Wild sparkles crest the broken tides,
And, flashing round, the vessel's sides

With elvish lustre lave,
While, far behind, their livid light
To the dark billows of the night

A gloomy splendour gave.
It seems as if old Ocean shakes

From his dark brow the livid 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 upreard

Above the eastern Fell. ; .

XXIII.

Thus guided, on their course they bore Until they rear’d the mainland shore, When frequent on the hollow blast ..' Wild shouts of merriment were cast,

And wind and wave and sea-birds' cry
With wassail sounds in concert vie,
Like funeral shrieks with revelry, '.

Or like the battle-shout
By peasants heard from cliffs on high,
When Triumph, Rage, and Agony,

Madden the fight and rout.

once

I. THE LORD OF THE ISLES

Now nearer yet, through mist and storm,
Dimly arose the Castle's form,

And deepen'd shadow made,
Far lengthen’d on the main below,
Where, dancing in reflected glow,

An hundred torches play'd,
Spangling the wave with lights as vain
As pleasures in this vale of pain,

That dazzle as they fade.

..XXIV.
Beneath the Castle's sheltering lee,
They staid their course in quiet sea.
Hewn in the rock a passage there
Sought the dark fortress by a stair

So strait, so high, so steep, ..
With peasant's staff one valiant hand
Might well the dizzy pass have mann'd,
'Gainst hundreds arm’d with spear and brand,

And plunged them in the deep.

His bugle then the helmsman wound;
Loud answer'd every echo round,

From turret, rock, and bay,
The postern's hinges crash and groan,
And soon the warder's cresset shone

On those rude steps of slippery stone,

To light the upward way. « Thrice welcome, holy Sire!” he said ; 6 Full long the spousal train have staid,

And, vex'd at thy delay, Feard lest, amidst these wildering seas, The darksome night and freshening breeze

Had driven thy bark astray."

“ Warder," the younger stranger said, 66 Thine erring guess some mirth had made In mirthful hour; but nights like these, When the rough winds wake western seas,

Brook not of glee. We crave some aid
And needful shelter for this maid

I. THE

Until the break of day; -
For, to ourselves, the deck's rude plank
Is easy as the mossy bank

That's breathed upon by May.
And for our storm-toss'd skiff we seek
Short shelter in this leeward creek,
Prompt when the dawn the east shall streak

Again to bear away.”—
Answered the Warder, “ In what name

Assert ye hospitable claim ?

Whence come, or whither bound?

Hath Erin seen your parting sails ?
Or come ye on Norweyan gales ?
And seek ye England's fertile vales,

Sijjimi
Or Scotland's mountain ground ?”
“ Warriors—for other title none
For some brief space we list to own,
Bound by a vow-warriors are we;
In strife by land, and storm by sea,
We have been known to fame;