Page:Ballads, Stevenson, 1890.djvu/74

 And whatever man you have slaughtered,

Of whatever name or line,

By my sword and yonder mountain,

I make your quarrel mine.1

I bid you in to my fireside,

I share with you house and hall;

It stands upon my honor

To see you safe from all."

It fell in the time of midnight,

When the fox barked in the den

And the plaids were over the faces

In all the houses of men,

That as the living Cameron

Lay sleepless on his bed,

Out of the night and the other world,

Came in to him the dead.

"My blood is on the heather,

My bones are on the hill;

There is joy in the home of ravens

That the young shall eat their fill.

My blood is poured in the dust,

My soul is spilled in the air;

And the man that has undone me

Sleeps in my brother's care."

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