Her son should give——
Oh, tell me her condition.
There was, in his delivering these lines, an expression of tenderness which appealed forcibly to the heart; and was rendered still more striking by the abrupt transition to his sword,
Can the sword——
Who shall resist me in a parent’s cause?
which he executed with a felicity that nothing but consummate genius could accomplish. Again he blazed out with the true spirit in the following lines:
The blood of Douglas will protect itself.
Then let yon false Glenalvon beware of me.
That part, however, in which he disclosed not only exquisite feeling but a soundness of judgment that would do honour to an experienced actor, was where Glenalvon taunts him, for the purpose of rousing his spirit to resentment. In that speech particularly which begins,
Sir, I have been accustomed all my days