Page:The Lay of the Last Minstrel - Scott (1805).djvu/148

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139

But earthly spirit could not tell
The heart of them that loved so well;
True love's the gift which God has given
To man alone beneath the heaven.
It is not Fantasy's hot fire,
  Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly;
It liveth not in fierce desire,
  With dead desire it doth not die;
It is the secret sympathy,
The silver cord, the silken tie,
Which heart to heart, and mind to mind
In body and in soul can bind.
Now leave we Margaret and her Knight,
To tell you of the approaching fight.

XIV.
Their warning blasts the bugles blew,
The pipe's shrill port[1] aroused each clan;
In haste, the deadly strife to view,
The trooping warriors eager ran.

  1. A martial piece of music, adapted to the bagpipes.