Heard ye the Patriot’s awful voice?-- “Proud Victor! in thy fame rejoice! Hast thou not seen thy brethren slain, The harvest of the battle-plain, And bathed thy sword in blood, whose spot Eternity shall cancel not? Rejoice!--with sounds of wild lament O’er her dark heaths and mountains sent, With dying moan and dirge’s wail, Thy ravaged country bids thee hail! Rejoice!--while yet exulting cries From England’s conquering host arise, And strains of choral triumph tell Her Royal Slave hath fought too well! Oh, dark the clouds of woe that rest Brooding o’er Scotland’s mountain-crest! Her shield is cleft, her banner torn, O’er martyr’d chiefs her daughters mourn, And not a breeze but wafts the sound Of wailing through the land around. Yet deem not thou, till life depart, High hope shall leave the patriot’s heart; Or courage to the storm inured, Or stern resolve by woes matured, Oppose, to Fate’s severest hour, Less than unconquerable power! No! though the orbs of heaven expire, _Thine_, Freedom! is a quenchless fire; And woe to him whose might would dare The energies of _thy_ despair! No!--when thy chain, O Bruce! is cast O’er thy land’s charter’d mountain-blast, Then in my yielding soul shall die The glorious faith of Liberty!” “Wild hopes! o’er dreamer’s mind that rise!” With haughty laugh the Conqueror cries, (Yet his dark cheek is flush’d with shame, And his eye fill’d with troubled flame;) “Vain, brief illusions! doom’d to fly England’s red path of victory! Is not her sword unmatch’d in might? Her course a torrent in the fight? The terror of her name gone forth Wide o’er the regions of the north? Far hence, midst other heaths and snows, Must freedom’s footstep now repose. And thou--in lofty dreams elate, Enthusiast! strive no more with Fate! ’Tis vain--the land is lost and won: Sheathed be the sword--its task is done. Where are the chiefs that stood with thee First in the battles of the free? The firm in heart, in spirit high?-- They sought yon fatal field to die. Each step of Edward’s conquering host Hath left a grave on Scotland’s coast.”