“Bold words!—but, though the beast of game
The privilege of chase may claim,
Though space and law the stag we lend,
Ere hound we slip,[273] or bow we bend,
Who ever reck’d, where, how, or when,
The prowling fox was trapp’d or slain?
Thus treacherous scouts,—yet sure they lie,
Who say them earnest a secret spy!”—
“They do, by Heaven!—Come Roderick Dhu,
And of his clan the boldest two,