The Poetical Works of David Macbeth Moir :: :: University of Virginia Library

Mountains that face bald Arran! though the sun
Now, with the ruddy lights of eventide,
Gilds every pastoral summit on which Peace,
Like a descended angel, sits enthroned,
Forth gazing on a scene as beautiful
As Nature e'er outspread for mortal eye;
And but the voice of distant waterfall
Sings lullaby to bird and beast, and wings
Of insects murmurous, multitudinous,

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That in the low, red, level beams commix,
And weave their elfin dance,—another time
And other tones were yours, when on each peak
At hand, and through Argyle and Lanark shires,
Startling black midnight, flared the beacon lights,
And when from out the west the castled steep
Of Broadwick reddened with responsive blaze.

An allusion is here made to the signal-light in the vicinity of Turnberry Castle, the ancient seat of the Earls of Carrick, the maternal ancestors of Bruce, by which the hero of Bannockburn was induced to enter Scotland; and which, though at first a source of disappointment, was the precursor of a series of successes, which terminated in the independence of his native country.

The whole circumstances are minutely described by Barbour, (Bruce, book iv. canto 1,) and with more than his wonted spirit and vivacity. So fine are his introductory lines, that Sir Walter Scott seems to think that they served as a model for the style of Gawain Douglas.

More beautiful, however, by far is the description in the fifth canto of the Lord of the Isles, stanza xiii.

“South and by west the armada bore,
And near at length the Carrick shore;
As less and less the distance grows,
High and more high the beacon rose;
The light, that seemed a twinkling star.
Now blazed portentous, fierce, and far.
Dark-red the heaven above it glowed,
Dark-red the sea beneath it flowed,
Red rose the rocks on ocean's brim,
In blood-red light her islets swim;
Wild scream the dazzled sea-fowl gave,” &c.

A night was that of doubt and of suspense,
Of danger and of daring, in the which
The fate of Scotland in the balance hung
Trembling, and up and down wavered the scales;
But Hope grew brighter with the rising sun,
And Dawn looked out, to see upon the shore
The Bruce's standard floating on the gale,
A call to freedom!—barks from every isle
Pouring with clumps of spears!—from every dell
The throng of mail-clad men!—vassal and lord,
With ponderous curtal-axe, and broadsword keen,
Banner and bow; while, overhead, afar
And near, the bugles rang amid the rocks,
Echoing in wild reverberation shrill,
And scaring from his heathery lair the deer,
The osprey from his island cliff of rest.