Page:Ballads, Stevenson, 1890.djvu/75

 "I'm wae for your death, my brother,

But if all of my house were dead,

I couldnae withdraw the plighted hand,

Nor break the word once said."

"O, what shall I say to our father,

In the place to which I fare?

O, what shall I say to our mother,

Who greets to see me there?

And to all the kindly Camerons

That have lived and died long-syne—

Is this the word you send them,

Fause-hearted brother mine?"

"It's neither fear nor duty,

It's neither quick nor dead

Shall gar me withdraw the plighted hand,

Or break the word once said."

Thrice 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,

Thrice as the living Cameron

Lay sleepless on his bed,

Out of the night and the other world

Came in to him the dead, 63