At length the freshening western blast
Aside the shroud of battle cast;
And, first, the ridge of mingled spears
Above the brightening cloud appears;
5 And in the smoke the pennons flew,
As in the storm the white sea-mew.
Then mark'd they, dashing broad and far,
The broken billows of the war,
And pluméd crests of chieftains brave,
10 Floating like foam upon the wave;
But nought distinct they see.
Wide raged the battle on the plain ;
Spears shook, and falchions flash'd amai
Fell England's arrow-flight like rain;
15 Crests rose, and stoop'd, and rose again,
Wild and disorderly.
Far on the left, unseen the while,
Stanley broke Lennox and Argyle;
Though there the western mountaineer
20 Rushed with bare bosom on the spear,
And flung the feeble targe aside,
And with both hands the broadsword plied,
'T was vain: But Fortune, on the right,
With fickle smile, cheered Scotland's fight.
25 Then fell that spotless banner white,
The Howard's lion fell;
Yet still Lord Marmion's falcon flew
With wavering flight, while fiercer grew
Around the battle-yell.
30 The Border slogan rent the sky.
A Home! a Gordon! was the cry:
Loud were the clanging blows;
The pennon sunk and rose;
35 As bends the bark's mast in the gale, When rent are rigging, shrouds, and sail, It wavered 'mid the foes.
No longer Blount the view could bear:
"By Heaven and all its saints! I swear
I will not see it lost!
Fitz Eustace, you, with Lady Clare,
5 May bid your beads, and patter prayer,
I gallop to the host."
And to the fray he rode amain,
Foilowed by all the archer train.
The fiery youth, with desperate charge, 10 Made. for a space, an opening large, The rescued banner rose,
But darkly closed the war around,
Like pine-tree, rooted from the ground,
It sank among the foes.
15 Then Eustace mounted too; ·
- yet staid, As loath to leave the helpless maid, When, fast as shaft can fly, Blood-shot his eyes, his nostrils spread, The loose rein dangling from his head, 20 Housing and saddle bloody red,
Lord Marmion's steed rushed by ;
And Eustace, maddening at the sight,
A look and sign to Clara cast,
To mark he would return in haste,
Then plunged into the fight.
Ask me not what the maiden feels,
Left in that dreadful hour alone:
Perchance her reason stoops, or reels;
Perchance a courage, not her own,
Braces her mind to desperate tone.
The scatter'd van of England wheels;
She only said, as loud in air
The tumult roar'd, "Is Wilton there?"
They fly, or, madden'd by despair,
XXI.--SAME SUBJECT, CONCLUDED.
WITH that, straight up the hill there rode
Two horsemen drench'd with gore,
And in their arms, a helpless load,
A wounded knight they bore.
5 His hand still strain'd the broken brand;
His arms were smear'd with blood and sand:
Dragg'd from among the horses' feet,
With dinted shield, and helmet beat, The falcon-crest and plumage gone, 10 Can that be haughty Marmion!...
When, doff'd his casque, he felt free air,
Around 'gan Marmion wildly stare:
Where's Harry Blount? Fitz Eustace where?
Linger ye here, ye hearts of hare!
15 Redeem my pennon, — charge again! Cry- Marmicn to the rescue!'. - vain! Last of my race, on battle-plain
That shout shall ne'er be heard again!
Yet my last thought is England's-fly,
To Dacre bear my signet-ring:
Tell him his squadrons up to bring.-
Fitz Eustace, to Lord Surrey hie;
Tunstall lies dead upon the field,
His life-blood stains the spotless shield:
25 Edmund is down: my life is reft;
The Admiral alone is left.
Let Stanley charge with spur of fire, -
With Chester charge and Lancashire,
Full upon Scotland's central host,
30 Or victory and England's lost.—
Must I bid twice? hence, varlets! fly!
Leave Marmion here, alone.
They parted, and alone he lay:
Clare dre her from the sight away,
Till pain wrung forth a lowly moan,
And half he murmured,
Of all my halls have nurst,
Page, squire, or groom, one cup to bring 5 Of blessed water from the spring,
To slake my dying thirst!"
O, woman! in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
And variable as the shade
10 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 fill'd the helm, and back she hied, 20 And with surprise and joy espied
A monk supporting Marmion's head;
A pious man whom duty brought
To dubious verge of battle fought,
To shrive the dying, bless the dead.
25 The war, that for a space did fail,
Now trebly thundering swell'd the gale,
And Stanley was the cry ;-
A light on Marmion's visage spread,
And fired his glazing eye :
30 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.
85 By this, though deep the evening fell,
Still rose the battle's deadly swell,
For still the Scots, around their king,
Unbroken, fought in desperate ring.
The English shafts in volleys hail'd,
In headlong charge their horse assail'd,
5 Front, flank, and rear, the squadrons sweep,
To break the Scottish circle deep,
That fought around their king.
But yet, though thick the shafts as snow, Though charging knights like whirlwinds go 10 Though billmen ply the ghastly blow, Unbroken was the ring;
The stubborn spearmen still made good
Their dark impenetrable wood,
Each stepping where his comrade stood,
The instant that he fell.
No thought was there of dastard flight;
Link'd in the serried phalanx tight,
Groom fought like noble, squire like knight
As fearlessly and well;
20 Till utter darkness closed her wing
O'er their thin host and wounded king.
Then skilful Surrey's sage commands
Led back from strife his shattered bands;
And from the charge they drew,
25 As mountain-waves, from wasted lands,
Sweep back to ocean blue.
Then did their loss his foeman know;
Their king, their lords, their mightiest, low,
They melted from the field as snow,
30 When streams are swoln, and south winds blow Dissolves in silent dew.
Tweed's echoes heard the ceaseless plash,
While many a broken band,
Disorder'd, through her currents dash,
To gain the Scottish land;
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