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Strike this day as if the anvil lay beneath your blows the while,

Be they Covenanting traitors, or the brood of false Argyle!5

Strike! and drive the trembling rebels backwards o'er the stormy Forth;

Let them tell their pale Convention how they fared within the North.

Let them tell that Highland honour is not to be bought nor sold, That we scorn their prince's anger, as we loathe his foreign gold.

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Strike! and when the fight is over, if you look in vain for me,

Where the dead are lying thickest, search for him that was Dundee !"

Loudly then the hills re-echoed with our answer to his call,

But a deeper echo sounded in the bosoms of us all.

For the lands of wide Breadalbane, not a man who heard him speak

Would that day have left the battle. Burning eye and flushing cheek

Told the clansmen's fierce emotion, and they harder drew their breath;

For their souls were strong within themstronger than the grasp of death. Soon we heard a challenge-trumpet sounding in the pass below,

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And the distant tramp of horses, and the voices of the foe:

Down we crouched amid the bracken, till the Lowland ranks drew near,

Panting like the hounds in summer, when they scent the stately deer.

From the dark defile emerging, next we saw the squadrons come,

Leslie's foot, and Leven's troopers marching to the tuck of drum ;

Through the scattered wood of birches, o'er the broken ground and heath,

Wound the long battalion slowly, till they gained the field beneath ;

Then we bounded from our covert. Judge how looked the Saxons then,

When they saw the rugged mountains start to life with armed men!

Like a tempest down the ridges swept the hurricane of steel;

Rose the slogan of Macdonald-flashed the broadsword of Lochiel!

Vainly sped the withering volley 'mongst the foremost of our band

On we poured until we met them, foot to foot and hand to hand.

Horse and man went down like drift-wood when the floods are black at Yule, And their carcasses are whirling in the Garry's deepest pool:

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Horse and man went down before us-living foe there tarried none

On the field of Killiecrankie, when that stubborn fight was done!

And the evening star was shining on Schehallion's distant head,

When we wiped our gory broadswords, and returned to count the dead,

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There we found him gashed and gory, stretched upon the cumbered plain,

As he told us where to seek him, in the thickest of the slain.

And a smile was on his visage, for within his dying ear

Pealed the joyful note of triumph, and the clansmen's clamorous cheer.

So, amidst the battle's thunder, shot, and steel, and scorching flame,

In the glory of his manhood passed the spirit of the Graeme !

NOTES ON THE "BATTLE OF KILLIECRANKIE."

1 Killiecrankie. This battle was fought on July 27, 1689. Nearly the whole of General Mackay's forces (the English), were destroyed or taken, and his baggage and military stores captured.

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3 Montrose, James Graham, Marquis
of Montrose (1612-50), was ap-
pointed by Charles I. commander
of the forces to be raised in Scot-
land for the king's service. On
his return from the Continent in
1650 in the cause of Charles II.,
he was taken prisoner and exe-
cuted at Edinburgh as a traitor,
4 Royal Martyr, King Charles I.
5 Argyle, the Duke of Argyle.
6 Prince's Anger, William III., prince
of Orange.

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Garry (river), a tributary of the
Tay, rises in the Grampian Moun-

tains.

8 Schehallion, one of the spurs of the Grampian Mountains.

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[Antonio, "The Merchant of Venice," had become surety for his friend Bassanio in the sum of three thousand ducats borrowed from Shylock, a Jew, who, " in a merry sport," as he termed it, lent the money on condition that, in case of failure to repay the sum at the time specified, Antonio should forfeit to Shylock a pound of flesh to be cut from his body. A bond to this effect was duly signed. Losses come upon Antonio which render him unable to pay the sum when due, on which Shylock insists upon the fulfilment of his bond, and the case is tried before the Duke of Venice.

Enter BASSANIO and SHYLOCK.

Shy. Three thousand ducats; well.
Bass. Ay, sir, for three months.

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