Page:The Family Legend.pdf/152

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
138
THE FAMILY LEGEND:

Macleans, ye are my guests; but if the feast
Delight you not, free leave ye have to quit it.
Lorne, see them all, with right due courtesy,
Safely protected to the castle gate.
(Turning to Maclean.)
Here, other name than chieftain or Maclean
He may not give thee; but, without our walls,
If he should call thee murderer, traitor, coward,
Weapon to weapon, let your fierce contention
Be fairly held, and he, who first shall yield,
The liar be.——
Campbells! I charge you there.
Free passage for the chieftain and his train.

(Maclean and Lochtarish, &c. without speaking, quit the Hall through the crowd of Attendants, who divide, and form a line to let them pass. Helen, who had sunk down almost senseless upon her seat, seeing the hall cleared of the crowd, who go out after the Macleans, now starts up, and catches hold of Argyll with an imploring look of strong distress.)


HELEN.

O father! well I know foul are his crimes,

But what—O what, am I, that for my sake
This bloody strife should be?—O think, my lord!
He gave consent and sanction to my death,
But thereon could not look: and at your gate—