Marmion

INTRODUCTION TO CANTO THIRD

TO WILLIAM ERSKINE, ESQ

Ashestiel, Ettrick Forest

 
Like April morning clouds, that pass,
With varying shadow, o’er the grass,
And imitate, on field and furrow,
Life’s chequer’d scene of joy and sorrow;
Like streamlet of the mountain north,                        5
Now in a torrent racing forth,
Now winding slow its silver train,
And almost slumbering on the plain;
Like breezes of the autumn day,
Whose voice inconstant dies away,                          10
And ever swells again as fast,
When the ear deems its murmur past;
Thus various, my romantic theme
Flits, winds, or sinks, a morning dream.
Yet pleased, our eye pursues the trace                      15
Of Light and Shade’s inconstant race;
Pleased, views the rivulet afar,
Weaving its maze irregular;
And pleased, we listen as the breeze
Heaves its wild sigh through Autumn trees;                  20
Then, wild as cloud, or stream, or gale,
Flow on, flow unconfined, my Tale!
 
 
Need I to thee, dear Erskine, tell
I love the license all too well,
In sounds now lowly, and now strong,                        25
To raise the desultory song?
Oft, when ‘mid such capricious chime,
Some transient fit of lofty rhyme
To thy kind judgment seem’d excuse
For many an error of the muse,                              30
Oft hast thou said, ‘If, still misspent,
Thine hours to poetry are lent,
Go, and to tame thy wandering course,
Quaff from the fountain at the source;
Approach those masters, o’er whose tomb                    35
Immortal laurels ever bloom:
Instructive of the feebler bard,
Still from the grave their voice is heard;
From them, and from the paths they show’d,
Choose honour’d guide and practised road;                  40
Nor ramble on through brake and maze,
With harpers rude of barbarous days.
 
 
  ‘Or deem’st thou not our later time
Yields topic meet for classic rhyme?
Hast thou no elegiac verse                                  45
For Brunswick’s venerable hearse?
What! not a line, a tear, a sigh,
When valour bleeds for liberty? -
Oh, hero of that glorious time,
When, with unrivall’d light sublime, –                       50
Though martial Austria, and though all
The might of Russia, and the Gaul,
Though banded Europe stood her foes-
The star of Brandenburgh arose!
Thou couldst not live to see her beam                      55
For ever quench’d in Jena’s stream.
Lamented Chief! – it was not given
To thee to change the doom of Heaven,
And crush that dragon in its birth,
Predestined scourge of guilty earth.                        60
Lamented Chief! – not thine the power,
To save in that presumptuous hour,
When Prussia hurried to the field,
And snatch’d the spear, but left the shield!
Valour and skill ‘twas thine to try,                        65
And, tried in vain, ‘twas thine to die.
Ill had it seem’d thy silver hair
The last, the bitterest pang to share,
For princedoms reft, and scutcheons riven,
And birthrights to usurpers given;                          70
Thy land’s, thy children’s wrongs to feel,
And witness woes thou could’st not heal!
On thee relenting Heaven bestows
For honour’d life an honour’d close;
And when revolves, in time’s sure change,                  75
The hour of Germany’s revenge,
When, breathing fury for her sake,
Some new Arminius shall awake,
Her champion, ere he strike, shall come
To whet his sword on BRUNSWICK’S tomb,                      80
 
 
  ‘Or of the Red-Cross hero teach
Dauntless in dungeon as on breach:
Alike to him the sea, the shore,
The brand, the bridle, or the oar:
Alike to him the war that calls                            85
Its votaries to the shatter’d walls,
Which the grim Turk, besmear’d with blood,
Against the Invincible made good;
Or that, whose thundering voice could wake
The silence of the polar lake,                              90
When stubborn Russ, and metal’d Swede,
On the warp’d wave their death-game play’d;
Or that, where Vengeance and Affright
Howl’d round the father of the fight,
Who snatch’d, on Alexandria’s sand,                        95
The conqueror’s wreath with dying hand.
 
 
  ‘Or, if to touch such chord be thine,
Restore the ancient tragic line,
And emulate the notes that rung
From the wild harp, which silent hung                      100
By silver Avon’s holy shore,
Till twice an hundred years roll’d o’er;
When she, the bold Enchantress, came,
With fearless hand and heart on flame!
From the pale willow snatch’d the treasure,                105
And swept it with a kindred measure,
Till Avon’s swans, while rung the grove
With Montfort’s hate and Basil’s love,
Awakening at the inspired strain,
Deem’d their own Shakspeare lived again.’                  110
 
 
  Thy friendship thus thy judgment wronging,
With praises not to me belonging,
In task more meet for mightiest powers,
Wouldst thou engage my thriftless hours.
But say, my Erskine, hast thou weigh’d                    115
That secret power by all obey’d,
Which warps not less the passive mind,
Its source conceal’d or undefined;
Whether an impulse, that has birth
Soon as the infant wakes on earth,                        120
One with our feelings and our powers,
And rather part of us than ours;
Or whether fitlier term’d the sway
Of habit, form’d in early day?
Howe’er derived, its force confest                        125
Rules with despotic sway the breast,
And drags us on by viewless chain,
While taste and reason plead in vain.
Look east, and ask the Belgian why,
Beneath Batavia’s sultry sky,                              130
He seeks not eager to inhale
The freshness of the mountain gale,
Content to rear his whiten’d wall
Beside the dank and dull canal?
He’ll say, from youth he loved to see                      135
The white sail gliding by the tree.
Or see yon weatherbeaten hind,
Whose sluggish herds before him wind,
Whose tatter’d plaid and rugged cheek
His northern clime and kindred speak;                      140
Through England’s laughing meads he goes,
And England’s wealth around him flows;
Ask, if it would content him well,
At ease in those gay plains to dwell,
Where hedge-rows spread a verdant screen,                  145
And spires and forests intervene,
And the neat cottage peeps between?
No! not for these will he exchange
His dark Lochaber’s boundless range;
Not for fair Devon’s meads forsake                        150
Bennevis grey, and Carry’s lake.
 
 
  Thus while I ape the measure wild
Of tales that charm’d me yet a child,
Rude though they be, still with the chime
Return the thoughts of early time;                        155
And feelings, roused in life’s first day,
Glow in the line, and prompt the lay.
Then rise those crags, that mountain tower
Which charm’d my fancy’s wakening hour.
Though no broad river swept along,                        160
To claim, perchance, heroic song;
Though sigh’d no groves in summer gale,
To prompt of love a softer tale;
Though scarce a puny streamlet’s speed
Claim’d homage from a shepherd’s reed;                    165
Yet was poetic impulse given,
By the green hill and clear blue heaven.
It was a barren scene, and wild,
Where naked cliff’s were rudely piled;
But ever and anon between                                  170
Lay velvet tufts of loveliest green;
And well the lonely infant knew
Recesses where the wall-flower grew,
And honey-suckle loved to crawl
Up the low crag and ruin’d wall.                          175
I deem’d such nooks the sweetest shade
The sun in all its round survey’d;
And still I thought that shatter’d tower
The mightiest work of human power;
And marvell’d as the aged hind                            180
With some strange tale bewitch’d my mind,
Of forayers, who, with headlong force,
Down from that strength had spurr’d their horse,
Their southern rapine to renew,
Far in the distant Cheviots blue,                          185
And, home returning, fill’d the hall
With revel, wassel-rout, and brawl.
Methought that still with trump and clang,
The gateway’s broken arches rang;
Methought grim features, seam’d with scars,                190
Glared through the window’s rusty bars,
And ever, by the winter hearth,
Old tales I heard of woe or mirth,
Of lovers’ slights, of ladies’ charms,
Of witches’ spells, of warriors’ arms;                    195
Of patriot battles, won of old
By Wallace wight and Bruce the bold;
Of later fields of feud and fight,
When, pouring from their Highland height,
The Scottish clans, in headlong sway,                      200
Had swept the scarlet ranks away.
While stretch’d at length upon the floor,
Again I fought each combat o’er,
Pebbles and shells, in order laid,
The mimic ranks of war display’d;                          205
And onward still the Scottish Lion bore,
And still the scattered Southron fled before.
 
 
  Still, with vain fondness, could I trace,
Anew, each kind familiar face,
That brighten’d at our evening fire!                      210
From the thatch’d mansion’s grey-hair’d Sire,
Wise without learning, plain and good,
And sprung of Scotland’s gentler blood;
Whose eye, in age, quick, clear, and keen,
Show’d what in youth its glance had been;                  215
Whose doom discording neighbours sought,
Content with equity unbought;
To him the venerable Priest,
Our frequent and familiar guest,
Whose life and manners well could paint                    220
Alike the student and the saint;
Alas! whose speech too oft I broke
With gambol rude and timeless joke:
For I was wayward, bold, and wild,
A self-will’d imp, a grandame’s child;                    225
But half a plague, and half a jest,
Was still endured, beloved, caress’d.
 
 
  From me, thus nurtured, dost thou ask
The classic poet’s well-conn’d task?
Nay, Erskine, nay-On the wild hill                        230
Let the wild heath-bell flourish still;
Cherish the tulip, prune the vine,
But freely let the woodbine twine,
And leave untrimm’d the eglantine:
Nay, my friend, nay-Since oft thy praise                  235
Hath given fresh vigour to my lays;
Since oft thy judgment could refine
My flatten’d thought, or cumbrous line;
Still kind, as is thy wont, attend,
And in the minstrel spare the friend.                      240
Though wild as cloud, as stream, as gale,
Flow forth, flow unrestrain’d, my Tale!
 

CANTO THIRD.
THE HOSTEL, OR INN

I

 
The livelong day Lord Marmion rode:
The mountain path the Palmer show’d
By glen and streamlet winded still,
Where stunted birches hid the rill.
They might not choose the lowland road,                      5
For the Merse forayers were abroad,
Who, fired with hate and thirst of prey,
Had scarcely fail’d to bar their way.
Oft on the trampling band, from crown
Of some tall cliff, the deer look’d down;                  10
On wing of jet, from his repose
In the deep heath, the black-cock rose;
Sprung from the gorse the timid roe,
Nor waited for the bending bow;
And when the stony path began,                              15
By which the naked peak they wan,
Up flew the snowy ptarmigan.
The noon had long been pass’d before
They gain’d the height of Lammermoor;
Thence winding down the northern way,                      20
Before them, at the close of day,
Old Gifford’s towers and hamlet lay.
 

II

 
No summons calls them to the tower,
To spend the hospitable hour.
To Scotland’s camp the Lord was gone;                      25
His cautious dame, in bower alone,
Dreaded her castle to unclose,
So late, to unknown friends or foes.
  On through the hamlet as they paced,
  Before a porch, whose front was graced                    30
  With bush and flagon trimly placed,
    Lord Marmion drew his rein:
  The village inn seem’d large, though rude;
  Its cheerful fire and hearty food
    Might well relieve his train.                          35
Down from their seats the horsemen sprung,
With jingling spurs the court-yard rung;
They bind their horses to the stall,
For forage, food, and firing call,
And various clamour fills the hall:                        40
Weighing the labour with the cost,
Toils everywhere the bustling host.
 

III

 
Soon, by the chimney’s merry blaze,
Through the rude hostel might you gaze;
Might see, where, in dark nook aloof,                      45
The rafters of the sooty roof
  Bore wealth of winter cheer;
Of sea-fowl dried, and solands store,
And gammons of the tusky boar,
  And savoury haunch of deer.                              50
The chimney arch projected wide;
Above, around it, and beside,
  Were tools for housewives’ hand;
Nor wanted, in that martial day,
The implements of Scottish fray,                            55
  The buckler, lance, and brand.
Beneath its shade, the place of state,
On oaken settle Marmion sate,
And view’d around the blazing hearth.
His followers mix in noisy mirth;                          60
Whom with brown ale, in jolly tide,
From ancient vessels ranged aside,
Full actively their host supplied.
 

IV

 
Theirs was the glee of martial breast,
And laughter theirs at little jest;                        65
And oft Lord Marmion deign’d to aid,
And mingle in the mirth they made;
For though, with men of high degree,
The proudest of the proud was he,
Yet, train’d in camps, he knew the art                      70
To win the soldier’s hardy heart.
They love a captain to obey,
Boisterous as March, yet fresh as May;
With open hand, and brow as free,
Lover of wine and minstrelsy;                              75
Ever the first to scale a tower,
As venturous in a lady’s bower: -
Such buxom chief shall lead his host
From India’s fires to Zembla’s frost.
 

V

 
Resting upon his pilgrim staff,                            80
  Right opposite the Palmer stood;
His thin dark visage seen but half,
  Half hidden by his hood.
Still fix’d on Marmion was his look,
Which he, who ill such gaze could brook,                    85
  Strove by a frown to quell;
But not for that, though more than once
Full met their stern encountering glance,
The Palmer’s visage fell.
 

VI

 
By fits less frequent from the crowd                        90
Was heard the burst of laughter loud;
For still, as squire and archer stared
On that dark face and matted beard,
  Their glee and game declined.
All gazed at length in silence drear,                      95
Unbroke, save when in comrade’s ear
Some yeoman, wondering in his fear,
  Thus whispered forth his mind: -
‘Saint Mary! saw’st thou e’er such sight?
How pale his cheek, his eye how bright,                    100
Whene’er the firebrand’s fickle light
  Glances beneath his cowl!
Full on our Lord he sets his eye;
For his best palfrey, would not I
  Endure that sullen scowl.’                              105
 

VII

 
But Marmion, as to chase the awe
Which thus had quell’d their hearts, who saw
The ever-varying fire-light show
That figure stern and face of woe,
  Now call’d upon a squire: –                               110
‘Fitz-Eustace, know’st thou not some lay,
To speed the lingering night away?
  We slumber by the fire.’-
 

VIII

 
‘So please you,’ thus the youth rejoin’d,
‘Our choicest minstrel’s left behind.                      115
Ill may we hope to please your ear,
Accustom’d Constant’s strains to hear.
The harp full deftly can he strike,
And wake the lover’s lute alike;
To dear Saint Valentine, no thrush                        120
Sings livelier from a spring-tide bush,
No nightingale her love-lorn tune
More sweetly warbles to the moon.
Woe to the cause, whate’er it be,
Detains from us his melody,                                125
Lavish’d on rocks, and billows stern,
Or duller monks of Lindisfarne.
Now must I venture as I may,
To sing his favourite roundelay.’
 

IX

 
A mellow voice Fitz-Eustace had,                          130
The air he chose was wild and sad;
Such have I heard, in Scottish land,
Rise from the busy harvest band,
When falls before the mountaineer,
On Lowland plains, the ripen’d ear.                        135
Now one shrill voice the notes prolong,
Now a wild chorus swells the song:
Oft have I listen’d, and stood still,
As it came soften’d up the hill,
And deem’d it the lament of men                            140
Who languish’d for their native glen;
And thought how sad would be such sound,
On Susquehanna’s swampy ground,
Kentucky’s wood-encumber’d brake,
Or wild Ontario’s boundless lake,                          145
Where heart-sick exiles, in the strain,
Recall’d fair Scotland’s hills again!
 

X

 
Song
 
 
Where shall the lover rest,
  Whom the fates sever
From his true maiden’s breast,                            150
  Parted for ever?
Where, through groves deep and high,
  Sounds the far billow,
Where early violets die,
  Under the willow.                                        155
 
 
CHORUS.
Eleu loro, &c. Soft shall be his pillow.
 
 
There, through the summer day,
  Cool streams are laving;
There, while the tempests sway,
  Scarce are boughs waving;                                160
There, thy rest shalt thou take,
  Parted for ever,
Never again to wake,
  Never, O never!
 
 
CHORUS.
Eleu loro, &c. Never, O never!                            165
 

XI

 
Where shall the traitor rest,
  He, the deceiver,
Who could win maiden’s breast,
  Ruin, and leave her?
In the lost battle,                                        170
  Borne down by the flying,
Where mingles war’s rattle
  With groans of the dying.
 
 
CHORUS.
Eleu loro, &c. There shall he be lying.
 
 
Her wing shall the eagle flap                              175
  O’er the false-hearted;
His warm blood the wolf shall lap,
  Ere life be parted.
Shame and dishonour sit
  By his grave ever;                                      180
Blessing shall hallow it, -
Never, O never.
 
 
CHORUS.
Eleu loro, &c. Never, O never!
 

XII

 
It ceased, the melancholy sound;
And silence sunk on all around.                            185
The air was sad; but sadder still
  It fell on Marmion’s ear,
And plain’d as if disgrace and ill,
  And shameful death, were near.
He drew his mantle past his face,                          190
  Between it and the band,
And rested with his head a space,
Reclining on his hand.
His thoughts I scan not; but I ween,
That, could their import have been seen,                  195
The meanest groom in all the hall,
That e’er tied courser to a stall,
Would scarce have wished to be their prey,
For Lutterward and Fontenaye.
 

XIII

 
High minds, of native pride and force,                    200
Most deeply feel thy pangs, Remorse!
Fear, for their scourge, mean villains have,
Thou art the torturer of the brave!
Yet fatal strength they boast to steel
Their minds to bear the wounds they feel,                  205
Even while they writhe beneath the smart
Of civil conflict in the heart.
For soon Lord Marmion raised his head,
And, smiling, to Fitz-Eustace said,
‘Is it not strange, that, as ye sung,                      210
Seem’d in mine ear a death-peal rung,
Such as in nunneries they toll
For some departing sister’s soul?
  Say, what may this portend?’-
Then first the Palmer silence broke,                      215
(The livelong day he had not spoke)
  ‘The death of a dear friend.’
 

XIV

 
Marmion, whose steady heart and eye
Ne’er changed in worst extremity;
Marmion, whose soul could scantly brook,                  220
Even from his King, a haughty look;
Whose accents of command controll’d,
In camps, the boldest of the bold-
Thought, look, and utterance fail’d him now,
Fall’n was his glance, and flush’d his brow:              225
  For either in the tone,
Or something in the Palmer’s look,
So full upon his conscience strook,
  That answer he found none.
Thus oft it haps, that when within                        230
They shrink at sense of secret sin,
  A feather daunts the brave;
A fool’s wild speech confounds the wise,
And proudest princes vail their eyes
  Before their meanest slave.                              235
 

XV

 
Well might he falter! – By his aid
Was Constance Beverley betray’d.
Not that he augur’d of the doom,
Which on the living closed the tomb:
But, tired to hear the desperate maid                      240
Threaten by turns, beseech, upbraid;
And wroth, because, in wild despair,
She practised on the life of Clare;
Its fugitive the Church he gave,
Though not a victim, but a slave;                          245
And deem’d restraint in convent strange
Would hide her wrongs, and her revenge,
Himself, proud Henry’s favourite peer,
Held Romish thunders idle fear,
Secure his pardon he might hold,                          250
For some slight mulct of penance-gold.
Thus judging, he gave secret way,
When the stern priests surprised their prey.
His train but deem’d the favourite page
Was left behind, to spare his age;                        255
Or other if they deem’d, none dared
To mutter what he thought and heard:
Woe to the vassal, who durst pry
Into Lord Marmion’s privacy!
 

XVI

 
His conscience slept-he deem’d her well,                  260
And safe secured in yonder cell;
But, waken’d by her favourite lay,
And that strange Palmer’s boding say,
That fell so ominous and drear,
Full on the object of his fear,                            265
To aid remorse’s venom’d throes,
Dark tales of convent-vengeance rose;
And Constance, late betray’d and scorn’d,
All lovely on his soul return’d;
Lovely as when, at treacherous call,                      270
She left her convent’s peaceful wall,
Crimson’d with shame, with terror mute,
Dreading alike escape, pursuit,
Till love, victorious o’er alarms,
Hid fears and blushes in his arms.                        275
 

XVII

 
‘Alas!’ he thought, ‘how changed that mien!
How changed these timid looks have been,
Since years of guilt, and of disguise,
Have steel’d her brow, and arm’d her eyes!
No more of virgin terror speaks                            280
The blood that mantles in her cheeks;
Fierce, and unfeminine, are there,
Frenzy for joy, for grief despair;
And I the cause-for whom were given
Her peace on earth, her hopes in heaven! –                 285
Would,’ thought he, as the picture grows,
‘I on its stalk had left the rose!
Oh, why should man’s success remove
The very charms that wake his love! -
Her convent’s peaceful solitude                            290
Is now a prison harsh and rude;
And, pent within the narrow cell,
How will her spirit chafe and swell!
How brook the stern monastic laws!
The penance how-and I the cause! –                         295
Vigil, and scourge-perchance even worse!’-
And twice he rose to cry, ‘To horse!’
And twice his Sovereign’s mandate came,
Like damp upon a kindling flame;
And twice he thought, ‘Gave I not charge                  300
She should be safe, though not at large?
They durst not, for their island, shred
One golden ringlet from her head.’
 

XVIII

 
While thus in Marmion’s bosom strove
Repentance and reviving love,                              305
Like whirlwinds, whose contending sway
I’ve seen Loch Vennachar obey,
Their Host the Palmer’s speech had heard,
And, talkative, took up the word:
  ‘Ay, reverend Pilgrim, you, who stray                    310
From Scotland’s simple land away,
  To visit realms afar,
Full often learn the art to know
Of future weal, or future woe,
  By word, or sign, or star;                              315
Yet might a knight his fortune hear,
If, knight-like, he despises fear,
Not far from hence; – if fathers old
Aright our hamlet legend told.’-
These broken words the menials move,
(For marvels still the vulgar love,)                      320
And, Marmion giving license cold,
His tale the host thus gladly told: -
 

XIX

 
The Host’s Tale
‘A Clerk could tell what years have flown
Since Alexander fill’d our throne,                        325
(Third monarch of that warlike name,)
And eke the time when here he came
To seek Sir Hugo, then our lord:
A braver never drew a sword;
A wiser never, at the hour                                330
Of midnight, spoke the word of power:
The same, whom ancient records call
The founder of the Goblin-Hall.
I would, Sir Knight, your longer stay
Gave you that cavern to survey.                            335
Of lofty roof, and ample size,
Beneath the castle deep it lies:
To hew the living rock profound,
The floor to pave, the arch to round,
There never toil’d a mortal arm,                          340
It all was wrought by word and charm;
And I have heard my grandsire say,
That the wild clamour and affray
Of those dread artisans of hell,
Who labour’d under Hugo’s spell,                          345
Sounded as loud as ocean’s war,
Among the caverns of Dunbar.
 

XX

 
‘The King Lord Gifford’s castle sought,
Deep labouring with uncertain thought;
Even then he mustered all his host,                        350
To meet upon the western coast;
For Norse and Danish galleys plied
Their oars within the Frith of Clyde.
There floated Haco’s banner trim,
Above Norweyan warriors grim,                              355
Savage of heart, and large of limb;
Threatening both continent and isle,
Bute, Arran, Cunninghame, and Kyle.
Lord Gifford, deep beneath the ground,
Heard Alexander’s bugle sound,                            360
And tarried not his garb to change,
But, in his wizard habit strange,
Came forth, – a quaint and fearful sight;
His mantle lined with fox-skins white;
His high and wrinkled forehead bore                        365
A pointed cap, such as of yore
Clerks say that Pharaoh’s Magi wore:
His shoes were mark’d with cross and spell,
Upon his breast a pentacle;
His zone, of virgin parchment thin,                        370
Or, as some tell, of dead man’s skin,
Bore many a planetary sign,
Combust, and retrograde, and trine;
And in his hand he held prepared,
A naked sword without a guard.                            375
 

XXI

 
‘Dire dealings with the fiendish race
Had mark’d strange lines upon his face;
Vigil and fast had worn him grim,
His eyesight dazzled seem’d and dim,
As one unused to upper day;                                380
Even his own menials with dismay
Beheld, Sir Knight, the grisly Sire,
In his unwonted wild attire;
Unwonted, for traditions run,
He seldom thus beheld the sun. –                           385
“I know,” he said, – his voice was hoarse,
And broken seem’d its hollow force, -
“I know the cause, although untold,
Why the King seeks his vassal’s hold:
Vainly from me my liege would know                        390
His kingdom’s future weal or woe;
But yet, if strong his arm and heart,
His courage may do more than art.
 

XXII

 
‘“Of middle air the demons proud,
Who ride upon the racking cloud,                          395
Can read, in fix’d or wandering star,
The issue of events afar;
But still their sullen aid withhold,
Save when by mightier force controll’d.
Such late I summon’d to my hall;                          400
And though so potent was the call,
That scarce the deepest nook of hell
I deem’d a refuge from the spell,
Yet, obstinate in silence still,
The haughty demon mocks my skill.                          405
But thou, – who little know’st thy might,
As born upon that blessed night
When yawning graves, and dying groan,
Proclaim’d hell’s empire overthrown, -
With untaught valour shalt compel                          410
Response denied to magic spell.”-
“Gramercy,” quoth our Monarch free,
“Place him but front to front with me,
And, by this good and honour’d brand,
The gift of Coeur-de-Lion’s hand,                          415
Soothly I swear, that, tide what tide,
The demon shall a buffet bide.”-
His bearing bold the wizard view’d,
And thus, well pleased, his speech renew’d: -
“There spoke the blood of Malcolm! – mark:                  420
Forth pacing hence, at midnight dark,
The rampart seek, whose circling crown
Crests the ascent of yonder down:
A southern entrance shalt thou find;
There halt, and there thy bugle wind,                      425
And trust thine elfin foe to see,
In guise of thy worst enemy:
Couch then thy lance, and spur thy steed-
Upon him! and Saint George to speed!
If he go down, thou soon shalt know                        430
Whate’er these airy sprites can show: -
If thy heart fail thee in the strife,
I am no warrant for thy life.”
 

XXIII

 
‘Soon as the midnight bell did ring,
Alone, and arm’d, forth rode the King                      435
To that old camp’s deserted round:
Sir Knight, you well might mark the mound,
Left hand the town, – the Pictish race,
The trench, long since, in blood did trace;
The moor around is brown and bare,                        440
The space within is green and fair.
The spot our village children know,
For there the earliest wild-flowers grow;
But woe betide the wandering wight,
That treads its circle in the night!                      445
The breadth across, a bowshot clear,
Gives ample space for full career;
Opposed to the four points of heaven,
By four deep gaps are entrance given.
The southernmost our Monarch past,                        450
Halted, and blew a gallant blast;
And on the north, within the ring,
Appeared the form of England’s King,
Who then a thousand leagues afar,
In Palestine waged holy war:                              455
Yet arms like England’s did he wield,
Alike the leopards in the shield,
Alike his Syrian courser’s frame,
The rider’s length of limb the same:
Long afterwards did Scotland know,                        460
Fell Edward was her deadliest foe.
 

XXIV

 
‘The vision made our Monarch start,
But soon he mann’d his noble heart,
And in the first career they ran,
The Elfin Knight fell, horse and man;                      465
Yet did a splinter of his lance
Through Alexander’s visor glance,
And razed the skin-a puny wound.
The King, light leaping to the ground,
With naked blade his phantom foe                          470
Compell’d the future war to show.
Of Largs he saw the glorious plain,
Where still gigantic bones remain,
  Memorial of the Danish war;
Himself he saw, amid the field,                            475
On high his brandish’d war-axe wield,
  And strike proud Haco from his car,
While all around the shadowy Kings
Denmark’s grim ravens cower’d their wings.
‘Tis said, that, in that awful night,                      480
Remoter visions met his sight,
Foreshowing future conquest far,
When our sons’ sons wage northern war;
A royal city, tower and spire,
Redden’d the midnight sky with fire,                      485
And shouting crews her navy bore,
Triumphant, to the victor shore.
Such signs may learned clerks explain,
They pass the wit of simple swain.
 

XXV

 
‘The joyful King turn’d home again,                        490
Headed his host, and quell’d the Dane;
But yearly, when return’d the night
Of his strange combat with the sprite,
  His wound must bleed and smart;
Lord Gifford then would gibing say,                        495
“Bold as ye were, my liege, ye pay
  The penance of your start.”
Long since, beneath Dunfermline’s nave,
King Alexander fills his grave,
  Our Lady give him rest!                                  500
Yet still the knightly spear and shield
The Elfin Warrior doth wield,
  Upon the brown hill’s breast;
And many a knight hath proved his chance,
In the charm’d ring to break a lance,                      505
  But all have foully sped;
Save two, as legends tell, and they
Were Wallace wight, and Gilbert Hay. -
Gentles, my tale is said.’
 

XXVI

 
The quaighs were deep, the liquor strong,                  510
And on the tale the yeoman-throng
Had made a comment sage and long,
  But Marmion gave a sign:
And, with their lord, the squires retire;
The rest around the hostel fire,                          515
  Their drowsy limbs recline:
For pillow, underneath each head,
The quiver and the targe were laid.
Deep slumbering on the hostel floor,
Oppress’d with toil and ale, they snore:                  520
The dying flame, in fitful change,
Threw on the group its shadows strange.
 

XXVII

 
Apart, and nestling in the hay
Of a waste loft, Fitz-Eustace lay;
Scarce, by the pale moonlight, were seen                  525
The foldings of his mantle green:
Lightly he dreamt, as youth will dream,
Of sport by thicket, or by stream,
Of hawk or hound, of ring or glove,
Or, lighter yet, of lady’s love.                          530
A cautious tread his slumber broke,
And, close beside him, when he woke,
In moonbeam half, and half in gloom,
Stood a tall form, with nodding plume;
But, ere his dagger Eustace drew,                          535
His master Marmion’s voice he knew.
 

XXVIII

 
-‘Fitz-Eustace! rise, – I cannot rest;
Yon churl’s wild legend haunts my breast,
And graver thoughts have chafed my mood:
The air must cool my feverish blood;                      540
And fain would I ride forth, to see
The scene of elfin chivalry.
Arise, and saddle me my steed;
And, gentle Eustace, take good heed
Thou dost not rouse these drowsy slaves;                  545
I would not, that the prating knaves
Had cause for saying, o’er their ale,
That I could credit such a tale.’-
Then softly down the steps they slid,
Eustace the stable door undid,                            550
And, darkling, Marmion’s steed array’d,
While, whispering, thus the Baron said: -
 

XXIX

 
‘Did’st never, good my youth, hear tell,
  That on the hour when I was born,
Saint George, who graced my sire’s chapelle,              555
Down from his steed of marble fell,
  A weary wight forlorn?
The flattering chaplains all agree,
The champion left his steed to me.
I would, the omen’s truth to show,                        560
That I could meet this Elfin Foe!
Blithe would I battle, for the right
To ask one question at the sprite:
Vain thought! for elves, if elves there be,
An empty race, by fount or sea,                            565
To dashing waters dance and sing,
Or round the green oak wheel their ring.’
Thus speaking, he his steed bestrode,
And from the hostel slowly rode.
 

XXX

 
Fitz-Eustace follow’d him abroad,                          570
And mark’d him pace the village road,
  And listen’d to his horse’s tramp,
    Till, by the lessening sound,
  He judged that of the Pictish camp
    Lord Marmion sought the round.                        575
Wonder it seem’d, in the squire’s eyes,
That one, so wary held, and wise, -
Of whom ‘twas said, he scarce received
For gospel, what the Church believed, -
  Should, stirr’d by idle tale,                            580
Ride forth in silence of the night,
As hoping half to meet a sprite,
  Array’d in plate and mail.
For little did Fitz-Eustace know,
That passions, in contending flow,                        585
  Unfix the strongest mind;
Wearied from doubt to doubt to flee,
We welcome fond credulity,
  Guide confident, though blind.
 

XXXI

 
Little for this Fitz-Eustace cared,                        590
But, patient, waited till he heard,
At distance, prick’d to utmost speed,
The foot-tramp of a flying steed,
  Come town-ward rushing on;
First, dead, as if on turf it trode,                      595
Then, clattering on the village road, -
In other pace than forth he yode,
  Return’d Lord Marmion.
Down hastily he sprung from selle,
And, in his haste, wellnigh he fell;                      600
To the squire’s hand the rein he threw,
And spoke no word as he withdrew:
But yet the moonlight did betray,
The falcon-crest was soil’d with clay;
And plainly might Fitz-Eustace see,                        605
By stains upon the charger’s knee,
And his left side, that on the moor
He had not kept his footing sure.
Long musing on these wondrous signs,
At length to rest the squire reclines,                    610
Broken and short; for still, between,
Would dreams of terror intervene:
Eustace did ne’er so blithely mark
The first notes of the morning lark.