Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE DANCE OF BALLOCHROY. " If e'er you woo'd a loving maid, And having won her, you betray'd, Beware, Lord Edward, thoughtless boy, Nor pass the hills of Ballochroy. " For there, 'tis said, the livelong nights The sward is trod by elves and sprites, And shadowy forms of maids departed, And ghosts of women broken-hearted. " And aye they dance a mystic round Upon these knolls of haunted ground, And sing sweet airs till break of day, To lure the traveller from his way. " Though if your soul from guilt be clear, Ride boldly on;—you need not fear ; For pleasant sounds, and sights of joy, Shall hem you round on Ballochroy. " But if you've brought a maid to death By guileful words and breach of faith, Shut ear and eye, nor look behind, Nor hear their voices on the wind. "They'll seek your senses to entrance— They'll woo you to their airy dance; And press, with winning smiles and quips, Their melting kisses to your lips: " And every kiss shall be a dart That through your lips shall pierce your heart; For short the life and short the joy Of those who dance on Ballochroy." VIII. Lord Edward laugh'd his words to scorn— " I must be wed to-morrow morn; Your idle tale I may not hear; I cannot linger from my dear." He gave the reins to his dapple gray, And o'er the mountain rode away; And the old man sigh'd, "I wish him joy On the haunted hills of Ballochroy!" And three miles west, and three miles north, Over the moorland went he forth, And thought of his bonny blushing May, The fairest maid of Oronsay. And he thought of a lady dead and gone— Of Ellen, under the kirk-yard stone; And then he whistled a hunting-song To drown remembrance of a wrong. But still it came. "Alas!" thought he, " I fear she died for love of me : Soft be her sleep in ...