"Short be my speech;--nor time affords, Nor my plain temper, glozing[141] words. Kinsman and father,--if such name Douglas vouchsafe to Roderick's claim; Mine honor'd mother;--Ellen--why, My cousin, turn away thine eye?-- And Græme; in whom I hope to know-- Full soon a noble friend or foe, When age shall give thee thy command And leading in thy native land,-- List all!--The King's vindictive pride Boasts to have tamed the Border-side, Where chiefs, with hound and hawk who came To share their monarch's silvan game, Themselves in bloody toils were snared; And when the banquet they prepared, And wide their loyal portals flung, O'er their own gateway struggling hung.[142] Loud cries their blood from Meggat's[143] mead, From Yarrow[144] braes,[145] and banks of Tweed, Where the lone streams of Ettrick[146] glide, And from the silver Teviot's[147] side; The dales, where martial clans did ride, Are now one sheep-walk,[148] waste and wide. This tyrant of the Scottish throne, So faithless and so ruthless known, Now hither comes; his end the same, The same pretext of silvan game. What grace for Highland Chiefs, judge ye By fate of Border chivalry. Yet more; amid Glenfinlas green, Douglas, thy stately form was seen-- This by espial sure I know: Your counsel, in the streight I show."[149] [141] Flattering. [142] See Introduction, p. 13. [143] A tributary of the river Tweed, on the Scottish Border. [144] A tributary of the river Tweed, on the Scottish Border. [145] Hillsides. [146] A tributary of the river Tweed, on the Scottish Border. [147] A tributary of the river Tweed, on the Scottish Border. [148] A sheep pasture. [149] "Your counsel," etc., i.e., I would have your advice in the emergency I indicate. XXIX. Ellen and Margaret fearfully Sought comfort in each other's eye, Then turn'd their ghastly look, each one, This to her sire, that to her son. The hasty color went and came In the bold cheek of Malcolm Græme; But from his glance it well appear'd 'Twas but for Ellen that he fear'd; While, sorrowful, but undismay'd, The Douglas thus his counsel said:-- "Brave Roderick, though the tempest roar, It may but thunder, and pass o'er; Nor will I here remain an hour, To draw the lightning on thy bower; For well thou know'st, at this gray head The royal bolt were fiercest sped. For thee, who, at thy King's command, Canst aid him with a gallant band, Submission, homage, humbled pride, Shall turn the monarch's wrath aside. Poor remnants of the Bleeding Heart,[150] Ellen and I will seek, apart, The refuge of some forest cell, There, like the hunted quarry, dwell, Till on the mountain and the moor, The stern pursuit be pass'd and o'er." [150] See Note 1, p. 55. XXX.