XII.
The ancient bard his glee repress’d:
“I’ll hast thou chosen theme for jest!
For who, through all this western wild,
Named Black[104] Sir Roderick e’er, and smiled?
In Holy-Rood[105] a knight he slew;
I saw, when back the dirk he drew,
Courtiers give place before the stride
Of the undaunted homicide;
And since, though outlaw’d,[106] hath his hand
Full sternly kept his mountain land.
Who else dared give—ah! woe the day
That I such hated truth should say—
The Douglas, like a stricken deer,
Disown’d by every noble peer,
Even the rude refuge we have here?
Alas! this wild marauding Chief
Alone might hazard our relief,
And, now thy maiden charms expand,
Looks for his guerdon[107] in thy hand;
Full soon may dispensation[108] sought,
To back his suit, from Rome be brought.
Then, though an exile on the hill,
Thy father, as the Douglas, still
Be held in reverence and fear;
And though to Roderick thou’rt so dear,
That thou mightst guide with silken thread,
Slave of thy will, this Chieftain dread,
Yet, O loved maid, thy mirth refrain!
Thy hand is on a lion’s mane.”