And yet how fair the rural scene! For thou, O Clyde, hast ever been Beneficent as strong; Pleased in refreshing dews to steep 10 The little trembling flowers that peep Thy shelving rocks among. Hence all who love their country, love To look on thee--delight to rove Where they thy voice can hear; 15 And, to the patriot-warrior's Shade, Lord of the vale! to Heroes laid In dust, that voice is dear! Along thy banks, at dead of night Sweeps visibly the Wallace Wight; 20 Or stands, in warlike vest, Aloft, beneath the moon's pale beam, A Champion worthy of the stream, Yon grey tower's living crest! But clouds and envious darkness hide 25 A Form not doubtfully descried:-- Their transient mission o'er, O say to what blind region flee These Shapes of awful phantasy? To what untrodden shore? 30 Less than divine command they spurn; But this we from the mountains learn, And this the valleys show; That never will they deign to hold Communion where the heart is cold 35 To human weal and woe. The man of abject soul in vain Shall walk the Marathonian plain; Or thrid the shadowy gloom, That still invests the guardian Pass, 40 Where stood, sublime, Leonidas Devoted to the tomb.[J] And let no Slave his head incline, Or kneel, before the votive shrine By Uri's lake, where Tell 45 Leapt, from his storm-vext boat, to land,[K] Heaven's Instrument, for by his hand That day the Tyrant fell.[26] VARIANTS: [Footnote 26: 1845. Nor deem that it can aught avail For such to glide with oar or sail Beneath the piny wood, Where Tell once drew, by Uri's lake, His vengeful shafts--prepared to slake Their thirst in Tyrants' blood! 1820. ] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote H: Compare _The Prelude_ (vol. iii. p. 139), to which may be added the following Wallace Memorials:--"The barrel, or cave, in Bothwell parish; caves in Lasswade, Torphichen, and Lesmahagow parishes; chair at Bonniton, near Lanark; cradle on hill, two miles south by west of Linlithgow; house at Elderslie, in Renfrewshire; larder at Ardrossan; leap in Roseneath parish; monument on Abbey Craig, near Stirling; oaks at Elderslie and at Torwood; seats in Biggar, Kilbarchan, and Dumbarton parishes; statues at Lanark, and adjacent to the Tweed, near Dryburgh; stone in Polmont parish; towers in Ayr town, Roxburgh parish, Auchterhouse parish, and Kirkmichael parish, Dumfriesshire; trench in Kincardine-in-Monteith parish; and well in Biggar parish."--Wilson's _Gazetteer of Scotland_, 1882 (article, "Wallace Memorials").--ED.]