And ranged, as to the judgment-seat, My guilty, trembling brothers round. Clad in the helm and shield they came; For now De Bourgo's sword and flame Had ravaged Ulster's boundaries, And lighted up the midnight skies. The standard of O'Connor's sway Was in the turret where I lay; That standard, with so dire a look, As ghastly shone the moon and pale, I gave, that every bosom shook Beneath its iron mail.
And go! (I cried) the combat seek; Ye hearts that unappalled bore The anguish of a sister's shriek, Go!-and return no more!
For sooner guilt the ordeal brand Shall grasp unhurt, than ye shall hold The banner with victorious hand, Beneath a sister's curse unroll'd. O stranger! by my country's loss! And by my love! and by the cross! I swear I never could have spoke The curse that sever'd nature's yoke; But that a spirit o'er me stood, And fired me with the wrathful mood; And frenzy to my heart was given; To speak the malison of heaven.
They would have cross'd themselves, all mute; They would have pray'd to burst the spell; But at the stamping of my foot Each hand down powerless fell! And go to Athunree! (I cried) High lift the banner of your pride! But know that where its sheet unrolls, The weight of blood is on your souls! Go where the havoc of your kerne Shall float as high as mountain fern! Men shall no more your mansion know; The nettles on your hearth shall grow! Dead, as the green oblivious flood That mantles by your walls, shall be The glory of O'Connor's blood!
Away! away to Athunree!
Where, downward when the sun shall fall,
The raven's wing shall be your pall!
And not a vassal shall unlace
The vizor from your dying face!
A bolt that overhung our dome Suspended till my curse was given, Soon as it pass'd these lips of foam, Peal'd in the blood-red heaven.
Dire was the look that o'er their backs
The angry parting brothers threw :
But now, behold! like cataracts, Come down the hills in view O'Connor's plumed partizans ; Thrice ten Kilnagorvian clans Were marching to their doom: A sudden storm their plumage toss'd, A flash of lightning o'er them cross'd, And all again was gloom!
Stranger! I fled the home of grief, At Connocht Moran's tomb to fall; I found the helmet of my chief, His bow still hanging on our wall, And took it down, and vow'd to rove This desert place a huntress bold ; Nor would I change my buried love For any heart of living mould. No! for I am a hero's child; I'll hunt my quarry in the wild; And still my home this mansion make, Of all unheeded and unheeding,
And cherish, for my warrior's sake
The flower of love lies bleeding."
LOCHIEL, Lochiel! beware of the day When the Lowlands shall meet thee in battle For a field of the dead rushes red on my sight, And the clans of Culloden are scattered in fight.
They rally, they bleed, for their kingdom and crown; Woe, woe to the riders that trample them down! Proud Cumberland prances, insulting the slain, And their hoof-beaten bosoms are trod to the plain. But hark! through the fast flashing lightning of war, What steed to the desert flies frantic and far? 'Tis thine, oh Glenullin! whose bride shall await, Like a love-lighted watch-fire, all night at the gate. A steed comes at morning: no rider is there; But its bridle is red with the sign of despair. Weep, Albin! to death and captivity led! Oh weep! but thy tears cannot number the dead: For a merciless sword on Culloden shall wave, Culloden! that reeks with the blood of the brave.
Go, preach to the coward, thou death-telling seer! Or, if gory Culloden so dreadful appear,
Draw, dotard, around thy old wavering sight, This mantle, to cover the phantoms of fright.
Ha! laugh'st thou, Lochiel, my vision to scorn? Proud bird of the mountain, thy plume shall be torn! Say, rush'd the bold eagle exultingly forth,
From his home, in the dark rolling clouds of the north? Lo! the death-shot of foemen outspeeding, he rode Companionless, bearing destruction abroad;
But down let him stoop from his havock on high! Ah! home let him speed,-for the spoiler is nigh. Why flames the far summit? Why shoot to the blast Those embers, like stars from the firmament cast?
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