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"Oh! why," she sings, "does Donald stay,From me, from love, from friends away, A truant thus from sweet repose,To roam the sea's inconstant breast,Whose angry billows never rest, The sport of every storm that blows!
When last upon the foaming tideI saw the vessel proudly ride, That bore my sinking heart away,While parting on the moonlight shore,He vow'd to love me evermore, And softly whisp'ring, thus did say:—
By the pale moon, and azure sky,By Heav'n's eternal majesty, I swear I'll never love but thee!Ye sacred guardians of the good,That watch us on the troubled flood, Forsake me if I perjur'd be?—
There in the sacred face of Heav'n,My solemn vows in turn were giv'n; And if those vows were false, I pray'dThat he who won my faithless heartShould act, like me, th' inconstant's part, And leave me wretched and betray'd."
Thus Agnes sung in artless lays,Her Donald's love, her Donald's praise, Nor dream'd a list'ning ear was nigh;
