Hibernia's spoils, Gregorius' martial fire;
The stern avenger of his murdered sire:
Beneath his sword, as yet, whole armies groan,
And a whole nation paid the blood of one.

At length descend the rough impetuous strains
To valiant Duffus, and the slaughtered Danes:
The battle lives in verse; in song they wound;
And fallen squadrons thunder on the ground.

Thus in the strain the bards impetuous roll,
And quaff the generous spirit of the bowl,
At length from the elab'rate song respire;
The chiefs remove, and all to rest retire.

$10

315

THE HIGHLANDER:

A POEM.

CANTO VI.

Now in the blushing east the morn arose ;
Its lofty head in grey the palace shows.
Within, the king and valiant chiefs prepare

To

urge the chace, and wage the mountain-war. The busy menials through the palace go;

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Some whet the shaft, and others try the bow;

This viewed the toils; that taught the horn to sound;

Another animates the sprightly hound.

For the fleet chace the fair Culena arms,

And from the gloom of sorrow 'wakes her charms:

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The hero's royal birth had reached her ear,

And sprightly hope assumed the throne of care.

Around her slender waist the cincture slides;
Her mantle flows behind in crimson tides.

Bright rings of gold her braided ringlets bind;
The rattling quiver, laden, hangs behind.
She seized, with snowy hand, the polished bow,
And moved before, majestically slow.
The chiefs behind advance their sable forms,
And with dark contrast heighten all her charms.
Thus, on expanded plains of heavenly blue,
Thick-gathered clouds the queen of night pursue;
And as they crowd behind their sable lines,
The virgin light with double lustre shines.

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The maid her glowing charms thus onward bears;

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His manly height aside young Duffus rears.
Her beauty he, his manhood she admires ;
Both moved along, and fed their silent fires.

The hunters to the lofty mountains came :
Their eager breasts anticipate the game:
The forest they divide, and sound the horn;

The generous hounds within their bondage burn,
Struggle for freedom, long to stretch away,
And in the breeze already find the prey.

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At the approaching noise the starting deer
Croud on the heath, and stretch away in fear,
Wave, as they spring, their branchy heads on high,
Skim o'er the wild, and leave the aching eye.
The eager hounds, unchained, devour the heath;

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They shoot along, and pant a living death:
Gaining upon their journey, as they dart,

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Each from the herd selects a flying hart.

Some urged the bounding stag a different way,

And hung with open mouth upon the prey:

Now they traverse the heath, and now assail

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The rising hill, now skim along the vale :

Now they appear, now leave the aching eyes;

The master follows with exulting cries,

Fits, as he flies, the arrow to the string;

The rest within the rattling quiver ring:

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He, as they shoot the lofty mountains o'er,
Pursues in thought, and sends his soul before.
Thus they with supple joints the chase pursue,
Rise on the hills, and vanish on the brow.

On the blue heavens arose a night of clouds;
The radiant lord of day his glory shrouds :
The rushing whirlwind speaks with growling breath,
Roars through the hill, and scours along the heath;
Deep rolling thunder, rumbling from afar,

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Proclaims with murmuring voice th' aerial war:
Fleet lightnings flash in awful streams of light,

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Dart through the gloom, and vanish from the sight:

The blustering winds through heaven's black concave sound, Rain batters earth, and smokes along the ground.

Down the steep hill the rushing torrents run,

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And cleave with headlong rage their journey on;

The lofty mountains echo to the fall;
A muddy deluge stagnates on the vale.

Culena moved along the level ground;

A hart descends before the opening hound:
From the recoiling cord she twanged the dart,
And pierced the living vigour of the hart:
He starts, he springs; but falling as he flies,
Pours out his tim'rous soul with weeping eyes.
As o'er the dying prey the huntress sighed,
Before the wind heaven pours a sable tide,

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And lowering threats a storm: a rocky cave,

Where monks successive hewed their house and grave,
Invites into its calm recess the fair:

The reverend father breathed abroad his

prayer.

The valiant Duffus comes with panting breath,
Faces the storm and stalks across the heath.

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His sleeky hounds, a faithful tribe, before,

Are bathed with blood, and varied o'er with gore.
Drenched with the rain, the noble youth descends,
And in the cave the growling storm defends.

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Amazed, astonished, fixed in dumb surprise,
The lovers stood, but spoke with silent eyes:
At length the distant colloquy they rear,

Run o'er the chace, the mountain, and the deer.
Far from the soul th' evasive tongue departs,
Their eyes are only faithful to their hearts.

The winding volumes of discourse return

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To hostile fields by gallant Duffus shorn.
Th' imperial maid must hear it o'er again,
How fell Dovalus was by Duffus slain,
How by the son the father's murderer fell,
The kindling virgin flames along the tale.

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She turns, she quakes, and from her bosom sighs,

And all her soul comes melting in her eyes.

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Flames, not unequal, all the youth possess,

He, for the first, hears willingly his praise.

Praise, harshly heard from warriors, kings, and lords,
Came down in balm on fair Culena's words.

The royal pair thus fed the mutual fire,

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Now speak, now pause, when both alike admire.

He longs to vent the passion of his soul,

And she the tempests in her bosom roll,
Now he begun, but shame his voice opprest;
Loth to offend, his eyes must tell the rest.
At length, upon the headlong passion borne,
He spoke his love, and had a kind return;
She sighed, she owned, and bent her modest
While blushing roses on her cheeks arise,
Thus on the vale the poppy's blushing head,
Brim-full of summer-showers, to earth is weighed;
Fanned with the rising breeze, it slow inclines,

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eyes,

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While o'er the mead the rosy lustre shines.

Indulph into his cave the hermit led,

Found erring through the mountain's stormy head.
Culena, starting as the king appears,

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Looks every way, and trembles as she fears;