foeman?" Norman said.

  "Varying reports from near and far;

  This certain—that a band of war

  Has for two days been ready boune,

  At prompt command, to march from Doune;

  King James, the while, with princely powers,

  Holds revelry in Stirling towers.

  Soon will this dark and gathering cloud

  Speak on our glens in thunder loud.

  Inured to bide such bitter bout,

  The warrior's plaid may bear it out;

  But, Norman, how wilt thou provide

  A shelter for thy bonny bride?"

  "What! know ye not that Roderick's care

  To the lone isle hath caused repair

  Each maid and matron of the clan,

  And every child and aged man

  Unfit for arms; and given his charge,

  Nor skiff nor shallop, boat nor barge,

  Upon these lakes shall float at large,

  But all beside the islet moor,

  That such dear pledge may rest secure?"—

  IV

  "'Tis well advised—the Chieftain's plan

  Bespeaks the father of his clan.

  But wherefore sleeps Sir Roderick Dhu

  Apart from all his followers true?"

  "It is, because last evening-tide

  Brian an augury hath tried,

  Of that dread kind which must not be

  Unless in dread extremity,

  The Taghairm called; by which, afar,

  Our sires foresaw the events of war.

  Duncraggan's milk-white bull they slew."

  "Ah! Well the gallant brute I knew,

  The choicest of the prey we had,

  When swept our merrymen Gallangad.

  His hide was snow, his horns were dark,

  His red eye glowed like fiery spark;

  So fierce, so tameless, and so fleet,

  Sore did he cumber our retreat,

  And kept our stoutest kerns in awe,

  Even at the pass of Beal 'maha.

  But steep and flinty was the road,

  And sharp the hurrying pikeman's goad,

  And when we came to Dennan's Row,

  A child might scatheless stroke his brow."

  V

  NORMAN

  "That bull was slain; his reeking hide

  They stretched the cataract beside,

  Whose waters their wild tumult toss

  Adown the black and craggy boss

  Of that huge cliff, whose ample verge

  Tradition calls the Hero's Targe.

  Couched on a shelf beneath its brink,

  Close where the thundering torrents sink,

  Rocking beneath their headlong sway,

  And drizzled by the ceaseless spray,

  Midst groan of rock, and roar of stream,

  The wizard waits prophetic dream.

  Nor distant rests the Chief—but hush!

  See, gliding slow through mist and bush,

  The hermit gains yon rock, and stands

  To gaze upon our slumbering bands.

  Seems he not, Malise, like a ghost,

  That hovers o'er a slaughtered host?

  Or raven on the blasted oak,

  That, watching while the deer is broke,

  His morsel claims with sullen croak?"

  MALISE

  "Peace! peace! to other than to me

  Thy words were evil augury;

  But still I hold Sir Roderick's blade

  Clan-Alpine's omen and her aid,

  Not aught that, gleaned from heaven or hell,

  Yon fiend-begotten Monk can tell.

  The Chieftain joins him, see—and now,

  Together they descend the brow."

  VI

  And, as they came, with Alpine's Lord

  The Hermit Monk held solemn word:

  "Roderick! it is a fearful strife,

  For man endowed with mortal life,

  Whose shroud of sentient clay can still

  Feel feverish pang and fainting chill,

  Whose eye can stare in stony trance,

  Whose h
air can rouse like warrior's lance—

  'Tis hard for such to view, unfurled,

  The curtain of the future world.

  Yet, witness every quaking limb,

  My sunken pulse, my eyeballs dim,

  My soul with harrowing anguish torn—

  This for my Chieftain have I borne!

  The shapes that sought my fearful couch,

  A human tongue may ne'er avouch;

  No mortal man—save he, who, bred

  Between the living and the dead,

  Is gifted beyond nature's law—

  Had e'er survived to say he saw.

  At length the fatal answer came,

  In characters of living flame!

  Not spoke in word, nor blazed in scroll,

  But borne and branded on my soul:

  Which spills the foremost foeman's life,

  That party conquers in the strife."

  VII

  "Thanks, Brian, for thy zeal and care!

  Good is thine augury, and fair.

  Clan-Alpine ne'er in battle stood,

  But first our broadswords tasted blood.

  A surer victim still I know,

  Self-offered to the auspicious blow:

  A spy has sought my land this morn—

  No eve shall witness his return!

  My followers guard each pass's mouth,

  To east, to westward, and to south;

  Red Murdoch, bribed to be his guide,

  Has charge to lead his steps aside,