Page:Harold the Dauntless - Scott (1817).djvu/31

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Canto I.
HAROLD THE DAUNTLESS.
21
"Hear me, Harold of harden'd heart!Stubborn and wilful ever thou wert.Thine outrage insane I command thee to cease,Fear my wrath and remain at peace:—Just is the debt of repentance I've paid,Richly the church has a recompence made,And the truth of her doctrines I prove with my blade.But reckoning to none of my actions I owe,And least to my son such accounting will show.Why speak I to thee of repentance or truth,Who ne'er from thy childhood knew reason or ruth?Hence! to the wolf and the bear in her den;These are thy mates, and not rational men."
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