XIII.

No! not yet, thou high Dunedin!

Shalt thou totter to thy fall;

Though thy bravest and thy strongest

Are not there to man the wall.

No, not yet! the ancient spirit

Of our fathers hath not gone;

Take it to thee as a buckler

Better far than steel or stone.

Oh, remember those who perished

For thy birthright at the time

When to be a Scot was treason,

And to side with Wallace, crime!

Have they not a voice among us,

Whilst their hallowed dust is here?

Hear ye not a summons sounding

From each buried warrior's bier?

"Up!"--they say--"and keep the freedom

Which we won you long ago:

Up! and keep our graves unsullied

From the insults of the foe!

Up! and if ye cannot save them,

Come to us in blood and fire:

Midst the crash of falling turrets,

Let the last of Scots expire!"

Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and Other Poems · 第 27 / 143 题