CANTO III. THE GATHERING. VIII. 'Twas all prepared--and from the rock, A goat, the patriarch of the flock, Before the kindling pile was laid, And pierced by Roderick's ready blade. * * * * * The grisly priest with murmuring prayer, A slender crosslet framed with care. * * * * * The cross, thus formed, he held on high, With wasted hand and haggard eye, And strange and mingled feelings woke, While his anathema he spoke. IX. * * * * * He paused--the word the vassals took, With forward step and fiery look, On high their naked brands they shook, Their clattering targets wildly strook; And first, in murmur low, Then, like the billow in his course, That far to seaward finds his source, And flings to shore his mustered force, Burst with loud roar, their answer hoarse, "Woe to the traitor, woe!" [Illustration] _PLATE LXXIX_ PLATE LXXIX. The Lady of the Lake. CANTO IV. THE PROPHECY. XXI. [Blanche of Devan and Fitz-James] Now wound the path its dizzy ledge Around a precipice's edge, When lo! a wasted female form, Blighted by wrath of sun and storm, In tattered weeds and wild array, Stood on a cliff beside the way, And glancing round her restless eye Upon the wood, the rock, the sky, Seemed nought to mark, yet all to spy. Her brow was wreathed with gaudy broom; With gesture wild she waved a plume Of feathers, which the eagles fling To crag and cliff from dusky wing; * * * * * And loud she laughed when near they drew, For then the lowland garb she knew: And then her hands she wildly wrung, And then she wept, and then she sung. [Illustration] _PLATE LXXX_ PLATE LXXX. This scene fills the fourth side of the room on which _The Lady of the Lake_ is pictured, but does not illustrate any scene in the poem. [Illustration] _PLATE LXXXI_ PLATE LXXXI. The Seasons. Pastoral paper in neutral colors on the library of Prof. Ira Young of Dartmouth, at Hanover, N. H. The four seasons are represented on different sides of the room, blending into each other--sowing, haying, harvesting and sleighing. Still on the walls in good state of preservation. (p. 49) [Illustration] _PLATE LXXXII_ PLATE LXXXII. The Seasons. Another view of Professor Young's library. The colors in this paper are neutral. [Illustration] _PLATE LXXXIII_ PLATE LXXXIII. The Seasons. Third view from Professor Young's library. [Illustration] -------------------------------------------------------------- Transcriber's note: