Which else in Doune had peaceful hung.”—
“Free be they flung!—for we were loth
Their silken folds should feast the moth.
Free be they flung!—as free shall wave
Clan-Alpine’s pine in banner brave.
But, Stranger, peaceful since you came,
Bewilder’d in the mountain game,
Whence the bold boast by which you show[279]
Vich-Alpine’s vow’d and mortal foe?”—
“Warrior, but yester-morn, I knew