Page:Massacre of Glencoe (4).pdf/3

3 His blithest notes the piper plied. Her gayest snood the maiden tied, The dame her distaff flung aside, To send her kind’y housewifery.

“The hand that mingled in the meal, At midnight drew the felon steel And gave the host’s kind breast to feel Meed for his hospitality The friendly hearth which warm’d that-hand; At midnig’t arm d it with the brand, That bade destruction’s flames expand, Their red and fearful blazonry.

Then woman’s shriek was head in vain. Nor infancy’s unpitied plain, More than the warriors groan could gain, Respite from ruthless butchery! The winter wind that whistled shril, The snows that night that cloaked the hills Though wild and pitiless, had still Far more than south'ron clemency.

“Long has my ha p's best notes been gone. Few are its strings, and faint their tone. They can but sound in desert lone, Their grey-hair'd master’s misery.