Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and Other Poems

by William Edmondstoune Aytoun

I had wept thee hadst thou fallen,

Like our fathers, on thy shield,

When a host of English foemen

Camped upon a Scottish field;

I had mourned thee hadst thou perished

With the foremost of his name,

When the valiant and the noble

Died around the dauntless Græme.

But I will not wrong thee, husband!

With my unavailing cries,