History of the Clan MacLean from its first settlement at Duard Castle, in the Isle of Mull, to the present period

Poetry on or About the MacLeans.
449
He struck her off, the caitiff MacLean —
Tiio very breakers had fled
To let her kneel — but there be lost men
And damned or ere they be dead.
" Kneel, woman, kneel," said the red MacLean,
" And kneel as once I knelt — in vain !"
The sea in its sovereign strength returned
And took the maid to its breast.
Then arched itself — a triumphant wave —
And bore her high on its crest.
To lay the face so ghostly fair
Unharmed again on the brown sea-ware.
My lady rose in the strength of her pride.
She saw herself there alone —
She rose and blest the sundering sea,
The islet was all her own ;
She rose and rose to its topmost ledge —
She made thereof a throne; —
She cried; "MacLean of Duard, farewell!
"We're parted now as heaven and hell 1"
Xo blot on the shrouding mist, MacLean
With his whole dark world seemed dead.
All, even to the very hate of him,
Gone like a knotless thread.
So that behind, as about, above.
Was nothing left her but Death and Love.
Then she wept for ruth of her maiden truth ;
" Love, have I waked for thee
By day and night, but to face thee now
With this loathed stain on me?
Come, ocean, and with your bitter brine
Sweeten these ravished lips of mine I"
The hydra heads of the western waves
Broke, parted to north and south,
The}' lipped the shore, commixed, and closed
As one vast, foaming mouth
That hungered for her evermore,
That all but slew her with its roar.
And still she called upon Love: " False Love,
To think thy summery breath
Should drive a soul that trusted thee
On this wild way of death ! "
The foam-fringed rock was wearing small.
Scarce bigger now than a maiden's pall.
The clamoring surges formed and fell,
Pressed nearer and yet more near,
Then plunged and quivered in pale recoil
Of pity, or eke of fear.
They broke, they wandered round her seat —
They went, they came, they licked her feet.
And still she cried and still she clung:
"0 treacherous sea, and slow,
Come take my life and make an end.
Since death will have it so! "
The mad sea melted at her commands,
Came back and kissed her clinging hands.
The charging waves come on, fall off,
Rise, sheer as a wall, and steep —
Christ, must the whole dead world go down.
Entombed in the charnel deep?
The strong tide lays her bosom bare.
She feels it dragging her tangled hair.
Her hands have ceased to clasp and cling.
She has shaken her spirit free.
She will strive no more, she will make no
moan.
She will go with the clamoring sea.
The waves ring only against the rock.
But it feels as yielding beneath the shock.
And still the breakers lift their crests,
"O maiden Mary,"*tehe cries,
" Who will tell my lover my heart was true,
Who will right me in love's eyes? "
But the hydra heads have come and gone,
And in face of death she still lives on.
But they come no more, dear God, so nigh
They come not again, they fall
And trample the rock beside her feet,
Fierce monsters, but held in thrall,
Tamed in their very pride's excess
To this turbulent show of humbleness.
The battle-front of the daunted sea,
Though the waves still chop and churn.
Is in forced retreat, the wavering tide
Has trembled long on the turn;
Then one white wave came back and surged
About her — and her lips were purged.
And she lay there washed as for the grave.
And purer than virgin snow.
Her beauty seemed as a conquering power
In this its overthrow;
Her eyes were blinded, choked her breath.
Her ears were open gates of death.
A panic seized on the routed waves :
They fled to the sandy shelves.
They writhed, they foamed, they broke, they
turned.
And foundered upon themselves ;
But in that maiden was no stir;
Great Love had had his will of her.