Page:Poems Jones.djvu/170

Through my heart, through my heart creeps the chill!
    But I will not return!
Not for me on their hearth shall the scarlet flowers blossom and burn!"

III.
"Now, why have they thrust thee away,
 This death of the outcast to dree?"
 "For the troth thou hast plighted to me,
Thy mother did spurn me to-day.
 'He shall wed not the servant,' said she:
 'Shall not stoop from his noble degree!'
Ride thou on to thy castle, and say
    That I scorn to return
To the hearth of the proud, though the scarlet flowers blossom and burn!"

IV.
Oh wroth was Laird William that hour!
 And he sware, "Ere the daylight hath fled,
 The son of her house thou shalt wed!
The bells shall peal out in yon tower;
 The glad feast of our bridal be spread;
 And thy truth and thy beauty," he said,
"Shall be counted rich treasure and dower!
    And none shall dare spurn
My bride from the hearth where the scarlet flowers blossom and burn."