IX.
Soothing she answer’d him—"Assuage,
Mine honor’d friend, the fears of age;
All melodies to thee are known,
That harp has rung or pipe[95] has blown,
In Lowland vale or Highland glen,
From Tweed to Spey[96]—what marvel, then,
At times, unbidden notes should rise,
Confusedly bound in memory’s ties,
Entangling, as they rush along,
The war march with the funeral song?—
Small ground is now for boding fear;
Obscure, but safe, we rest us here.
My sire, in native virtue great,
Resigning lordship, lands, and state,
Not then to fortune more resign’d,
Than yonder oak might give the wind;
The graceful foliage storms may reave,[97]
The noble stem they cannot grieve.
For me,“—she stoop’d, and, looking round,
Pluck’d a blue harebell from the ground,—
“For me, whose memory scarce conveys
An image of more splendid days,
This little flower, that loves the lea,
May well my simple emblem be;
It drinks heaven’s dew as blithe as rose
That in the King’s own garden grows;
And when I place it in my hair,
Allan, a bard is bound to swear
He ne’er saw coronet so fair.”
Then playfully the chaplet wild
She wreath’d in her dark locks, and smiled.