Bright gleams of gold and purple streak
Ravine and precipice and peak—
(So earthly power at distance shows;
Reveals his splendour, hides his woes.)
O'er sheets of granite dark and broad,
Rent and unequal, lay the road.
In sad discourse the warriors wind,
And the mute Page moves slow behind.

END OF CANTO THIRD.

THE

LORD OF THE ISLES.

CANTO FOURTH.

THE

LORD OF THE ISLES.

CANTO FOURTH.

I.

STRANGER! if e'er thine ardent step hath traced The northern realms of ancient Caledon, Where the proud Queen of Wilderness hath placed, By lake and cataract, her lonely throne; Sublime but sad delight thy soul hath known, Gazing on pathless glen and mountain high, Listing where from the cliffs the torrents thrown Mingle their echoes with the eagle's cry, And with the sounding lake, and with the moaning sky.

Yes! 'twas sublime, but sad.-The loneliness
Loaded thy heart, the desert tired thine eye;
And strange and awful fears began to press
Thy bosom with a stern solemnity.

Then hast thou wished some woodman's cottage

nigh,

Something that showed of life, though low and

mean,

Glad sight, its curling wreath of smoke to spy,

Glad sound, its cock's blithe carol would have

been,

Or children whooping wild beneath the willows

green.

Such are the scenes, where savage grandeur wakes

An awful thrill that softens into sighs;

Such feelings rouse them by dim Rannoch's lakes,
In dark Glencoe such gloomy raptures rise:
Or farther, where, beneath the northern skies,

Chides wild Loch-Eribol his caverns hoar-
But, be the minstrel judge, they yield the prize
Of desert dignity to that dread shore,

That sees grim Coolin rise, and hears Corisken roar.

II.

Through such wild scenes the champions passed, When bold halloo and bugle-blast

Upon the breeze came loud and fast.

"There," said the Bruce, "blew Edward's horn What can have caused such brief return?

And see, brave Ronald,-see him dart

O'er stock and stone like hunted hart,