CIII. — THE ABBOT AND ROBERT BRUCE.

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

[Robert Bruce, the famous King of Scotland, being overtaken by a storm, seeks refuge in Artornish Castle, where a wedding feast is going on. He craves the hospitality of the castle, but conceals his name. Notwithstanding this, he is soon recognized, and is in imminent danger of being set upon and killed, as many of the guests are his bitter enemies. De Argentine, an English knight, claims Bruce as a rebel against the authority of the King of England. The Lord of Lorn is a kinsman of Comyn whom Bruce had killed in a church, and whose death he is eager to avenge. It is finally agreed to allow an abbot, who is present, to decide what shall be done.]

Аввот.

1. UNHAPPY! what hast thou to plead,
Why I denounce not on thy deed
That awful doom which, canons' tell,
Shuts Paradise and opens Hell?
Anathema of power so dread,
It blends the living with the dead,
Bids each good angel soar away,
And every ill one claim his prey;
Expels thee from the Church's care,
And deafens Heaven against thy prayer;
Arms every hand against thy life,
Bans3 all who aid thee in the strife,
Nay, each whose succor, cold and scant,
With meanest alms relieves thy want;
Haunts thee while living, and when dead,
Dwells on thy yet devoted head;
Rends honor's scutcheon' from thy hearse,
Stills o'er thy bier the holy verse,

And spurns thy corpse from hallowed ground,
Flung like vile carrion to the hound!
Such is the dire and desperate doom
For sacrilege, decreed by Rome;

2. Abbot! thy grave and weighty charge
It boots not to dispute at large:
This much, howe'er, I bid thee know,
No selfish vengeance dealt the blow
For Comyn died his country's foe.
Nor blame I friends whose ill-timed speed
Fulfilled my soon repented deed;

Nor censure those from whose stern tongue
The dire anathema has rung.

I only blame mine own wild ire,

By Scotland's wrongs incensed to fire.
Heaven knows my purpose to atone,
Far as
I may, the evil done,
And hears a penitent's appeal
From papal curse and prelate's zeal.

3. My first and dearest task achieved,
Fair Scotland from her thrall relieved,
Shall many a priest in cope and stole9
Say requiem 10 for Red Comyn's soul,
While I the blesséd cross advance,
And expiate this unhappy chance,
In Palestine, with sword and lance.

But, while content the Church should know
My conscience owns the debt I owe,
Unto De Argentine and Lorn
The name of traitor I return,
Bid them defiance, stern and high,
And give them in their throats the lie!
These brief words spoke, I speak no more:
Do what thou wilt; my shrift" is o'er.

Аввот.

4. De Bruce! I rose with purpose dread
To speak my curse upon thy head,
To give thee, as an outcast, o'er
To him who burns to shed thy gore;
But, like the Midianite* of old,

Who stood on Zophim, Heaven-controlled,
I feel within mine agéd breast

A power that will not be repressed;
It prompts my voice, it swells my veins,
It burns, it maddens, it constrains!
De Bruce! thy sacrilegious blow
Hath at God's altar slain thy foe;
O'ermastered yet by high behest 12,
I bless thee, and thou shalt be blessed!

5. Thrice vanquished on the battle-plain,
Thy followers slaughtered, fled, or ta'en,
A hunted wanderer on the wild,
On foreign shores a man exiled,
Disowned, deserted, and distressed,
I bless thee, and thou shalt be blessed;
Blessed in the hall and in the field,
Under the mantle as the shield.
Avenger of thy country's shame,
Restorer of her injured fame,
Blessed in thy sceptre and thy sword,
De Bruce, fair Scotland's rightful lord,
Blessed in thy deeds and in thy fame,
What lengthened honors wait thy name!
In distant ages, sire to son

Shall tell thy tale of Freedom won,
And teach his infants, in the use

Of earliest speech, to falter Bruce.

Balaam. See Numbers, chap. xxiii.

6. Go, then, triumphant! sweep along
Thy course, the theme of many a song!
The Power, whose dictates swell my breast,
Hath blessed thee, and thou shalt be blessed!

1 CAN'ONS. Laws of the church; also,
the Holy Scriptures.
2A-NATH'E-MA. A curse pronounced

by ecclesiastical authority; excom-
munication.

BANŞ. Curses; execrates.

6 MEED. Reward; merit; desert. 7 BÔÔTS.

Profits.

8 COPE. A kind of cloak worn by the clergy during church services.

9 STOLE. A narrow band worn across the shoulders by bishops and priests.

4 DE-VÕTED. Doomed; consigned to 10 RE'QUI-EM. A musical composition evil.

SCUTCH'EON. A shield on which the coat of arms of a family is represented; escutcheon.

performed in honor of some de ceased person.

11 SHRIFT. Confession made to a priest. 12 BE-HEST'. Command; injunction.

CIV.-LINES ON A SKELETON.

1. BEHOLD this ruin! "Tis a skull,
Once of ethereal spirit full.

This narrow cell was Life's retreat;
This space was Thought's mysterious seat.
What beauteous pictures filled this spot!
What dreams of pleasure, long forgot!
Nor grief, nor joy, nor hope, nor fear,
Has left one trace or record here!

2. Beneath this mouldering canopy
Once shone the bright and busy eye;
Yet start not at that dismal void!
If social love that eye employed,
If with no lawless fire it gleamed,
But with the dew of kindness beamed,
That eye shall be forever bright

When stars and suns have lost their light.

3. Here, in this silent cavern, hung

The ready, swift, and tuneful tongue.
If Falsehood's honey it disdained,

And where it could not praise, was chained;-
If in bold Virtue's cause it spoke,

Yet gentle concord never broke;

That tuneful tongue shall plead for thee
When death unveils eternity.

4. Say, did these fingers delve' the mine?
Or, with its envied rubies shine? -
To hew the rock, or wear the gem,
Can nothing now avail to them.
But, if the page of Truth they sought,
And comfort to the mourners brought,
These hands a richer meed shall claim
Than all that waits on wealth or fame!

5. Avails it whether bare or shod

These feet the paths of Duty trod?
If from the bowers of Joy they sped,
To soothe Affliction's humble bed,
If Grandeur's guilty bribe they spurned,
And home to Virtue's lap returned,
Those feet with angels' wings shall vie2,
And tread the palace of the sky!

1 DĚLVE. Dig; use the spade. | 2 VIE. Strive for supremacy; contend.