XXXIII.
Twice through the hall the Chieftain strode;
The waving of his tartans broad,
And darken’d brow, where wounded pride
With ire and disappointment vied,
Seem’d, by the torch’s gloomy light,
Like the ill Demon of the night,
Stooping his pinions’ shadowy sway
Upon the nighted pilgrim’s way:
But, unrequited Love! thy dart
Plunged deepest its envenom’d smart,
And Roderick, with thine anguish stung,
At length the hand of Douglas wrung,
While eyes that mock’d at tears before,
With bitter drops were running o’er.
The death pangs of long-cherish’d hope
Scarce in that ample breast had scope,
But, struggling with his spirit proud,
Convulsive heaved its checker’d shroud,[158]
While every sob—so mute were all—
Was heard distinctly through the hall.
The son’s despair, the mother’s look,
Ill might the gentle Ellen brook;
She rose, and to her side there came,
To aid her parting steps, the Græme.