MARMION. CANTO SIXTH. The Battle. I. WHILE great events were on the gale, And each hour brought a varying tale, And the demeanour, changed and cold, Of Douglas fretted Marmion bold, And, like the impatient steed of war, He snuffed the battle from afar; And hopes were none, that back again Herald should come from Terouenne, Where England's King in leaguer lay, Before decisive battle-day; While these things were, the mournful Clare Did in the Dame's devotions share : For the good Countess ceaseless prayed, To Heaven and Saints, her sons to aid, From prayer to book, from book to mass, A life both dull and dignified ; Yet as Lord Marmion nothing pressed Upon her intervals of rest, Dejected Clara well could bear The formal state, the lengthened prayer, The hours that she might spend apart. II. I said, Tantallon's dizzy steep Hung o'er the margin of the deep, |