XIX.
Benledi saw the Cross of Fire,
It glanced like lightning up Strath-Ire.[202]
O’er dale and hill the summons flew,
Nor rest nor pause young Angus knew;
The tear that gather’d in his eye
He left the mountain breeze to dry;
Until, where Teith’s young waters roll,
Betwixt him and a wooded knoll,
That graced the sable strath with green,
The chapel of St. Bride was seen.
Swoln was the stream, remote the bridge,
But Angus paused not on the edge;
Though the dark waves danced dizzily,
Though reel’d his sympathetic eye,
He dash’d amid the torrent’s roar:
His right hand high the crosslet bore,
His left the poleax grasp’d, to guide
And stay his footing in the tide.
He stumbled twice—the foam splash’d high,
With hoarser swell the stream raced by;
And had he fall’n,—forever there,
Farewell Duncraggan’s orphan heir!
But still, as if in parting life,
Firmer he grasp’d the Cross of strife,
Until the opposing bank he gain’d,
And up the chapel pathway strain’d.