‘A lesson which is quickly learn’d,
A signal this which all can see!
Thus nothing here provokes the strong
To tyrannous cruelty.
‘And freakishness of mind is check’d;
He tamed who foolishly aspires,
While to the measure of their might
All fashion their desires.
‘All kinds and creatures stand and fall
By strength of prowess or of wit,
’Tis God’s appointment who must sway,
And who is to submit.
‘Since then,’ said Robin, ‘right is plain,
And longest life is but a day;
To have my ends, maintain my rights,
I’ll take the shortest way.’
And thus among these rocks he lived
Through summer’s heat and winter’s snow;
The Eagle, he was lord above,
And Rob was lord below.
So was it—would at least have been
But through untowardness of fate;
For polity was then too strong:
He came an age too late.
Or shall we say an age too soon?
For were the bold man living now,
How might he flourish in his pride
With buds on every bough?
Then Rents and Land-marks, Rights of chase,
Sheriffs and Factors, Lairds and Thanes,
Would all have seem’d but paltry things
Not worth a moment’s pains.
Rob Roy had never linger’d here,
To these few meagre vales confined,
But thought how wide the world, the times
How fairly to his mind.
And to his Sword he would have said,
‘Do thou my sovereign will enact
From land to land through half the earth;
Judge thou of law and fact.