Fresh and bleeding from the battle Is there any here will venture To bewail our dead Dundee ? Let the widows of the traitors Weep until their eyes are dim! Wail ye may full well for Scotland Let none dare to mourn for him! Lies the royal banner's fold With its crimson and its gold ---- See oh never more, my comrades, On the heights of Killiecrankie From their lair amidst the broom. And our bonnets down we drew, And we felt our broadswords' edges, And we proved them to be true; And we prayed the prayer of soldiers, And we cried the gathering-cry, And we clasped the hands of kinsmen, And we swore to do or die ! Then our leader rode before us On his war-horse black as night – Well the Cameronian rebels Knew that charger in the fight! And a cry of exultation From the bearded warriors rose ; For we loved the house of Claver'se, And we thought of good Montrose. But he raised his hand for silence · "Soldiers! I have sworn a vow: Ere the evening star shall glisten On Schehallion's lofty brow, Either we shall rest in triumph, Or another of the Græmes Shall have died in battle-harness For his country and King James ! Think upon the Royal Martyr Think of what his race endure; Think on him whom butchers murdered On the field of Magus Muir : By his sacred blood I charge ye, By the ruined hearth and shrine By the blighted hopes of Scotland, By your injuries and mineStrike this day as if the anvil Lay beneath your blows the while, Be they Covenanting traitors, Or the brood of false Argyle! Strike! and drive the trembling rebels Backwards o'er the stormy Forth; Let them tell their pale Convention How they fared within the North. Let them tell that Highland honor Is not to be bought nor sold, That we scorn their prince's anger As we loathe his foreign gold. Strike! and when the fight is over, If you look in vain for me, Where the dead are lying thickest Search for him that was Dundee !" Loudly then the hills re-echoed In the bosoms of us all. For the lands of wide Breadalbane, Down we crouched amid the bracken, Next we saw the squadrons come, Leslie's foot and Leven's troopers Marching to the tuck of drum ; Through the scattered wood of birches, O'er the broken ground and heath, Wound the long battalion slowly, Till they gained the plain beneath; |