But there are sounds in Allan's ear,
Patrol nor sentinel may hear,
And sights before his eye aghast
Invisible to them have pass'd,

When down the destined plain,
'Twixt Britain and the bands of France,
Wild as marsh-borne meteors glance,
Strange phantoms wheeld a revel dance,

And doom'd the future slain.-
Such forms were seen, such sounds were heard
When Scotland's James his march prepared

For Flodden's fatal plain ;'
Such, when he drew his ruthless sword,
As Choosers of the Slain, adored

The yet unchristen'd Dane.
An indistinct and pbantom band,
They wheeld their ring-dance hand in hand,

With gestures wild and dread;
The Seer, who watch'd them ride the storm,
Saw through their faint and shadowy form

The lightning's flash more red;
And still their ghastly roundelay
Was of the coming battle-fray,

And of the destined dead.

IV.

Song.
Wheel the wild dance
While lightnings glance,

- [See ante, vol. ii., Marmion, canto v., stanzas 24, 25, 26, and Appendix, Note N, p. 331.7

And thunders rattle loud,
And call the brave
To bloody grave,

To sleep without a shroud.

Our airy feet,
So light and fleet,

They do not bend the rye
That sinks its head when whirlwinds rave,
And swells again in eddying wave,

As each wild gust blows by ;

But still the corn,
At dawn of morn,

Our fatal steps that bore,
At eve lies waste,
A trampled paste

Of blackening mud and gore.

V.
Wheel the wild dance
While lightnings glance,

And thunders rattle loud,
And call the brave
To bloody grave,

To sleep without a shroud.
Wheel the wild dance!
Brave sons of France,

For you our ring makes room ;
Make
space

full wide For martial pride,

For banner, spear, and plume.
Approach, draw near,
Proud cuirassier!

Room for the men of steel!
Through crest and plate
The broadsword's weight

Both head and heart shall feel.

In

Sons of the spear!
You feel us near

many a ghastly dream;
With fancy's eye
Our forms you spy,

And hear our fatal scream.
With clearer sight
Ere falls the night,

Just when to weal or woe
Your disembodied souls take flight
On trembling wing- each startled sprite

Our choir of death shall know.

VII.
Wheel the wild dance
While lightnings glance,

And thunders rattle loud,
And call the brave
To bloody grave,

To sleep without a shroud.

W W

Burst, ye clouds, in tempest showers,
Redder rain shall soon be ours

See the east grows wan
Yield we place to sterner game,
Ere deadlier bolts and direr flame
Shall the welkin's thunders shame;
Elemental rage is tame

To the wrath of man.

VIII.
At morn, grey Allan's mates with awe
Heard of the vision'd sights he saw,

The legend heard him say;
But the Seer's gifted eye was dim,
Deafen'd his ear, and stark his limb,

Ere closed that bloody day —
He sleeps far from his Highland heath,-
But often of the Dance of Death

His comrades tell the tale, On picquet-post, when ebbs the night, And waning watch-fires glow less bright,

And dawn is glimmering pale.

ROMANCE OF DUNOIS.

FROM THE FRENCH.

The original of this little Romance makes part of a manuscript

collection of French Songs, probably compiled by some young officer, which was found on the Field of Waterloo, so much stained with clay and with blood, as sufficiently to indicate what had been the fate of its late owner. The

song

is

popular in France, and is rather a good specimen of the style of composition to which it belongs. The translation is strictly literal.]

It was Dunois, the young and brave, was bound for

Palestine, But first he made his orisons before St. Mary's shrine: " And grant, immortal Queen of Heaven," was still the

Soldier's prayer, “That I may prove the bravest knight, and love the

fairest fair.”

*[This ballad appeared in 1815, in Paul's Letters, and in the Edinburgh Annual Register. It has since been set to music by G. F. Graham, Esq., in Mr. Thomson's Select Melodies, &c.] [The original romance,

“ Partant pour la Syrie,

Le jeune et brave Dunois," &c. was written, and set to music also, by Hortense Beauharnois, Duchesse de St. Leu, Ex-queen of Holland.]

Vol. V. 29