Page:The Family Legend.pdf/73

Your words confuse and stun me.—Have I power
To ward this evil off?

Omnes.

Thou hast! thou hast!

MACLEAN.

Then God to me show mercy in my need,

As I will do for you and for my clan
Whate'er my slender power enables me.

Omnes.

Amen! and swear to it.

MACLEAN, (starting back.)

What words are these,

With such wild fierceness utter'd? name the thing
That ye would have me do.

BENLORA, (stepping out from the rest.)

Ay, we will name it.

Helen the Campbell, foster'd in your bosom,
A serpent is, who wears a hidden sting
For thee and all thy name; the oath-bound spy
Of dark Argyll, our foe; the baleful plague
To which ill-omen'd sounds and warnings point,
As that on which existence or extinction—
The name and being of our clan depend;—