Till through his enemy’s heart the steel.
Had forced a mortal wound,
Graeme, like a tree by wind o’erthrown,
Fell breathless on the clay!
And down beside him sank the Rose,
And faint and dying lay.
Matilda saw, and fast she ran,
O spare his life she cried:
Lord Buchan’s daughter begs his life,
Let her not be denied.
Her well known voice the hero heard
He raised his death clos’d eyes:
He fixed them on the weeping maid,
and weakly thus replies;
In vain Matilda begs a life.
By death’s arrest denied:
My race is run—adieu my love.
Then clos’d his eyes and died.
The sword yet warm from his left side,
With frantic hand she drew,
I come, Sir James the Rose, she cried,
I come to follow you.
The hilt she lean‘d upon the ground.
And bar’d her snowy beast,
Then fell upon her lover’s face,
And sunk to endless rest.
finis
