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小说: the lady of the lake 字数: 每页4000字

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tely form was hid;  The guardian in her bosom chid;  'Thy Malcolm! vain and selfish maid!' 'T was thus upbraiding conscience said;  'Not so had Malcolm idly hung  On the smooth phrase of Southern tongue; Not so had Malcolm strained his eye  Another step than shine to spy。'  'Wake; Allan…bane;' aloud she cried  To the old minstrel by her side;  'Arouse thee from thy moody dream!  I 'll give thy harp heroic theme;  And warm thee with a noble name;  Pour forth the glory of the Graeme! ' Scarce from her lip the word had rushed;  When deep the conscious maiden blushed;  For of his clan; in hall and bower;  Young Malcolm Graeme was held the flower。


VII。

The minstrel waked his harp;three times  Arose the well…known martial chimes;  And thrice their high heroic pride  In melancholy murmurs died。  'Vainly thou bidet; O noble maid;'  Clasping his withered hands; he said;  'Vainly thou bidst me wake the strain;  Though all unwont to bid in vain。  Alas! than mine a mightier hand  Has tuned my harp; my strings has spanned! I touch the chords of joy; but low  And mournful answer notes of woe;  And the proud march which victors tread  Sinks in the wailing for the dead。  O; well for me; if mine alone  That dirge's deep prophetic tone!  If; as my tuneful fathers said;  This harp; which erst Saint Modan swayed;  Can thus its master's fate foretell;  Then welcome be the minstrel's knell '


VIII。

'But ah! dear lady; thus it sighed;  The eve thy sainted mother died;  And such the sounds which; while I strove  To wake a lay of war or love;  Came marring all the festal mirth;  Appalling me who gave them birth;  And; disobedient to my call;  Wailed loud through Bothwell's bannered hall。  Ere Douglases; to ruin driven;  Were exiled from their native heaven。  O! if yet worse mishap and woe  My master's house must undergo;  Or aught but weal to Ellen fair  Brood in these accents of despair;  No future bard; sad Harp! shall fling  Triumph or rapture from thy string;  One short; one final strain shall flow;  Fraught with unutterable woe;  Then shivered shall thy fragments lie;  Thy master cast him down and die! '


IX。

Soothing she answered him: 'Assuage;  Mine honored friend; the fears of age;  All melodies to thee are known  That harp has rung or pipe has blown;  In Lowland vale or Highland glen;  From Tweed to Speywhat marvel; then;  At times unbidden notes should rise;  Confusedly bound in memory's ties;  Entangling; as they rush along;  The war…march with the funeral song? Small ground is now for boding fear;  Obscure; but safe; we rest us here。 My sire; in native virtue great;  Resigning lordship; lands; and state;  Not then to fortune more resigned  Than yonder oak might give the wind;  The graceful foliage storms may reeve; 'Fine noble stem they cannot grieve。  For me'she stooped; and; looking round;  Plucked a blue harebell from the ground;  'For me; whose memory scarce conveys  An image of more splendid days;  This little flower that loves the lea  May well my simple emblem be;  It drinks heaven's dew as blithe as rose  That in the King's own garden grows;  And when I place it in my hair;  Allan; a bard is bound to swear  He ne'er saw coronet so fair。'  Then playfully the chaplet wild  She wreathed in her dark locks。 and smiled。


X。

Her smile; her speech; with winning sway  Wiled the old Harper's mood away。  With such a look as hermits throw;  When angels stoop to soothe their woe  He gazed; till fond regret and pride  Thrilled to a tear; then thus replied:  'Loveliest and best! thou little know'st  The rank; the honors; thou hast lost!  O。 might I live to see thee grace;  In Scotland's court; thy birthright place;  To see my favorite's step advance  The lightest in the courtly dance; The cause of every gallant's sigh;  And leading star of every eye;  And theme of every minstrel's art;  The Lady of the Bleeding Heart!'


XI。

'Fair dreams are these;' the maiden cried;  Light was her accent; yet she sighed;  'Yet is this mossy rock to me  Worth splendid chair and canopy;  Nor would my footstep spring more gay  In courtly dance than blithe strathspey;  Nor half so pleased mine ear incline  To royal minstrel's lay as shine。  And then for suitors proud and high;  To bend before my conquering eye;  Thou; flattering bard! thyself wilt say;  That grim Sir Roderick owns its sway。  The Saxon scourge; Clan… Alpine's pride;  The terror of Loch Lomond's side;  Would; at my suit; thou know'st; delay  A Lennox forayfor a day。'


XII。。

The ancient bard her glee repressed:  'Ill hast thou chosen theme for jest!  For who; through all this western wild;  Named Black Sir Roderick e'er; and smiled?  In Holy…Rood a knight he slew;  I saw; when back the dirk he drew;  Courtiers give place before the stride  Of the undaunted homicide;  And since; though outlawed; hath his hand  Full sternly kept his mountain land。

Who else dared giveah! woe the day;  That I such hated truth should say!  The Douglas; like a stricken deer;  Disowned by every noble peer;  Even the rude refuge we have here?  Alas; this wild marauding  Chief Alone might hazard our relief;  And now thy maiden charms expand;  Looks for his guerdon in thy hand;  Full soon may dispensation sought;  To back his suit; from Rome be brought。  Then; though an exile on the hill;  Thy father; as the Douglas; still  Be held in reverence and fear;  And though to Roderick thou'rt so dear  That thou mightst guide with silken thread。  Slave of thy will; this chieftain dread;  Yet; O loved maid; thy mirth refrain!  Thy hand is on a lion's mane。'


XIII。

Minstrel;' the maid replied; and high  Her father's soul glanced from her eye;  'My debts to Roderick's house I know:  All that a mother could bestow  To Lady Margaret's care I owe;  Since first an orphan in the wild  She sorrowed o'er her sister's child;  To her brave chieftain son; from ire  Of Scotland's king who shrouds my sire;  A deeper; holier debt is owed;  And; could I pay it with my blood; Allan!  Sir Roderick should command  My blood; my life;but not my hand。 Rather will Ellen Douglas dwell  A votaress in Maronnan's cell;  Rather through realms beyond the sea;  Seeking the world's cold charity  Where ne'er was spoke a Scottish word;  And ne'er the name of Douglas heard  An outcast pilgrim will she rove;  Than wed the man she cannot love。


XIV。

'Thou shak'st; good friend; thy tresses gray;  That pleading look; what can it say  But what I own?I grant him brave;  But wild as Bracklinn's thundering wave;  And generous; …save vindictive mood  Or jealous transport chafe his blood:  I grant him true to friendly band;  As his claymore is to his hand;  But O! that very blade of steel  More mercy for a foe would feel:  I grant him liberal; to fling  Among his clan the wealth they bring;  When back by lake and glen they wind;  And in the Lowland leave behind;  Where once some pleasant hamlet stood;  A mass of ashes slaked with blood。  The hand that for my father fought  I honor; as his daughter ought;  But can I clasp it reeking red  From peasants slaughtered in their shed?  No! wildly while his virtues gleam;  They make his passions darker seem;  And flash along his spirit high;  Like lightning o'er the midnight sky。 While yet a child;and children know;  Instinctive taught; the friend and foe;  I shuddered at his brow of gloom;  His shadowy plaid and sable plume;  A maiden grown; I ill could bear  His haughty mien and lordly air:  But; if thou join'st a suitor's claim;  In serious mood; to Roderick's name。 I thrill with anguish! or; if e'er A Douglas knew the word; with fear。 To change such odious theme were best; What think'st thou of our stranger guest? '


XV。

'What think I of him?woe the while  That brought such wanderer to our isle!  Thy father's battle…brand; of yore  For Tine…man forged by fairy lore;  What time he leagued; no longer foes  His Border spears with Hotspur's bows;  Did; self… unscabbarded; foreshow  The footstep of a secret foe。  If courtly spy hath harbored here;  What may we for the Douglas fear?  What for this island; deemed of old  Clan…Alpine's last and surest hold?  If neither spy nor foe; I pray  What yet may jealous Roderick say?  Nay; wave not thy disdainful head!  Bethink thee of the discord dread  That kindled when at Beltane game  Thou least the dance with Malcolm Graeme;  Still; though thy sire the peace renewed  Smoulders in Roderick's breast the feud:  Beware!But hark! what sounds are these?  My dull ears catch MO faltering breeze  No weeping birch nor aspens wake;  Nor breath is dimpling in the lake;  Still is the canna's hoary beard;  Yet; by my minstrel faith; I heard  And hark again! some pipe of war  Sends the hold pibroch from afar。'


XVI。

Far up the lengthened lake were spied  Four darkening specks upon the tide;  That; slow enlarging on the view;  Four manned and massed barges grew;  And; bearing downwards from Glengyle;  Steered full upon the lonely isle;  The point of Brianchoil they passed;  And; to the windward as they cast;  Against the sun they gave to shine  The bold Sir Roderick's bannered Pine。  Nearer and nearer as they bear;  Spears; pikes; and axes flash in air。  Now might you see the tartars brave;  And plaids and plumage dance and wave:  Now see the bonnets sin

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