Though reel’d his sympathetic eye,
He dash’d amid the torrent’s roar:
His right hand high the crosslet bore,
His left the poleax grasp’d, to guide
And stay his footing in the tide.
He stumbled twice—the foam splash’d high,
With hoarser swell the stream raced by;
And had he fall’n,—forever there,
Farewell Duncraggan’s orphan heir!
But still, as if in parting life,