THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. Walter Scott

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СКАЧАТЬ No effort made to break its trance,

       We could right pleasantly pursue

       Our sports in social silence too;

       Thou gravely labouring to portray

       The blighted oak’s fantastic spray;

       I spelling o’er, with much delight,

       The legend of that antique knight,

       Tirante by name, ycleped the White.

       At either’s feet a trusty squire,

       Pandour and Camp, with eyes of fire,

       Jealous, each other’s motions viewed,

       And scarce suppressed their ancient feud.

       The laverock whistled from the cloud;

       The stream was lively, but not loud;

       From the white thorn the Mayflower shed

       Its dewy fragrance round our head:

       Not Ariel lived more merrily

       Under the blossomed bough than we.

       And blithesome nights, too, have been ours,

       When winter stript the summer’s bowers.

       Careless we heard, what now I hear,

       The wild blast sighing deep and drear,

       When fires were bright, and lamps beamed gay,

       And ladies tuned the lovely lay;

       And he was held a laggard soul,

       Who shunned to quaff the sparkling bowl.

       Then he, whose absence we deplore,

       Who breathes the gales of Devon’s shore,

       The longer missed, bewailed the more;

       And thou, and I, and dear-loved Rae,

       And one whose name I may not say -

       For not Mimosa’s tender tree

       Shrinks sooner from the touch than he -

       In merry chorus well combined,

       With laughter drowned the whistling wind.

       Mirth was within; and Care without

       Might gnaw her nails to hear our shout.

       Not but amid the buxom scene

       Some grave discourse might intervene -

       Of the good horse that bore him best,

       His shoulder, hoof, and arching crest:

       For, like mad Tom’s, our chiefest care,

       Was horse to ride, and weapon wear.

       Such nights we’ve had; and, though the game

       Of manhood be more sober tame,

       And though the field-day, or the drill,

       Seem less important now—yet still

       Such may we hope to share again.

       The sprightly thought inspires my strain!

       And mark how, like a horseman true,

       Lord Marmion’s march I thus renew.

Canto Fourth

       Table of Contents

       The Camp

       I

      Eustace, I said, did blithely mark

       The first notes of the merry lark.

       The lark sang shrill, the cock he crew,

       And loudly Marmion’s bugles blew,

       And with their light and lively call,

       Brought groom and yeoman to the stall.

       Whistling they came, and free of heart,

       But soon their mood was changed;

       Complaint was heard on every part,

       Of something disarranged.

       Some clamoured loud for armour lost;

       Some brawled and wrangled with the host;

       “By Becket’s bones,” cried one, “I fear

       That some false Scot has stol’n my spear!”

       Young Blount, Lord Marmion’s second squire,

       Found his steed wet with sweat and mire;

       Although the rated horseboy sware,

       Last night he dressed him sleek and fair.

       While chafed the impatient squire like thunder,

       Old Hubert shouts, in fear and wonder,

       “Help, gentle Blount! help, comrades all!

       Bevis lies dying in his stall:

       To Marmion who the plight dare tell,

       Of the good steed he loves so well?”

       Gaping for fear and ruth, they saw

       The charger panting on his straw;

       Till one who would seem wisest, cried,

       “What else but evil could betide,

       With that cursed Palmer for our guide?

       Better we had through mire and bush

       Been lantern-led by Friar Rush.”

       II

      Fitz-Eustace, who the cause but guessed,

       Nor wholly understood,

       His comrades’ clamorous plaints suppressed;

       He knew Lord Marmion’s mood.

       Him, ere he issued forth, he sought,

       And found deep plunged in gloomy thought,

       And did his tale display

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