If all other bulwarks crumble,

He will be our strength and tower:
Though the ramparts rock beneath us,
And the walls go crashing down,
Though the roar of conflagration
Bellow o'er the sinking town;
There is yet one place of shelter,1
Where the foemen cannot come,
Where the summons never sounded
Of the trumpet or the drum.
There again we'll meet our children,
Who, on Flodden's trampled sod,
For their King and for their country
Rendered up their souls to God.
There shall we find rest and refuge..

With our dear departed brave

And the ashes of the city
Be our universal grave!"

1 One place of shelter: the grave.

PROFESSOR AYTOUN.

THE HEART OF THE BRUCE.1

I.

It was upon an April morn,

While yet the frost lay hoar,2
We heard Lord James's bugle horn
Sound by the rocky shore.

II.

Then down we went, a hundred knights,

All in our dark array,
And flung our armor in the ships

That rode within the bay.

III.

We spoke not, as the shore grew less,
But gazed in silence back,

Where the long billows swept away
The foam behind our track.

1 Bruce: Robert Bruce, "Scotland's greatest king and hero" joined William Wallace in resistance to the efforts of England to get and keep control of the country. He won the great victory of Bannockburn over Edward II. in 1314. Fourteen years later Edward was obliged to recognize the independence of Scotland. Bruce died the year following (1329), and according to the legend. Sir James Douglas was chosen to carry his heart in a case of gold to the Holy Land and bury it near the sepulchre of Christ. The ballad narrates what followed the attempt to carry out the hero's wishes.

2 Hoar: white.

8 Lord James: Sir James Douglas.

IV.

And aye the purple hues decayed

Upon the fading hill,

And but one heart in all that ship
Was tranquil, cold, and still.

V.

The good Lord Douglas paced the deck —

Oh, but his face was wan!

Unlike the flush it used to wear

When in the battle-van.1

VI.

"Come hither, I pray, my trusty knight, Sir Simon of the Lee;

There is a freit 2 lies near my soul

I needs must tell to thee.

VII.

"Thou know'st the words King Robert spoke

Upon his dying day:

How he bade me take his noble heart

And carry it far away;

VIII.

"And lay it in the holy soil

Where once the Saviour trod,

Since he might not bear the blessed Cross,
Nor strike one blow for God.

1 Battle-van: front of the battle.

2 Freit: presentiment or superstition; notion or belief.

IX.

"Last night as in my bed I lay,
I dreamed a dreary dream:
Methought I saw a Pilgrim stand
In the moonlight's quivering beam.

"Why go ye forth, Lord James,' he said,

With spear and belted brand?

Why do you take its dearest pledge

From this our Scottish land?

XII.

"The sultry breeze of Galilee
Creeps through its groves of palm,

The olives on the Holy Mount
Stand glittering in the calm.

XIII.

"But 'tis not there that Scotland's heart

Shall rest, by God's decree,

Till the great angel calls the dead

To rise from earth and sea!

XIV.

"Lord James of Douglas, mark my rede!1

That heart shall pass once more

1 Rede: word.

"And it shall pass beneath the cross,
And save King Robert's vow;
But other hands shall bear it back,
Not, James of Douglas, thou!'

66

XVI.

Now, by thy knightly faith, I pray, Sir Simon of the Lee

Nor truer friend had never man

Than thou hast been to me

XVII.

"If ne'er upon the Holy Land "Tis mine in life to tread, Bear thou to Scotland's kindly earth The relics of her dead."

XVIII.

The tear was in Sir Simon's eye
As he wrung the warrior's hand-
"Betide 1 me weal, betide me woe,
I'll hold by thy command.

XIX.

"But if in battle-front, Lord James, 'Tis ours once more to ride, Nor force of man, nor craft of fiend, Shall cleave me from thy side!" 1 Betide: happen, befall.