“It isna that the winds are rude,
Or that the waters rise,
But I loe the roasted beef at hame,
And no thae puddock-pies!”
The Massacre of the Macpherson.
[from the gaelic.]
I.
Fhairshon swore a feud
Against the clan M’Tavish;
Marched into their land
To murder and to rafish;
For he did resolve
To extirpate the vipers,
With four-and-twenty men
And five-and-thirty pipers.
II.
But when he had gone
Half-way down Strath Canaan,
Of his fighting tail
Just three were remainin’.
They were all he had,
To back him in ta battle;
All the rest had gone
Off, to drive ta cattle.