Poetry > Lady of the lake

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THE LADY OF THE LAKE.
Canto V.
—“ I thank thee, Roderick, for the word!
It nerves my heart, it steels my sword;
For I have sworn this braid to stain
In the best blood that warms thy vein.
Now, truce, farewell! and, ruth, begone !—
Yet think not that by thee alone,
Proud Chief! can courtesy be shown;
Though not from copse, or heath, or cairn,
Start at my whistle clansmen stem,
Of this small hom one feeble blast
Would fearful odds against thee cast.
But fear not—doubt not—which thou wilt—
We try this quarrel hilt to hilt.”
Then each at once his falchion drew,
Each on the ground his scabbard threw,
Each look’d to sun, and stream, and plain,
As what they ne’er might see again ;
Then foot, and point, and eye opposed,
In dubious strife they darkly closed.1
1 [“ The two principal figures are contrasted with uncommon
felicity. Fitz-James, who more nearly resembles the French
Henry the Fourth than the Scottish James V., is gay, amorous,
fickle, intrepid, impetuous, affectionate, courteous, graceful, and
dignified. Roderick is gloomy, vindictive, arrogant, undaunt¬
ed, but constant in his affections, and true to his engage¬
ments ; and the whole passage in which these personages are
placed in opposition, from their first meeting to their final con¬
flict, is conceived and written with a sublimity which has been
rarely equalled.”—Quartered Review, 1810.]