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HARK! DO YOU HEAR THE PIPE1

AND THE DRUM?

"Now's the day and now's the hour;
See the front o' battle lour,

See! approach proud Edward's power-
Chains and slavery !"-Burns.

"Shall I leave Scotland now in such a plight?

No, faith! not I, till I redress its right.”—Blind Harry.

HUSH! hark! do you hear the bagpipe and drum?
'Tis Scotland's and England's chivalry come,
To prove which are best on the red battlefield,
For a nation's at bay which never shall yield;
No! never shall yield while the mountain and glen
Shall ring with the tread of her freeborn men.

See! see how they stream o'er the Campsie Fells,
Their bonnets in bloom with wild heather-bells;
How grandly they march in their tartan array,
With fire-flashing eyes, like lions at bay;
Then hurrah for the land of the mountain and flood,-
The land which our fathers redeemed with their blood!

For Freedom they fought, for Liberty bled,
Determined to win, or lie with the dead;

And England defied, with her mean borrowed 2 hounds,
To drive them away from their native grounds;
Like bloodhounds they came, but like lurches they fell,
Struck down by the fire 'neath yon wild heather-bell.

Proud Edward, who led them, swore while he reigned
The Lion of Scotland fast would be chained;

1 The Highland bagpipe and the English drum were the martial characteristics of both nations.

2 At Bannockburn, besides the entire strength of the English army, Edward engaged an auxiliary force of foreign mercenaries to make the defeat of Bruce and subjugation of Scotland at this pitched and preparatory battle the more certain, as he thought.

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But bloody and long was the Patriot strife,1 For the Lion fought hard for freedom and life; While the Border's wild cheer, and the bagpipe's loud hum, Soon silenced the roll of his proud English drum.

Poor Tyranny's hounds fell fast 'neath his paws,
Till reeking and red were his conquering jaws;
Then fast Edward fled with his half-torn pack-
They got such a hunt they never came back;
Then hurrah for the heather, the mountain, and moor,-
The land which our fathers kept sicker and sure!

The chains forged for Scotland lay where they fell,
The rust dying deeper our wild heather-bell;

The blood that poured there served Freedom her turn,
By painting for ever old Bannockburn!

Then hurrah for the home of the brave and the free,--
The land of the mountain, the rock, and the sea!

The blood of that struggle cemented our isle,
And Scotland to England glued closer the while;
Till now, should invasion to Britain return,
Our foemen shall find a deep Bannockburn.
Then hurrah for the isle that keeps itself free,-
The shrine held now sacred by proud Liberty!

But little he recked that the patriot's knife,
Like Leo's strong fang, shuts only with life.-MS.

It is recorded in natural history that, when a lion and tiger meet in deadly strife, the encounter only ends in the death of one or both of the combatants. So characteristic of the deadly struggle so long carried on betwixt England and Scotland, and which only ended in the fraternal and eternal amity and union of both.

2 After wresting nearly the whole of Scotland from the English, Bruce was employed in reducing the Isle of Man also. On his return to Scotland in the autumn of 1314, he found his brother Edward besieging Stirling Castle, held by Sir Philip Mowbray. A treaty having been entered into by which Mowbray bound himself to surrender the castle if not relieved before the 24th June following, this stipulation, as is well known, produced the world-wide, famous battle of Independence and Freedom, known as the battle of Bannockburn, a battle of preparation on both sides, fought 24th June 1514, at which both kings were present-Bruce commanding the Scots in person. Edward was so confident of success that, as history states, he brought chains for his expected prisoners. But the English army of upwards of 100,000 was totally routed, leaving 30,000 dead on the field. The Scottish army did not number much more than the number slain of their enemies; their own loss was only about 5000-the complete triumph of Liberty over Invasion. And I have no doubt but that now every true-born Englishman is as proud of that noble stand against Invasion as the natives of the northern portion of the British Island.

UP WITH SCOTLAND'S BANNER HIGH!

"For under it most faithfully we'll fight,

In the defence of brave old Scotland's right."-Blind Harry.

"There warlike Bruce exerts his lawful might,
Here Wallace thunders through the bloody fight."-
Barbour's Life of Bruce.

UP

P high! let Scotland's banner fly!
For prouder never swept the sky,
To fan the flame in Freedom's eye,
Until it burned-to do, or die.

Then let it fly, for it shall be

The standard of the brave and free!

Her rugged rocks and foaming rills,
Her shaggy heath and snow-clad hills,
Her very mountain dew instils
The fire with which her offspring thrills,
And fans the hope that aye she'll be,
Like Highland air, for ever free.

Can Truth deny her Wallace fame?
Or hide her page from Bruce's name
Shall sacred Freedom blush with shame
To find her ancient spirit tame?

No, never while her hills shall be
The home of Truth and Liberty.

For wild and shrill the curlew screams,
And breaks the spell Invasion dreams-
The trout darts down his native streams,
When Danger's distant shadow gleams;

Then high let Scotland's banner fly,
For 'neath it we shall do! or die!

Defiant, too, her moorcock crows,
With ominous hue her heather grows;
Sharp is the thorn of her mountain rose,
To pierce the hand of invading foes;

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