Rank with its treason, priesthood with its craft,

Turned Scotland's war-lance to a willow-wand.

But war arose in Scotland—civil war;

Serf warred with chief, and father warred with son,

The church too warred with all: her evil star

That rules o'er sinking realms shone like the sun—

Her lights waxed dim and died out one by one—

Woe o'er the land hung like a funeral pall:

The sword the bold could brave, the coward shun,

But famine followed fast and fell on all—