"I knew

Lord Marmion started from the ground
As light as if he felt no wound,
Though in the action burst the tide
In torrents from his wounded side.
"Then it was truth!"-he said.
That the dark presage must be true.—
I would the Fiend-to whom belongs
The vengeance due to all her wrongs—
Would spare me but a day!
For wasting fire, and dying groan,
And priests slain on the altar stone,
Might bribe him for delay.

It may not be! This dizzy trance-
Curse on yon base marauder's lance!
And doubly cursed my failing brand!
A sinful heart makes feeble hand."
Then, fainting, down on earth he sunk,
Supported by the trembling monk.
With fruitless labour, Clara bound,
And strove to stanch, the gushing wound:
The monk, with unavailing cares,
Exhausted all the Church's prayers.
Ever, he said, that, close and near,
A lady's voice was in his ear,

And that the priest he could not hear;

For that she ever sung

"In the lost battle, borne down by the flying,

670

680

Where mingles war's rattle with groans of the dying!" 690

So the notes rung.

"Avoid thee, Fiend! with cruel hand,

Shake not the dying sinner's sand !—
O look, my son, upon yon sign
Of the Redeemer's grace divine,
O think on faith and bliss!-

By many a death-bed I have been,
And many a sinner's parting seen,
But never aught like this!"-
The war, that for a space did fail,
Now, trebly thundering, swelled the gale,
And "STANLEY!" was the cry.

A light on Marmion's visage spread,

And fired his glazing eye:

With dying hand, above his head

He shook the fragment of his blade,

And shouted "Victory!

Charge, Chester, charge! On, Stanley, on!"...

Were the last words of Marmion.

O lady," cried the monk, "away!"

700

710

And placed her on her steed,
And led her to the chapel fair

Of Tilmouth upon Tweed.
There all the night they spent in prayer,
And, at the dawn of morning, there
She met her kinsman, Lord Fitz-Clare.-
Day dawns upon the mountain's side:
There, Scotland! lay thy bravest pride—
Chiefs, knights, and nobles, many a one;
The sad survivors all are gone!—
View not that corpse mistrustfully,
Defaced and mangled though it be;
Nor to yon Border castle high
Look northward with upbraiding eye;
Nor cherish hope in vain,

That, journeying far on foreign strand,
The Royal Pilgrim to his land 43

May yet return again.

He saw the wreck his rashness wrought:

Reckless of life, he desperate fought,

And fell on Flodden plain;

And well in death his trusty brand,
Firm clenched within his manly hand,
Beseemed the monarch slain.

I do not rhyme to that dull elf
Who cannot image to himself,

720

730

That all through Flodden's dismal night

Wilton was foremost in the fight;

That, when brave Surrey's steed was slain,

"Twas Wilton mounted him again;

740

'Twas Wilton's brand that deepest hewed

Amid the spearmen's stubborn wood--
Unnamed by Holinshed or Hall,44
He was the living soul of all;
That, after fight, his faith made plain,
He won his rank and lands again,
And charged his old paternal shield
With bearings won on Flodden Field.
Nor sing I to that simple maid
To whom it must in terms be said,
That King and kinsmen did agree
To bless fair Clara's constancy;
Who cannot, unless I relate,

Paint to her mind the bridal's state;-
That Wolsey's voice the blessing spoke,45

More, Sands, and Denny passed the joke;46
That bluff King Hal the curtain drew,
And Catherine's hand the stocking threw;47

750

And afterwards, for many a day,
That it was held enough to say,
In blessing to a wedded pair,

"Love they like Wilton and like Clare !" 48

NOTES TO MARMION.

CANTO FIRST.

Inverted constructions found in Scott's | is implied; and when, as in the text, a poetry. For, the train entered." In the number of persons are referred to as one following clause the object is put first and class. Compare, the verb last.

They már- shǎlled hím | to thě cá- | stle- Dunbar." Dunbar is an ancient royal

The Tempest, Act iii., Scene 1, line 24. (See Note 12, Canto V.) Scott elsewhere uses whiles" as an adverb=sometimes, its usual meaning in Scotch. [A.-S. hwil, time. The es is a genitive suffix. Hence the adverbs besid-es, el-se, on-ce, hen-ce, | But in O. E. it is frequently used as an adneed-s, &c.]

23. Here be some.-In A.-S. and in O. E. be was indicative as much as am; but be had generally a future signification. In 31. Loth were I-I should be unwilllater English it is used when uncertaintying. Another example of the dative cou

struction passing into the nominative. Loth properly means hateful, and refers, not to the person, but to the object. Thus Chaucer:

"Ful loth were him to curse for his tythes."

Prologue to Canterbury Tales, line 486. That is, to curse for his tithes would be very hateful or disagreeable to him.

32. Angels. An old English gold coin, stamped with the figure of an angel; in value about ten shillings.

33. Still.-Always, constantly. Shakespeare frequently uses the word in this sense; e.g.,

"It is still her use, To let the wretched man outlive his wealth." Merchant of Venice.

34. When as.-An antiquated construction for when, or as soon as. This doubling of conjunctions is common in Chaucer, and even in Shakespeare. The construction is doubtless elliptical. Both Chaucer and Shakespeare use when that" in the

CANTO SECOND.

1. High Whitby's cloistered pile. -The | is situated at the mouth of the Tyne, on ruins of Whitby Abbey stand on a high cliff overlooking the town of Whitby, on the coast of Yorkshire. It was founded in 657.

the coast of Northumberland, about a mile west of North Shields. The ruins of the priory church, a Norman structure, stand within the precincts of an ancient castle situated on a high rock.

6. A Chapter.-A conclave of heads (capita) of houses dedicated to St. Benedict.

7. Unprofessed.-Who had not yet taken the vow. The word is redundant, as this implied in novice.

2. Saint Cuthbert's Holy Isle.-Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, is situated about three miles from the coast of Northumberland. It derives its name of Holy Island from the sanctity of its monastery, the ruins of which betoken great antiquity. It was also from an early period the epis-is copal seat of the see of Durham, of whose bishops St. Cuthbert (died A. D. 687) was the most famous. It is only at full tide that Lindisfarne is an island; the ebb leaves the sands dry between it and the mainland. (See infra, lines 69-74). It was on Lindisfarne that the Danes made one of their earliest descents on England, in A.D. 789. They destroyed the abbey in A.D. 900, when the see was transferred to Durham.

3. For, on the deck, &c.-Construe thus: For the Abbess of Saint Hilda, placed in chair of state, on the deck, with five fair nuns, graced the galley.

8. Or worse, who had dishonoured fled.De Wilton, after his overthrow by Marmion at Cottiswold, had disappeared.

9. To one who loved her for her land. To Marmion.

10. Herself.... was bent.-This is the second example of the use of a reflective pronoun by itself as subject. The pronouns compounded with the adjective self were originally accusatives and datives. Me-sylf and the-sylf were frequently added to the nominative for the sake of emphasis, I, me-sylf; thee, the-sylf. Lastly, they have come to be used as nominatives themselves. Compare: