THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. Walter Scott

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СКАЧАТЬ Raised the portcullis’ ponderous guard,

       The lofty palisade unsparred,

       And let the drawbridge fall.

       V

      Along the bridge Lord Marmion rode,

       Proudly his red-roan charger trode,

       His helm hung at the saddlebow;

       Well by his visage you might know

       He was a stalwart knight, and keen,

       And had in many a battle been;

       The scar on his brown cheek revealed

       A token true of Bosworth field;

       His eyebrow dark, and eye of fire,

       Showed spirit proud and prompt to ire;

       Yet lines of thought upon his cheek

       Did deep design and counsel speak.

       His forehead, by his casque worn bare,

       His thick moustache, and curly hair,

       Coal-black, and grizzled here and there,

       But more through toil than age;

       His square-turned joints, and strength of limb,

       Showed him no carpet knight so trim,

       But in close fight a champion grim,

       In camps a leader sage.

       VI

      Well was he armed from head to heel,

       In mail and plate of Milan steel;

       But his strong helm, of mighty cost,

       Was all with burnished gold embossed;

       Amid the plumage of the crest,

       A falcon hovered on her nest,

       With wings outspread, and forward breast:

       E’en such a falcon, on his shield,

       Soared sable in an azure field:

       The golden legend bore aright,

       “Who checks at me, to death is dight.”

       Blue was the charger’s broidered rein;

       Blue ribbons decked his arching mane;

       The knightly housing’s ample fold

       Was velvet blue, and trapped with gold.

       VII

      Behind him rode two gallant squires,

       Of noble name and knightly sires:

       They burned the gilded spurs to claim;

       For well could each a warhorse tame,

       Could draw the bow, the sword could sway,

       And lightly bear the ring away;

       Nor less with courteous precepts stored,

       Could dance in hall, and carve at board,

       And frame love-ditties passing rare,

       And sing them to a lady fair.

       VIII

      Four men-at-arms came at their backs,

       With halbert, bill, and battleaxe:

       They bore Lord Marmion’s lance so strong,

       And led his sumpter-mules along,

       And ambling palfrey, when at need

       Him listed ease his battle-steed.

       The last and trustiest of the four,

       On high his forky pennon bore;

       Like swallow’s tail, in shape and hue,

       Fluttered the streamer glossy blue,

       Where, blazoned sable, as before,

       The towering falcon seemed to soar.

       Last, twenty yeomen, two and two,

       In hosen black, and jerkins blue,

       With falcons broidered on each breast,

       Attended on their lord’s behest:

       Each, chosen for an archer good,

       Knew hunting-craft by lake or wood;

       Each one a six-foot bow could bend,

       And far a clothyard shaft could send;

       Each held a boar-spear tough and strong,

       And at their belts their quivers rung.

       Their dusty palfreys, and array,

       Showed they had marched a weary way.

       IX

      ‘Tis meet that I should tell you now,

       How fairly armed, and ordered how,

       The soldiers of the guard,

       With musket, pike, and morion,

       To welcome noble Marmion,

       Stood in the castleyard;

       Minstrels and trumpeters were there,

       The gunner held his linstock yare,

       For welcome-shot prepared:

       Entered the train, and such a clang,

       As then through all his turrets rang,

       Old Norham never heard.

       X

      The guards their morrice-pikes advanced,

       The trumpets flourished brave,

       The cannon from the ramparts glanced,

       And thundering welcome gave.

       A blithe salute, in martial sort,

       The minstrels well might sound,

       For, as Lord Marmion crossed the court,

       He scattered angels round.

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