'No, by mine honor,' Roderick said, 'So help me Heaven, and my good blade!
No, never! Blasted be yon Pine, My father's ancient crest and mine, If from its shade in danger part The lineage of the Bleeding Heart!
Hear my blunt speech: grant me this maid To wife, thy counsel to mine aid;To Douglas, leagued with Roderick Dhu, Will friends and allies flock enow;Like cause of doubt, distrust, and grief, Will bind to us each Western Chief When the loud pipes my bridal tell, The Links of Forth shall hear the knell, The guards shall start in Stirling's porch;And when I light the nuptial torch, A thousand villages in flames Shall scare the slumbers of King James!--Nay, Ellen, blench not thus away, And, mother, cease these signs, I pray;I meant not all my heat might say.--
Small need of inroad or of fight, When the sage Douglas may unite Each mountain clan in friendly band, To guard the passes of their land, Till the foiled King from pathless glen Shall bootless turn him home again.'
