The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

CANTO I.] THE LORD OF THE ISLES. 33
And what requital? 1 cold delayExcuse that shunn'd the spousal day.It dawns, and Ronald is not here!
Hunts he Bentalla's nimble deer,2
Or loiters he in secret dell
To bid some lighter love farewell,
And swear, that though he may not scorn
A daughter of the House of Lorn,3
Yet, when these formal rites are o'er,
Again they meet, to part no more?"
XII.
— " Hush, daughter, hush! thy doubts remove,
More nobly think of Ronald's love.
Look, where beneath the castle gray
His fleet unmoor from Aros bay!
See'st not each galley's topmast bend,
As on the yards the sails ascend?
Hiding the dark-blue land they rise,
Like the white clouds on April skies;
The shouting vassals man the oars,
Behind them sink Mull's mountain shores,
Onward their merry course they keep,
Through whistling breeze and foaming deep.
1 [MS.-" When, from that hour, had Edith's heart
A thought, and Ronald, lack'd his part!
And what her guerdon? "]
2 [MS.-" And on its dawn the bridegroom lags;Hunts he Bentalla's nimble stags."]
3 [See Appendix, Note D.]
VOL. V. 3