"God bless thae bonny Highlanders!
We're saved! we're saved!" she cried:
And fell on her knees, and thanks to God
Pour'd forth, like a full flood-tide.
Along the battery-line her cry
Had fallen among the men:
And they started, for they were there to die:
Was life so near them then?
They listen'd, for life: and the rattling fire
Far off, and the far-off roar
Were all:--and the colonel shook his head,
And they turn'd to their guns once more.
Then Jessie said--"That slogan's dune;
But can ye no hear them, noo,--
_The Campbells are comin'?_ It's no a dream;
Our succours hae broken through!"
We heard the roar and the rattle afar
But the pipes we could not hear;
So the men plied their work of hopeless war,
And knew that the end was near.
It was not long ere it must be heard,--
A shrilling, ceaseless sound:
It was no noise of the strife afar,
Or the sappers underground.
It _was_ the pipes of the Highlanders,
And now they play'd "_Auld Lang Syne_:"
It came to our men like the voice of God,
And they shouted along the line.
And they wept and shook one another's hands,
And the women sobb'd in a crowd:
And every one knelt down where we stood,
And we all thank'd God aloud.
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