Our isle-men arose from slumbers.

And buckled on their arms;
But few, alas! were their numbers
In Lochlin's mailed swarms.
And the blade of the bloody Norse
Has filled the shores of the Gaël
With many a floating corse,

And with many a woman's wail.

They have lighted the islands with ruin's torch,
And the holy men of Iona's church

In the temple of God lay slain;
All but Aodh, the last Culdee,
But bound with many an iron chain,
Bound in that church was he.

And where is Aodh's bride?

Rocks of the ocean flood!

Plunged she not from your heights in pride,
And mocked the men of blood?

Then Ulvfagre and his bands

In the temple lighted their banquet up, And the print of their blood-red hands

Was left on the altar cup.

'Twas then that the Norseman to Aodh said, "Tell where thy church's treasure's laid,

Or I'll hew thee limb from limb."

As he spoke the bell struck three,

And every torch grew dim

That lighted their revelry.

But the torches again burnt bright,

And brighter than before,

When an aged man of majestic height

Entered the temple door.

Hushed was the revellers' sound,

They were struck as mute as the dead,

And their hearts were appalled by the very sound Of his footsteps' measured tread.

Nor word was spoken by one beholder,

While he flung his white robe back o'er his shoulder,

And stretching his arms-as each

Unriveted Aodh's bands,

As if the gyves had been a wreath
Of willows in his hands.

All saw the stranger's similitude
To the ancient statue's form;
The Saint before his own image stood,
And grasped Ulvfagre's arm.

Then uprose the Danes at last to deliver

Their chief, and shouting with one accord,
They drew the shaft from its rattling quiver,
They lifted the spear and sword,
And levelled their spears in rows;
But down went axes, and spears, and bows, —
When the Saint with his crosier signed,

The archer's hand on the string was stopped, And down, like reeds laid flat by the wind, Their lifted weapons dropped.

The Saint then gave a signal mute,

And though Ulvfagre willed it not,
He came and stood at the statue's foot,
Spell-riveted to the spot,

Till hands invisible shook the wall,
And the tottering image was dashed
Down from its lofty pedestal.

On Ulvfagre's helm it crashed

Helmet, and skull, and flesh, and brain,

It crushed as millstones crush the grain.

Then spoke the Saint, whilst all and each
Of the Heathen trembled round,

And the pauses amidst his speech
Were as awful as the sound:

"Go back, ye wolves, to your dens," he cried,
"And tell the nations abroad,

How the fiercest of your herd has died
That slaughtered the flock of God.
Gather him bone by bone,

And take with you o'er the flood
The fragments of that avenging stone
That drank his heathen blood.

These are the spoils from Iona's sack,

The only spoils ye shall carry back;
For the hand that uplifteth spear or sword
Shall be withered by palsy's shock,

And I come in the name of the Lord
To deliver a remnant of his flock."

A remnant was called together,

A doleful remnant of the Gael,

And the Saint in the ship that had brought him hither Took the mourners to Innisfail.

Unscathed they left Iona's strand,

When the opal morn first flushed the sky,

For the Norse dropped spear, and bow, and brand, And looked on them silently;

Safe from their hiding-places came

Orphans and mothers, child and dame:

But, alas! when the search for Reullura spread,

No answering voice was given,

For the sea had gone o'er her lovely head,

And her spirit was in Heaven.

THE TURKISH LADY.

"Twas the hour when rites unholy Called each Paynim voice to prayer,

And the star that faded slowly

Left to dews the freshened air.

Day her sultry fires had wasted,

Calm and sweet the moonlight rose;

Ev'n a captive spirit tasted

Half oblivion of his woes.

Then 'twas from an Emir's palace
Came an Eastern lady bright;
She, in spite of tyrants jealous,

Saw and loved an English knight.

"Tell me, captive, why in anguish
Foes have dragged thee here to dwell,
Where poor Christians as they languish
Hear no sound of Sabbath bell?".

""Twas on Transylvania's Bannat,
When the Crescent shone afar,

Like a pale disastrous planet
O'er the purple tide of war

"In that day of desolation,
Lady, I was captive made;
Bleeding for my Christian nation
By the walls of high Belgrade."

66

Captive! could the brightest jewel

From my turban set thee free?"

"Say, fair princess! would it grieve thee Christian climes should we behold?". "Nay, bold knight! I would not leave thee Were thy ransom paid in gold!"

Now in Heaven's blue expansion
Rose the midnight star to view,
When to quit her father's mansion
Thrice she wept, and bade adieu!

"Fly we then, while none discover! Tyrant barks, in vain ye ride!"

Soon at Rhodes the British lover

Clasped his blooming Eastern bride.

THE BRAVE ROLAND.

THE brave Roland! - the brave Roland! -
False tidings reached the Rhenish strand,
That he had fallen in fight;
And thy faithful bosom swooned with pain,
O loveliest maiden of Allemayne!

For the loss of thine own true knight.

But why so rash has she ta'en the veil,
Jn yon Nonnenwerder's cloisters pale?

For her vow had scarce been sworn,
And the fatal mantle o'er her flung,
When the Drachenfels to a trumpet rung·

'Twas her own dear warrior's horn!