Canto IV.

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then tells us how, on seeing the singnal, the fisherman leaves the strand,— the shepherd

his herd,— the plough is»in mid-furrow stayed,“— and the mower leaves"the scythe in the half-cut swathe.“— The long enumeration of difficulties in stanza 13. is rather fatiguing.— Four circumstances, interwoven in the action, which might have stopped the

progress of the signal, are well calculated to render prominent the great energy and fidelity with which the clansmen respected the absolute patriarchal authority of their chieftain. At Duncraggan, the first stage of the Fiery Cross, Duncan, the clansman whose duty it would have been to hurry on the signal to the next stage, has jast died. Nevertheless Angus, his youthful son, who is standing at his father's bier when the signal is brought into the house, immediately sallies forth with it, while his mother with Spartan resignation says:—

4„Alas!——— and yet begone 1 And speed thee forth, like Duncanms son!“ Angus, in his flight, meets the second of the obstacles alluded to: The waters of the Teith are swollen, there is no bridge, but the young hero»'dashes amid the torrent's roar“ and gets safe to the opposite shore. After a short run he meets a bridal-train returning from Church. The poet beautifully draws the young couple and their happiness and then produces a stricking contrast by interrupting the peaceful scene by the terrors of approaching war. Normann, the bridegroom, is the very clansman, who is to carry on the signal to the next stage. While he is walking with his heart full of happiness by the side of his bride, the cross is presented to him and he instantly darts forth.

We think it altogether unnatural that Norman rushes forth with the cross without taking leave of, nay, without kissing his bride. Moreover any man running with such tremendous speed has not breath enough to sing a song of 24 verses during his race. Nor is it natural that a bridegroom should sing at all, immediately after such a separation.

The supertition of the good old time being so frequently met with in the poem under notice, we abstain from saying anything about the first six stanzas of canto IV. In stanza 7. we learn that Roderick, informed of the stranger's visit in the island, has taken such measures as are likely to ensure the arrest of Fitz-James. Moreover, the ehieftain is decided to kill that supposed spy because the response of the"Taghairm“ ¹) runs thus:—

„Which spills the foremost foemau's life 1 That party conquers in the strife.“ Rodericks' weeping in stanza 8 is rather out of character. A man like him does not weep under such circumstances. Besides, on the same occasion his long boasting of the firmness of his heart makes him appear too foolish.

We are quite rejoiced at meeting Ellen again in stanza 9. The impression she has made on us, is so deep that we canhot help taking a greater interest in hor than in any of the other personages, not even excepting her father. She sits moaning on a stone by the cave, and from the minstrel's consoling words we may conclude, that her lips have overflowed with the fear that fills her oppresssed heart. Her father's pretext and Allan- bane’s confirmation that he is gone to find out a safer retreat, cannot deceive her. Her piercing intellect penetrates into her father's real situation and generous resolution. She knows the approaching forces of the king to have no other object than that of seizing Douglas, the outlaw; she knows also that Roderick most generously has mustered his clansmen in his friend's defence, but she is not less aware of his planning a hopeless attempt, which, if made, must unavoidably ruin the chieftain. Her unselfish heart well feels what a man like her father will do under such circumstances. Thence the conviction that he is gone to deliver himself up into the king's hands, in order to prevent Roderick from ruining himself.

to the place of rendezvous. He who failed to appear suffered the extremity of fire and sword, which were emblematically denounced to the disobedient by the bloody and burnt marks of this warlike signal.

¹) The highlanders, like all rude people have various superstitious modes of inquiring into futurity. One of the most noted was the Taghairm. A person was wrapped up in the skin of a new-slain bullock, and deposited beside a waterfall or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some other strange, wild and unusual situation, where the scenery around him suggested nothing but subjects of horror. In this situation he resolved in his mind the question proposed, and whatever was impressed upon him by his exalted imagination passed for the inspiration of the disembodied spirits, who haunt these desolate recesses.—(Notes taken from Scott's Works.)

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