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[About 1307]
FOR Scotland’s and for freedom’s right | |
| The Bruce his part had played, | |
| In five successive fields of fight | |
| Been conquered and dismayed; | |
| Once more against the English host | 5 |
| His band he led, and once more lost | |
| The meed for which he fought; | |
| And now from battle, faint and worn, | |
| The homeless fugitive forlorn | |
| A hut’s lone shelter sought. | 10 |
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| And cheerless was that resting-place | |
| For him who claimed a throne: | |
| His canopy, devoid of grace, | |
| The rude, rough beams alone; | |
| The heather couch his only bed,— | 15 |
| Yet well I ween had slumber fled | |
| From couch of eider-down! | |
| Through darksome night till dawn of day, | |
| Absorbed in wakeful thoughts he lay | |
| Of Scotland and her crown. | 20 |
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| The sun rose brightly, and its gleam | |
| Fell on that hapless bed, | |
| And tinged with light each shapeless beam | |
| Which roofed the lowly shed; | |
| When, looking up with wistful eye, | 25 |
| The Bruce beheld a spider try | |
| His filmy thread to fling | |
| From beam to beam of that rude cot; | |
| And well the insect’s toilsome lot | |
| Taught Scotland’s future king. | 30 |
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| Six times his gossamery thread | |
| The wary spider threw; | |
| In vain the filmy line was sped, | |
| For powerless or untrue | |
| Each aim appeared, and back recoiled | 35 |
| The patient insect, six times foiled, | |
| And yet unconquered still; | |
| And soon the Bruce, with eager eye, | |
| Saw him prepare once more to try | |
| His courage, strength, and skill. | 40 |
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| One effort more, his seventh and last— | |
| The hero hailed the sign!— | |
| And on the wished-for beam hung fast | |
| That slender, silken line! | |
| Slight as it was, his spirit caught | 45 |
| The more than omen, for his thought | |
| The lesson well could trace, | |
| Which even “he who runs may read,” | |
| That Perseverance gains its meed, | |
| And Patience wins the race. | 50 |
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