XXXVI.
Old Allan follow’d to the strand,
(Such was the Douglas’s command,)
And anxious told, how, on the morn,
The stern Sir Roderick deep had sworn,
The Fiery Cross[162] should circle o’er
Dale, glen, and valley, down, and moor.
Much were the peril to the Græme,
From those who to the signal came;
Far up the lake ’twere safest land,
Himself would row him to the strand.
He gave his counsel to the wind,
While Malcolm did, unheeding, bind,
Round dirk and pouch and broadsword roll’d,
His ample plaid in tighten’d fold,
And stripp’d his limbs to such array
As best might suit the watery way,—