A POEM.
69
Whence, moving graceful, all the active race 760
Rush with their sprightly chief to urge the chase;
Where slily lurking mid his caverned rocks,
By Clyde's fair banks, slow creeps the crafty fox:
Sagacious hounds his tainted track pursue,
He doubles, winds, and shuns the open view.
Their chiming sounds his frighted ears invade;
In vain his wiles he summons to his aid;
He, listening, hears in every blast of wind,
The deep-mouthed hound and thundering horse behind:
He shoots the steep, and tracks the sightless road, 770
And winding mazes to his dark abode.
With aspect mean, a formidable foe,
The terrier drives him from his haunt below.
His guilt glares hideous, when in open day,
The villain stands revealed, with dumb dismay,
When guileful rapine's hoarded spoils are viewed,
And guilty caverns stained with guiltless blood.
None grieve, when low the trembling felon lies,
Who, unlamented, unlamenting dies.
His limbs the hungry brood of ravens feed; 780
Abhorred alive, more loathsome still when dead.
Not so the stately stag, of harmless force;
In motion graceful, rapid in his course.
Rush with their sprightly chief to urge the chase;
Where slily lurking mid his caverned rocks,
By Clyde's fair banks, slow creeps the crafty fox:
Sagacious hounds his tainted track pursue,
He doubles, winds, and shuns the open view.
Their chiming sounds his frighted ears invade;
In vain his wiles he summons to his aid;
He, listening, hears in every blast of wind,
The deep-mouthed hound and thundering horse behind:
He shoots the steep, and tracks the sightless road, 770
And winding mazes to his dark abode.
With aspect mean, a formidable foe,
The terrier drives him from his haunt below.
His guilt glares hideous, when in open day,
The villain stands revealed, with dumb dismay,
When guileful rapine's hoarded spoils are viewed,
And guilty caverns stained with guiltless blood.
None grieve, when low the trembling felon lies,
Who, unlamented, unlamenting dies.
His limbs the hungry brood of ravens feed; 780
Abhorred alive, more loathsome still when dead.
Not so the stately stag, of harmless force;
In motion graceful, rapid in his course.
