THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. Walter Scott

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СКАЧАТЬ The host moves like a deep-sea wave,

       Where rise no rocks its pride to brave

       High-swelling, dark, and slow.

       The lake is passed, and now they gain

       A narrow and a broken plain,

       Before the Trosachs’ rugged jaws;

       And here the horse and spearmen pause

       While, to explore the dangerous glen

       Dive through the pass the archer-men.

       XVII

      ‘At once there rose so wild a yell

       Within that dark and narrow dell,

       As all the fiends from heaven that fell

       Had pealed the banner-cry of hell!

       Forth from the pass in tumult driven,

       Like chaff before the wind of heaven,

       The archery appear:

       For life! for life! their flight they ply—

       And shriek, and shout, and battle-cry,

       And plaids and bonnets waving high,

       And broadswords flashing to the sky,

       Are maddening in the rear.

       Onward they drive in dreadful race,

       Pursuers and pursued;

       Before that tide of flight and chase,

       How shall it keep its rooted place,

       The spearmen’s twilight wood?— “

       “Down, down,” cried Mar, “your lances down’

       Bear back both friend and foe! “—

       Like reeds before the tempest’s frown,

       That serried grove of lances brown

       At once lay levelled low;

       And closely shouldering side to side,

       The bristling ranks the onset bide.— “

       “We’ll quell the savage mountaineer,

       As their Tinchel cows the game!

       They come as fleet as forest deer,

       We’ll drive them back as tame.”

       XVIII

      ‘Bearing before them in their course

       The relics of the archer force,

       Like wave with crest of sparkling foam,

       Right onward did Clan-Alpine come.

       Above the tide, each broadsword bright

       Was brandishing like beam of light,

       Each targe was dark below;

       And with the ocean’s mighty swing,

       When heaving to the tempest’s wing,

       They hurled them on the foe.

       I heard the lance’s shivering crash,

       As when the whirlwind rends the ash;

       I heard the broadsword’s deadly clang,

       As if a hundred anvils rang!

       But Moray wheeled his rearward rank

       Of horsemen on Clan-Alpine’s flank,—

       “My bannerman, advance!

       I see,” he cried, “their column shake.

       Now, gallants! for your ladies’ sake,

       Upon them with the lance!”—

       The horsemen dashed among the rout,

       As deer break through the broom;

      Their steeds are stout, their swords are out,

       They soon make lightsome room.

       Clan-Alpine’s best are backward borne—

       Where, where was Roderick then!

       One blast upon his bugle-horn

       Were worth a thousand men.

       And refluent through the pass of fear

       The battle’s tide was poured;

       Vanished the Saxon’s struggling spear,

       Vanished the mountain-sword.

       As Bracklinn’s chasm, so black and steep,

       Receives her roaring linn

       As the dark caverns of the deep

       Suck the wild whirlpool in,

       So did the deep and darksome pass

       Devour the battle’s mingled mass;

       None linger now upon the plain

       Save those who ne’er shall fight again.

       XIX

      ‘Now westward rolls the battle’s din,

       That deep and doubling pass within.—

       Minstrel, away! the work of fate

       Is bearing on; its issue wait,

       Where the rude Trosachs’ dread defile

       Opens on Katrine’s lake and isle.

       Gray Benvenue I soon repassed,

       Loch Katrine lay beneath me cast.

       The sun is set;—the clouds are met,

       The lowering scowl of heaven

       An inky hue of livid blue

       To the deep lake has given;

       Strange gusts of wind from mountain glen

       Swept o’er the lake, then sunk again.

       I heeded not the eddying surge,

       Mine eye but saw the Trosachs’ gorge,

       Mine ear but heard that sullen sound,

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