MARMION.

CANTO FIRST.

THE CASTLE.

I.

AY set on Norham's1 castled steep,2

DAY

And Tweed's fair river, broad and deep,
And Cheviot's4 mountains lone:

The battled5 towers, the donjon keep,
The loophole grates, where captives weep,
The flanking walls that round it sweep,
In yellow luster shone.

The warriors on the turrets high,
Moving athwart the evening sky,
Seemed forms of giant height:
Their armor, as it caught the rays,
Flashed back again the western blaze,
In lines of dazzling light.

1 An old English fortress near the river Tweed, not far from its mouth. 2 The high bank or ridge on which the castle stood.

3 A river of Scotland flowing into the North Sea, and forming for a distance the eastern boundary between England and Scotland.

4 Hills south of the castle, on the boundary between England and Scotland.

5 Having battlements, i.e., having openings, through which cannon may be pointed.

6 See Glossary.

7 Walls which surrounded the donjon.

II.

Saint George's banner,1 broad and gay,
Now faded, as the fading ray

Less bright, and less, was flung;

The evening gale had scarce the power
To wave it on the donjon tower,
So heavily it hung.

The scouts had parted2 on their search,
The castle gates were barred;

Above the gloomy portal arch,
Timing his footsteps to a march,
The warder kept his guard,
Low humming, as he paced along,
Some ancient Border gathering song.

III.

A distant trampling sound he hears;
He looks abroad, and soon appears
O'er Horncliff-hill 5 a plump of spears
Beneath a pennon gay;

A horseman, darting from the crowd
Like lightning from a summer cloud,
Spurs on his mettled courser proud,
Before the dark array.
Beneath the sable palisade
That closed the castle barricade,

His bugle horn he blew;

1 The flag of England, a white flag bearing the red cross of Saint George, England's patron saint.

2 Separated. It may also mean departed.

3 Guard.

The castle warder was something like the modern sentry. 4 A song used by warriors on the Border as a signal for meeting.

5 An elevation a short distance down the river.

8 Group, cluster; i.e., a body of horsemen.

The warder hasted from the wall,
And warned the captain in the hall,

For well the blast he knew;

And joyfully that knight did call
To sewer,1 squire, and seneschal.

IV.

"Now broach2 ye a pipe3 of Malvoisie,
Bring pasties of the doe,5

And quickly make the entrance free,
And bid my heralds ready be,
And every minstrel sound his glee,6
And all our trumpets blow;
And, from the platform, spare ye not
To fire a noble salvo-shot;7

Lord Marmion waits below!"
Then to the castle's lower1 ward
Sped forty yeomen1 tall,
The iron-studded gates unbarred,
Raised the portcullis' 1 ponderous guard,
The lofty palisade unsparred,8

And let the drawbridge1 fall.

V.

Along the bridge Lord Marmion rode,
Proudly his red-roan charger trode,10

1 See Glossary.

2 Tap.

3 A wine measure, usually 126 wine gallons. Two pipes make a tun.

4 A sweet white wine from Crete and the Canary Islands, called in English

"Malmsey."

5." Pasties," etc., i.e., venison pies.

6 Joyful song or music.

? A salute of welcome (Latin, salve, “hail").

8 The spars or stakes forming the palisade at the gate were taken away. 9 War horse.

10 An old form of "trod; " stepped.

His helm1 hung at the saddlebow;
Well by his visage you might know
He was a stalworth knight, and keen,
And had in many a battle been ;
The scar on his brown cheek revealed
A token true of Bosworth3 field;
His eyebrow dark, and eye of fire,
Showed spirit proud, and prompt to ire;
Yet lines of thought upon his cheek
Did deep design and counsel speak.
His forehead, by his casque worn bare,
His thick mustache, and curly hair,
Coal-black, and grizzled here and there,
But more through toil than age,

His square-turned joints, and strength of limb,
Showed him no carpet5 knight so trim,
But in close fight a champion grim,

In camps a leader sage.

1 Helmet.

2 Stalwart.

VI.

Well was he armed from head to heel
In mail and plate 5 of Milan steel;
But his strong helm, of mighty cost,
Was all with burnished gold embossed;
Amid the plumage of the crest,5

A falcon5 hovered on her nest,

With wings outspread and forward breast:

3 The battle (Aug. 22, 1485) which ended the War of the Roses, and placed Henry VII. on the English throne. It was fought near the town of Bosworth, Leicester County, England.

4 A form of helmet.

5 See Glossary.

6 The steel from Milan, Italy, was famous.