XIII. Yes! hard the task, when Britons wield the sword, And red Barossa shouts for dauntless GRÆME! Bold as the bursting of their cannon sound, With conquest's well-bought wreath were braver victors crowned! XIV. O who shall grudge him Albuera's bays, Who brought a race regenerate to the field, Roused them to emulate their father's praise, Tempered their headlong rage, their courage steeled, And raised fair Lusitania's fallen shield, And gave new edge to Lusitania's sword, And taught her sons forgotten arms to wieldShivered my harp, and burst its every chord, If it forgot thy worth, victorious BERESFORD! XV. Not on that bloody field of battle won, Though Gaul's proud legions rolled like mist away, He gaged but life on that illustrious day; He braved the shafts of censure and of shame, XVI. Nor be his praise o'erpassed who strove to hide XVII. O hero of a race renowned of old, Whose war-cry oft has waked the battle-swell, Since first distinguished in the onset bold, Wild sounding when the Roman rampart fell! By Wallace's side it rung the Southron's knell, Alderne, Kilsythe, and Tibber owned its fame, Tummell's rude pass can of its terrors tell, But ne'er from pronder field arose the name, Than when wild Ronda learned the conquering shout of GRAME! XVIII. But all too long, through seas unknown and dark, (With Spenser's parable I close my tale), By shoal and rock hath steered my venturous bark; And, as the prow light touches on the strand, ΤΟ JOHN B. S. MORRITT ESQ., This Poem, THE SCENE OF WHICH IS LAID IN HIS BEAUTIFUL DEMESNE OF ROKEBY, IS INSCRIBED, IN TOKEN OF SINCERE FRIENDSHIP. ADVERTISEMENT TO FIRST EDITION, 1813. THE scene of this poem is laid at Rokeby, near Greta Bridge, in Yorkshire, and shifts to the adjacent fortress of Barnard Castle, and to other places in that vicinity. The time occupied by the action is a space of five days, three of which are supposed to elapse between the end of the Fifth and beginning of the Sixth Canto. The date of the supposed events is immediately subsequent to the great battle of Marston Moor, 3d July 1644. This period of public confusion has been chosen, without any purpose of combining the Fable with the Military or Political Events of the Civil War, but only as affording a degree of probability to the Fictitious Narrative now presented to the Public. ROKEBY. CANTO FIRST. I. THE Moon is in her summer glow, When Conscience, with remorse and fear, II. Those towers, which in the changeful gleam |