Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/183

Rh Strong hearts they bear and arms as good,

To conquer or to fall;

They dash into the boiling flood,

They gain the rock's steep wall.

'Now, my brave men, this one pass more,

This narrow chasm of stone,

And Douglas for our sovereign's gore

Shall yield us back his own.'

I hear their ever-rising tread

Sound through the granite glen;

There is a tall pine overhead

Held by the mountain men.

That dizzy bridge which no horse could track

Has checked the outlaw's way;

There like a wild beast turns he back,

And grimly stands at bay.

Why smiles he so, when far below

He spies the toiling chase?

The pond'rous tree sways heavily,

And totters from its place.

They raise their eyes, for the sunny skies

Are lost in sudden shade;

But Douglas neither shrinks nor flies,

He need not fear the dead.