Fate deadened thine ear and imprisoned thy tongue,
For brighter o'er all her obstructions arose
The glow of thy genius they could not oppose;
And who, in the land of the Saxon or Gael
Could match with Mackenzie, High Chief of Kintail?
Thy sons rose around thee in light and in love,
All a father could hope, all a friend cou'd approve;
What `vails it the tale of thy sorrows to tell?
In the spring time of youth and of promise they fell!
Of the line of MacKenneth remains not a male,
To bear the proud name of the Chief of Kintail.
This sketch of the great chief cannot better be closed than in the
words of one already repeatedly quoted: "It was said of him by an
acute observer and a leading wit of the age, the late Honourable
Henry Erskine, the Scotch Dean of Faculty, that 'Lord Seaforth's
deafness was a merciful interposition to lower him to the ordinary
rate of capacity in society,' insinuating that otherwise his
perception and intelligence would have been oppressive. And the
aptness of the remark was duly appreciated by all those who had
the good fortune to be able to form an estimate from personal
observation, while, as a man of the world, none was more capable of
generalizing.
Pages:
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553