"
An almost supernatural expression seemed to gather on the features of
the chieftain. His eye, rolling through the vista of past years, began
to pause, appalled as it approached the dark threshold of the future. He
appeared lost to the presence of surrounding objects, as he thus
exclaimed with a terrific solemnity--
"When the dark-browed Norah nursed me on her lap, and her eye, though
dark to outward sense, saw through the dim veil of destiny, it was thus
she sung as she guarded my slumbers, and the hated Sassenach was in the
hall:--
"'Rest thee, baby! light and darkness
Mingling o'er thy path shall play;
Hope shall flee when thou pursuest,
Lost amid life's trackless way.
"'Rest thee, baby! woman's breast
Thou shalt darken o'er with woe;
None thou lookest on or lovest,
Joy or hope hereafter know.
Many a maid thy glance shall rue,
Where it smites it shall subdue.'
"It was an evil hour, old man, when I looked upon thy daughter."
Holt, though of a stout and resolute temper, was yet daunted by this
bold and unlooked-for address. He trembled as he gazed on the mysterious
being before him, gifted, as it seemed, with some supernatural
endowments.
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