Her smile, her speech, with winning sway, Wiled[98] the old Harper's mood away. With such a look as hermits throw, When angels stoop to soothe their woe, He gazed, till fond regret and pride Thrill'd to a tear, then thus replied: "Loveliest and best! thou little know'st The rank, the honors, thou hast lost! Oh, might I live to see thee grace, In Scotland's court, thy birthright place, To see my favorite's step advance, The lightest in the courtly dance, The cause of every gallant's sigh, And leading star of every eye, And theme of every minstrel's art, The Lady of the Bleeding Heart!"[99] [98] Beguiled. [99] The Bleeding Heart was the cognizance of the Douglas family in memory of the heart of Bruce, which that monarch on his deathbed bequeathed to James Douglas, that he might carry it upon a crusade to the Holy City. XI. "Fair dreams are these," the maiden cried, (Light was her accent, yet she sigh'd;) "Yet is this mossy rock to me Worth splendid chair and canopy; Nor would my footsteps spring more gay In courtly dance than blithe strathspey,[100] Nor half so pleased mine ear incline To royal minstrel's lay as thine. And then for suitors proud and high, To bend before my conquering eye,-- Thou, flattering bard! thyself wilt say, That grim Sir Roderick owns its sway. The Saxon[101] scourge, Clan-Alpine's[102] pride, The terror of Loch Lomond's side, Would, at my suit, thou know'st, delay A Lennox[103] foray--for a day." [100] A rustic Highland dance which takes its name from the strath or broad valley of the Spey. [101] "The Scottish Highlander calls himself Gael, and terms the Lowlanders Sassenach or Saxons." [102] Gregor, the progenitor of the clan MacGregor, was supposed to be the son of a Scotch King Alpine: hence the MacGregors are sometimes called MacAlpines. [103] The district lying south of Loch Lomond. XII.