Ambition nerv'd young Allan's hand, Exulting demons wing'd his dart; While Envy wav'd her burning brand, And pour'd her venom round his heart. 73. Swift is the shaft from Allan's bow; Whose streaming life-blood stains his side? Dark Oscar's sable crest is low, The dart has drunk his vital tide. 74. And Mora's eye could Allan move, She bade his wounded pride rebel: Alas! that eyes, which beam'd with love, Should urge the soul to deeds of Hell. 75. Lo! see'st thou not a lonely tomb, Which rises o'er a warrior dead? It glimmers through the twilight gloom; Oh! that is Allan's nuptial bed. 76. Far, distant far, the noble grave Which held his clan's great ashes stood; And o'er his corse no banners wave, For they were stain'd with kindred blood. 77. What minstrel grey, what hoary bard, Shall Allan's deeds on harp-strings raise? The song is glory's chief reward, But who can strike a murd'rer's praise? 78. Unstrung, untouch'd, the harp must stand, No minstrel dare the theme awake; Guilt would benumb his palsied hand, His harp in shuddering chords would break. 79. No lyre of fame, no hallow'd verse, Shall sound his glories high in air: A dying father's bitter curse, A brother's death-groan echoes there. [Footnote 1: The catastrophe of this tale was suggested by the story of "Jeronymo and Lorenzo," in the first volume of Schiller's 'Armenian, or the Ghost-Seer'. It also bears some resemblance to a scene in the third act of 'Macbeth'.--['Der Geisterseher', Schiller's 'Werke' (1819), x. 97, 'sq'.] [Footnote 2: It is evident that Byron here confused the 'pibroch', the air, with the 'bagpipe', the instrument.] [Footnote 3: Beltane Tree, a Highland festival on the first of May, held near fires lighted for the occasion.] [Footnote i: 'She view'd the gasping'----. ['Hours of Idleness'.]] [Footnote ii: 'When many an eye which ne'er again Could view'----. ['Hours of Idleness'.]] [Footnote iii: 'Internal fears'----. ['Hours of Idleness'.]] [Footnote iv: 'Old Angus prest, the earth with his breast'. ['Hours of Idleness'.]] TRANSLATION FROM ANACREON. [Greek: Thel_o legein Atpeidas, k.t.l.] [1] ODE 1. TO HIS LYRE.