XVI. So bore they on with mirth and pride, As nobles cast on lowly boor, Let them sweep on with heedless eyes! The famish'd wolf, that prowls the wold, Had scatheless pass'd the unguarded fold, Ere, drifting by these galleys bold, Unchallenged were her way! And thou, Lord Ronald, sweep thou on, XVII. Yes, sweep they on!-We will not leave, Be laughter loud and jocund shout, And of wild mirth each clamorous art, For one loud busy day. Yes, sweep they on!-But with that skiff Abides the minstrel tale, Where there was dread of surge and cliff, XVIII. All day with fruitless strife they toil'd, More fierce from strait and lake; Then, too, the lights of eve were past, On rocks of Inninmore; Rent was the sail, and strain'd the mast, XIX. 'Twas then that One, whose lofty look "Brother, how hopest thou to abide Didst thou not mark the vessel reel, With quivering planks, and groaning keel, At the last billow's shock? Yet how of better counsel tell, lalf dead with want and fear; Despair and death are near. For her alone I grieve-on me Danger sits light by land and sea, I follow where thou wilt, Either to bide the tempest's lour, Or wend to yon unfriendly tower, Or rush amid their naval power, With war-cry wake their wassail-hour, And die with hand on hilt." XX. That elder Leader's calm reply In steady voice was given, "In man's most dark extremity Oft succour dawns from Heaven. Edward, trim thou the shatter'd sail, So shall we 'scape the western bay, Beneath the Castle wall; For if a hope of safety rest, If not-it best beseems our worth, XXI. The helm, to his strong arm consign'd, Fierce bounding, forward sprung the ship, Awaked before the rushing prow, Those lightnings of the wave;1 While, far behind, their livid light 1 The phenomenon called by sailors Sea-fire, is one of the most beautiful and interesting which is witnessed in the Hebrides. At times the ocean appears entirely illuminated around the vessel, and a long train of lambent coruscations are perpetually bursting upon the sides of the vessel, or pursuing her wake through the darkness. These phosphoric appearances, concerning the origin of which naturalists are not agreed in opinion, seem to be called into action by the rapid motion of the ship through the water, and are probably owing to the water being saturated with fish-spawn, or other animal substances. They remind one strongly of the description of the sea-snakes in Mr. Coleridge's wild, but highly poetical ballad of the Ancient Mariner: "Beyond the shadow of the ship They moved in tracks of shining white, Fell off in hoary flakes." VOL. V.-4 It seems as if old Ocean shakes From his dark brow the lucid flakes In envious pageantry, To match the meteor light that streaks Grim Hecla's midnight sky. XXII. Nor lack'd they steadier light to keep Their course upon the darken'd deep;— Artornish, on her frowning steep "Twixt cloud and ocean hung, Glanced with a thousand lights of glee, And landward far, and far to sea, Her festal radiance flung. By that blithe beacon-light they steer'd, Whose lustre mingled well With the pale beam that now appear'd, As the cold moon her head uprear'd Above the eastern fell. XXIII. Thus guided, on their course they bore, By peasants heard from cliffs on high, |