And blest, tho' fatal, be the star That led me to its wilds afar : For here these pathless mountains free 'Gave shelter to my love and me; ' And every rock and every stone VI. O'Connor's child, I was the bud Of Erin's royal tree of glory; But woe to them that wrapt in blood The tissue of my story! Still as I clasp my burning brain, A death-scene rushes on my sight; It rises o'er and o'er again, The bloody feud, -the fatal night, When chafing Connocht Moran's scorn, And bade him choose a meaner bride Than from O'Connor's house of pride. But he, my lov'd one, bore in field A meaner crest upon his shield. • The psalter of Tara was the great national register of the ancient Irish. Vide the note upon the victories of the house of O'Connor. VII. Ah, brothers! what did it avail, That fiercely and triumphantly And what was it to love and me, No:-let the eagle change his plume, The leaf its hue, the flow'r its bloom; Fires lighted on May-day on the hill tops by the Irish. Vide the note on stanza VII. But ties around this heart were spun, VIII. At bleating of the wild watch-fold Thus sang my love-" Oh come with me: "Our bark is on the lake behold: "Our steeds are fasten'd to the tree. "Come far from Castle-Connor's clans "Come with thy belted forestere, "And I, beside the lake of swans, " Shall hunt for thee the fallow deer; " And build thy hut and bring thee home "The wild fowl, and the honey-comb; " And berries from the wood provide, " And play my clarshech 12 by thy side. 12 The harp. " Then come, my love!"-How could I stay? Our nimble stag-hounds track'd the way, And I pursued by moonless skies, The light of Connocht Moran's eyes. IX. And fast and far, before the star Of day-spring rush'd we thro' the glade, And saw at dawn the lofty bawn 13 Of Castle-Connor fade. Sweet was to us the hermitage Of this unplough'd, untrodden shore: 13 Ancient fortification. |