Page:Irish minstrelsy, vol 2 - Hardiman.djvu/129



This poem opens in an awful manner. The ruler of a great empire appears in a state of utter destitution. Driven from his throne for proclaiming liberty of conscience throughout his dominions, he flies for shelter and succour to a part of those dominions, from which he rather deserved "curses loud and deep," than any assistance; to a land, over which his grandfather, father, and brother, ruled more like scourges of God than paternal kings. But the brave and generous, though persecuted people, "whose foible was loyalty," forgot all their wrongs in the contemplation of the sufferings of their monarch. They immediately flew to arms, rallied round his standard, fought his battles, and but for the dastard himself, would have conquered in his cause. Well would it have been for their posterity, if they had bartered him, as the Scotch did his father; but Irish honour forbade the deed. Of the national sentiments towards James and his descendants, no better proofs can be adduced, than the poems and songs in which these sentiments are so forcibly expressed. History has recorded the struggles of this devoted people, and the chivalrous loyalty and patriotism by which they were actuated, are described in these Jacobite productions, with all the characteristic warmth of national feeling.