DISSENSIONS

That heresies should strike ( if truth be scanned

Presumptuously ) their roots both wide and deep,

Is natural as dreams to feverish sleep.

Lo! Discord at the altar dares to stand

Uplifting towardhigh Heaven her fiery brand,

A cherished Priestess of the new-baptized!

But chastisement shall follow peace despised.

The Pictish cloud darkens the enervate land

By Rome abandoned; vain are suppliant cries,

And prayers that would undo her forced farewell;

For she returns not.— Awed by her own knell,

She casts the Britons upon strange Allies,

Soon to become more dreaded enemies

Than heartless misery called them to repel.