The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott ... Notes & life of the author.

i.Qd 4 THE LADY OF THE LAo. CAIn Et
A thousand villages in flames,
Shall scare the slumbers of King James.
-Nay, Ellen, blench not thus away,
And, mother, cease these sighs, 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 agen."
X:XI.
There are who have, at midnight hour,
In slumber scaled a dizzy tower,
And, on the verge that beetled o'er
The ocean-tide's incessant roar,
Dreamed calmly out their dangerous (dl eain
Till wakened by the morning beam;
When, dazzled by the eastern glow,
Such startler cast his glance below,
And saw unmeasured depth around,
And heard unintermitted sound,
And thought the battled fence so fraIl,
It waved like cobweb in the gale;
Amid his senses' giddy wheel,
Did he not desperate impulse feel,
Headlong to plunge himself below,
And meet the worst his fears foreshow!
Thus, Ellen, dizzy and astound,
As sudden ruin yawned around,
By crossing terrors wildly tost,
Still for the Douglas fearing most,
Could scarce the desperate thought withstands
To buy his safety with her hand.
XXXIL
Such purpose dread could Malcolm spy
In Ellen's quivering lip and eye,
And eager rose to speak-but ere
His tongue could hurry forth his fear,
Had Douglas marked the hectic strife,
WVhere death seemed combating with lieO
For to her cheek, in feverish flood,
One instant rushed the throbbing blood.