Clare drew her from the sight away, Till pain wrung forth a lowly moan, And half he murmured," Is there none, Of all my halls have nurst, Page, squire, or groom, one cup to bring Of blessed water, from the spring, To slake my dying thirst!"-- XXX. O, woman! in our hours of ease, Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, And variable as the shade By the light quivering aspen made; When pain and anguish wring the brow, A ministering angel thou!... Scarce were the piteous accents said, When, with the Baron's casque, the maid To the nigh streamlet ran : Forgot were hatred, wrongs, and fears; The plaintive voice alone she hears, Sees but the dying man. She stooped her by the runnel's side, But in abhorrence backward drew; For, oozing from the mountain's side, Where raged the war, a dark red tide Was curdling in the streamlet blue. Where shall she turn!-behold her mark A little fountain cell, Where water, clear as diamond-spark, In a stone bason fell. Above, some half-worn letters say, Brink. weary. pilgrim, drink. and pray. For. the. kind. soul. of. Sybil. Grep. Who. built. this. cross. and. well. She filled the helm, and back she hied, And with surprise and joy espied A Monk supporting Marmion's head; A pious man, whom duty brought, To shrieve the dying, bless the dead. XXXI. Deep drank Lord Marmion of the wave, And, as she stooped his brow to lave"Is it the hand of Clare," he said, "Or injured Constance, bathes my head!" Then, as remembrance rose,— 66 Speak not to me of shrift or prayer! I must redress her woes. Short space, few words, are mine to spare; Forgive and listen, gentle Clare!" "Alas!" she said, "the while, O think of your immortal weal! In vain for Constance is your zeal ; She died at Holy Isle." 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-" I knew 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- And doubly cursed my failing brand! Then, fainting, down on earth he sunk, XXXII. With fruitless labour, Clara bound, And strove to staunch, 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, Where mingles war's rattle with groans of the dying!" 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; 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. |