Page:The Lay of the Last Minstrel - Scott (1805).djvu/96

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

87

And ruddy blushed the heaven:
For a sheet of flame from the turret high
Waved like a blood-flag on the sky,
All flaring and uneven;
And soon a score of fires, I ween,
From height, and hill, and cliff, were seen;
Each with warlike tidings fraught;
Each from each the signal caught;
Each after each they glanced to sight,
As stars arise upon the night.
They gleamed on many a dusky tarn[1],
Haunted by the lonely earn[2];
On many a cairn's gray pyramid,[3]
Where urns of mighty chiefs lie hid;
Till high Dunedin the blazes saw,
From Soltra and Dumpender Law;
And Lothian heard the Regent's order,
That all should bowne[4] them for the Border.

  1. Tarn, a mountain lake.
  2. Earn, a Scottish eagle.
  3. Cairn, a pile of stones.
  4. Bowne, make ready.