and dangerous expedition. The minstrel was im- the head of an army superior to his own. The pressed with a belief, which the event verified, words of the set theme, or melody, to which the that he was to be slain in the approaching feud; pipe variations are applied, run thus in Gaelic : and hence the Gaelic words, “ Cha till mi tuille ; Piobaireachd Dhonuil, piobaireachd Dhonuil; ged thillis Macleod, cha till Macrimmon,” “ I shall Piobaireachd Dhonuil Duidh, piobaireachd Dhonuil; never return; although Macleod returns, yet Mack- Piobaireachd Dhonuil Duidh, piobaireachd Dhonuil ; rimmon shall never return !” The piece is but too Piob agus bratach air faiche Inverlochi. well known, from its being the strain with wbich The pipe summons of Donald the Black, the emigrants from the west highlands and isles The pipe summons of Donald the Black, usually take leave of their native shore.

The war-pipe and the pennon are on the gathering-place

al Inverlochy.

MACLEOD's wizard flag from the gray castle sallies,
The rowers are seated, unmoor’d are the galley's ;
Gleam war-axe and broads word, clang target and

quiver,
As Mackrimmon sings, “ Farewell to Dunvegan

for ever! Farewell to each cliff on which breakers are foam

ing; Farewell, each dark glen, in which red deer are

roaming; Farewell, lonely Syke, to lake, mountain, and river, Macleod may return, but Mackrimmon shall never !

PIBROCH of Donuil Dhu,

Pibroch of Donuil,
Wake thy wild voice anew,

Summon Clan-Conuil.
Come away, come away,

Hark to the summons !
Come in your war array,

Gentles and commons.

Come from deep glen, and

From mountain so rocky,
The war-pipe and pennon

Are at Inverlochy:
Come every hill-plaid, and

True heart that wears one,
Come every steel blade, and

Strong hand that bears one.
Leave untended the herd,

The flock without shelter;
Leave the corpse uninterr'd,

The bride at the altar;
Leave the deer, leave the steer,

Leave nets and barges ;
Come with your fighting gear,

Broadswords and targes.
Come as the winds come when

Forests are rended ;
Come as the waves come when

Navies are stranded;
Faster come, faster come,

Faster and faster,
Chief, vassal, page, and groom,

Tenant and master.

« Too oft shall the notes of Mackrimmon's bewail

ing Be heard when the Gael on their exile are sailing ; Dear land ! to the shores, whence unwilling we

sever,
Return-return-return-shall never!

Cha till, cha till, cha till sin tuille !
Cha till, cha till, cha till sin tuille,
Cha till, cha till, cha till sin tuille,
Ged thillis Macleod, cha till Macrimmon!”

Fast they come, fast they come ;

See how they gather!
Wide waves the eagle plume,

Blended with heather.
Cast your plaids, draw your blades,

Forward each man set !
Pibroch of Donuil Dhu,

Knell for the opset!

PIBROCH OF DONALD DHU.

WRITTEN FOR ALBYN'S ANTHOLOGY.

Air-Piobair of Dhonuil Duidh.*

THE DANCE OF DEATH.

This is a very ancient pibroch belonging to the clan Mac-Donald, and supposed to refer to the expedition of Donald Balloch, who, in 1431, launched from the isles with a considerable force, invaded Lochabar, and at Inverlochy defeated and put to flight the Earls of Marr and Caithness, though at

Night and morning were at meeting

Over Waterloo ;
Cocks had sung their earliest greeting,

Faint and low they crew,
For no paly beam yet shone
On the heights of Mount Saint John ;

*"The pibroch or Donald the Black.”

HELLVELLYN.

And call the brave
To bloody grave,

To sleep without a shroud.
Burst, ye clouds, in tempest showers,
Redder rain shall soon be ours-

See, the east grows wan-
Yield we place to sterner game,
Ere deadlier bolts and drearer flame
Shall the welkin's thunders shame;
Elemental rage is tame

To the wrath of man.
At morn, gray Allan's mates with awe
Heard of the vision'd sights he saw,

The legend heard him say:
But the seer's gifted eye was dim,
Deafen'd his ear, and stark his limb,

Ere closed that bloody day.
He sleeps far from his highland heath-
But often of the Dance of Death

His comrades tell the tale
On piquet-post, when ebbs the night,
And waning watch-fires grow less bright,

And dawn is glimmering pale.

In the spring of 1805, a young gentleman of talents, and of a most amiable disposition, perished by losing his way on the mountain Hellvellyn. His remains were not discovered till three months afterwards, when they were found guarded by a faithful terrier bitch, his constant attendant during frequent solitary rambles through the wilds of Cumberland and Westmoreland.

I climb'd the dark brow of the mighty Hellvellyn,
Lakes and mountains beneath me gleam'd misty

and wide ;
All was still, save by fits when the eagle was yell-

ng,
And starting around me the echoes replied.
On the right, Striden-edge round the Red-tarn was

bending,
And Catchedicam its left verge was defending,
One huge nameless rock in the front was ascending,
When I mark'd the sad spot where the wanderer

had died.

FAREWELL TO THE MUSE.

Dark green was the spot ’mid the brown mountain ENCHANTRESS, farewell, who so ost has decoy'd me,

heather, At the close of the evening, through woodlands to

Where the pilgrim of nature lay stretch'd in roam,

decay, Where the forester, lated, with wonder espied me Like the corpse of an outcast abandoned to weather, Explore the wild scenes he was quitting for home.

Till the mountain winds wasted the tenantless Farewell, and take with thee thy numbers wild,

clay. speaking

Nor yet quite deserted, though lonely extended, The language alternate of rapture and wo:

For, faithful in death, his mute favourite attended, 0! Done but some lover, whose heart-strings are The much-loved remains of her master defended,

And chased the hill fox and the raven away. breaking, The pang that I feel at our parting can know.

How long didst thou think that his silence was Each joy thou couldst double, and when there camo slumber? sorrow,

When the wind waved his garment, how ost Or fale disappointment, to darken my way,

didst thou start? What voice was like thine, that could sing of to- How many long days and long weeks didst thou morrow,

number, Till forgot in the strain was the grief of to-day! Ere he faded before thee, the friend of thy heart? But when friends drop around us in life's weary And, 0! was it meet that, no requiem read o'er waning,

him, The grief, queen of numbers, thou canst not as- No mother to weep, and no friend to deplore bim, suage ;

And thou, little guardian, alone stretch'd before Nor the gradual estrangement of those yet remain him, ing,

Unhonour'd the pilgrim from life should depart? The languor of pain, and the chillness of age.

When a prince to the fate of the peasant has
'Twas thou that once taught me, in accents bewail yielded,
ing,

The tapestry waves dark round the dim-lighted
To sing how a warrior lay stretch'd on the plain, hali;
And a maiden hung o'er him with aid unavailing, With 'scutcheons of silver the coffin is shielded,

And held to his lips the cold goblet in vain ; And pages stand mute by the canopied pall:
As vain those enchantments, o queen of wild Through the courts, at deep midnight, the torches
numbers,

are gleaming;
To a bard when the reign of his fancy is o'er, In the proudly-arch'd chapel the banners are beam-
And the quick pulse of feeling in apathy slumbers. ing;
Farewell then! Enchantress! I meet thee no Far adown the lone aisle sacred music is streaming,

Lamenting a chief of the people should fall.

more.

But meeter for thee, gentle lover of nature, Welcome, from sweeping o'er sea and through To lay down thy head like the meek mountain channel, lamb:

Hardships and danger despising for fame, When, wilder'd, he drops from some cliff huge in Furnishing story for glory's bright annal, stature,

Welcome, my wanderer, to Jeanie and hame! And draws his last sob by the side of his dam. And more stately thy couch by this desert lake Enough, now thy story in annals of glory, lying,

Has humbled the pride of France, Holland, and Thy obsequies sung by the gray plover flying,

Spain ;
With one faithful friend but to witness thy dying, No more sha thou grieve me, no more shalt thoa
In the arms of Hellvellyn and Catchedicam.

leave me,
I never will part with my Willie again.

Now that thy gallant ship rides at her mooring,

Now that my wanderer's in safety at hame,
Music to me were the wildest winds' roaring,
That e'er o'er Inch-Keith drove the dark ocean

faem.

When the lights they did blaze, and the guns they

did rattle, And blithe was each heart for the great victory, In secret I wept for the dangers of battle,

And thy glory itself was scarce comfort to me.

Waken, lords and ladies gay,
To the greenwood haste away
We can show you where he lies,
Fleet of foot, and tall of size ;
We can show the marks he made,
When 'gainst the oak his antlers fray'd;
You shall see him brought to bay,
“Waken, lords and ladies gay.”
Louder, louder chant the lay,
Waken, lords and ladies gay!
Tell them youth, and mirth, and glee,
Run a course as well as we:
Time, stern huntsman! who can balk,
Stanch as hound, and fleet as hawk:
Think of this, and rise with day,
Gentle lords and ladies gay.

But now shalt thou tell, while I eagerly listen,

Of each bold adventure, and every brave scar, And, trust me, I'll smile though my e'en they may

glisten ; For sweet after danger's the tale of the war.

And O! how we doubt when there's distance 'tween

lovers, When there's naething to speak to the heart thro'

the e'e; How often the kindest and warmest prove rovers,

And the love of the faithfullest ebbs like the sea.

THE BARD'S INCANTATION.

WRITTEN UNDER THE THREAT OF INVASION, IN THE

AUTUMN OF 1804.

Till, at times, could I help it? I pined and I pon

der'd, If love could change notes like the bird on the

treeNow I'll ne'er ask if thine eyes may hae wanderd,

Enough, thy leal heart has been constant to me.

The forest of Glenmore is drear,

It is all of black pine and the dark oak tree; And the midnight wind to the mountain deer

Is whistling the forest lullaby: