Page:Scotish Descriptive Poems - Leyden (1803).djvu/82

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CLYDE;
Nature in vain his lofty head adornsWith formidable groves of pointed horns.Soon as the hound's fierce clamour strikes his ear,He throws his arms behind, and owns his fear;Sweeps o'er the unprinted grass, the wind outflies;—Hounds, horses, hunters, horns, still sound along the skies;Fierce as a storm they pour along the plain; 790Their lively chief still foremost of the train;With unremitting ardour leads the chace;—He, trembling, safety seeks in every place;Drives through the thicket, scales the lofty steep;Bounds o'er the hills, or darts through valleys deep;Plunges amid the river's cooling tides,While strong and quick he heaves his panting sides.He from afar his loved companions sees,Whom the loud hoop that hurtles on the breezeInto a crowded phalanx firm had cast; 800Their armed heads all outward round them placed:Some desperate band, surrounded, thus appears,Hedged with protended bayonets and spears:To these he flies, and begs to be allowedTo share the danger with the kindred crowd;But must, by general voice excluded, knowHow loathed the sad society of woe.
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