XVI.
Just as the minstrel sounds were stayed,
A stranger climb’d the steepy glade;
His martial step, his stately mien,
His hunting suit of Lincoln green,
His eagle glance, remembrance claims—
’Tis Snowdoun’s Knight, ’tis James Fitz-James.
Ellen beheld as in a dream,
Then, starting, scarce suppress’d a scream:
“O stranger! in such hour of fear,
What evil hap has brought thee here?”—
“An evil hap how can it be,
That bids me look again on thee?
By promise bound, my former guide
Met me betimes this morning tide,
And marshal’d, over bank and bourne,[253]
The happy path of my return.”—
“The happy path!—what! said he naught
Of war, of battle to be fought,
Of guarded pass?”—“No, by my faith!
Nor saw I aught could augur scathe.”[254]—
“Oh haste thee, Allan, to the kern,[255]
—Yonder his tartans I discern;
Learn thou his purpose, and conjure
That he will guide the stranger sure!—
What prompted thee, unhappy man?
The meanest serf in Roderick’s clan
Had not been bribed by love or fear,
Unknown to him to guide thee here.”