"No, by mine honor," Roderick said, "So help me Heaven, and my good blade! No, never! Blasted be yon Pine, My fathers' ancient crest and mine, If from its shade in danger part The lineage of the Bleeding Heart! Hear my blunt speech: grant me this maid To wife, thy counsel to mine aid; To Douglas, leagued with Roderick Dhu, Will friends and allies flock enow;[151] Like cause of doubt, distrust, and grief, Will bind to us each Western Chief. When the loud pipes my bridal tell, The Links of Forth[152] shall hear the knell, The guards shall start in Stirling's[153] porch; And, when I light the nuptial torch, A thousand villages in flames Shall scare the slumbers of King James! --Nay, Ellen, blench not thus away, And, mother, cease these signs, I pray; I meant not all my heat might say. Small need of inroad, or of fight, When the sage Douglas may unite Each mountain clan in friendly band, To guard the passes of their land, Till the foil'd King, from pathless glen, Shall bootless turn him home agen." [151] Enough. [152] The windings of the river Forth: hence the inhabitants of that region. [153] Stirling Castle, on the Forth, below the junction of the Frith, was a favorite residence of the Scottish kings. XXXI. There are who have, at midnight hour, In slumber scaled a dizzy tower, And, on the verge that beetled o'er The ocean tide's incessant roar, Dream'd calmly out their dangerous dream, Till waken'd by the morning beam; When, dazzled by the eastern glow, Such startler[154] cast his glance below, And saw unmeasured depth around, And heard unintermitted sound, And thought the battled fence[155] so frail, It waved like cobweb in the gale;-- Amid his senses' giddy wheel, Did he not desperate impulse feel, Headlong to plunge himself below, And meet the worst his fears foreshow?-- Thus, Ellen, dizzy and astound,[156] As sudden ruin yawn'd around, By crossing[157] terrors wildly toss'd, Still for the Douglas fearing most, Could scarce the desperate thought withstand, To buy his safety with her hand. [154] The startled dreamer. [155] "Battled fence," i.e., battlemented rampart. [156] Astounded. [157] Conflicting. XXXII.