[104] Many years ago, a poor Highland soldier, on his return to his native hills, fatigued, as was supposed, by the length of the march and the heat of the weather, sat down under the shade of a birch tree on the solitary road of Lowran, that winds along the margin of Loch Ken, in Galloway. Here he was found dead; and this incident forms the subject of these verses.--_Note by the Author._ "The Highlander" is set to a Gaelic air in the fifth volume of R. A. Smith's "Scottish Minstrel." ELLEN. The moon shone in fits, And the tempest was roaring, The Storm Spirit shriek'd, And the fierce rain was pouring; Alone in her chamber, Fair Ellen sat sighing, The tapers burn'd dim, And the embers were dying. "The drawbridge is down, That spans the wide river; Can tempests divide, Whom death cannot sever? Unclosed is the gate, And those arms long to fold thee, 'Tis midnight, my love; O say, what can hold thee?" But scarce flew her words, When the bridge reft asunder, The horseman was crossing, 'Mid lightning and thunder, And loud was the yell, As he plunged in the billow, The maid knew it well, As she sprang from her pillow. She scream'd o'er the wall, But no help was beside her; And thrice to her view Rose the horse and his rider. She gazed at the moon, But the dark cloud pass'd over; She plunged in the stream, And she sunk to her lover. Say, what is that flame, O'er the midnight deep beaming? And whose are those forms, In the wan moonlight gleaming? That flame gilds the wave, Which their pale corses cover; And those forms are the ghosts Of the maid and her lover. THOMAS MOUNSEY CUNNINGHAM.