XII. But soon he knew himself the most unfit Of men to herd with man, with whom he held Little in common; untaught to submit His thoughts to others, though his soul was quell'd XIII. Where rose the mountains, there to him were friends; Where roll'd the ocean, thereon was his home; Where a blue sky and glowing clime extends, He had the passion and the power to roam; The desert, forest, cavern, breaker's foam, Were unto him companionship; they spake A mutual language, clearer than the tome Of his land's tongue, which he would oft forsake For nature's pages, glass'd by sunbeams on the lake. XIV. Like the Chaldean, he could watch the stars, As their own beams; and earth, and earth-born jars, To which it mounts, as if to break the link That keeps us from yon heaven which woos us to its brink. XV. But in man's dwellings he became a thing XVI. Self-exiled Harold wanders forth again, With nought of hope left, but with less of gloom; The very knowledge that he lived in vain, That all was over on this side the tomb, Had made despair a smilingness assume, Did yet inspire a cheer, which he forbore to check. XVII. Stop!-for thy tread is on an empire's dust! XVIII And Harold stands upon this place of skulls, He wears the shatter'd links of the world's broken chain. XIX. Fit retribution! Gaul may champ the bit And foam in fetters; - but is earth more free? And servile knees to thrones? No; Prove before ye praise! XX. If not, o'er one fallen despot boast no more! XXI. There was a sound of revelry by night, The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men; Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again, And all went merry as a marriage-bell; But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell. XXII. Did ye not hear it? -No; 't was but the wind, On with the dance! let joy be unconfined; No sleep till morn when youth and pleasure meet, And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before! Arm! arm! it is it is the cannon's opening roar! XXIII. Within a window'd niche of that high hall Sate Brunswick's fated chieftain; he did hear That sound the first amidst the festival, And caught its tone with death's prophetic ear; And when they smiled because he deem'd it near, His heart more truly knew that peal too well Which stretch'd his father on a bloody bier, And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell: He rush'd into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell. XXIV. Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro, XXV. And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed, Or whispering, with white lips-"The foe! They come! they come!" XXVI. And wild and high the "Camerons' gathering" rose! Have heard, and heard too have her Saxon foes :- Savage and shrill! But with the breath which fills Their mountain-pipe, so fill the mountaineers With the fierce native daring which instils The stirring memory of a thousand years, And Evan's, 4 Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears! XXVII. And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves Ere evening to be trodden like the grass Which now beneath them, but above shall grow Of living valour, rolling on the foe, And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low. XXVIII. Last noon beheld them full of lusty life, The midnight brought the signal-sound of strife, Battle's magnificently stern array! The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which when rent, Which her own clay shall cover, heap'd and pent, XXIX. Their praise is hymn'd by loftier harps than mine: Yet one I would select from that proud throng, Partly because they blend me with his line, And partly that I did his sire some wrong, And partly that bright names will hallow song; And his was of the bravest, and when shower'd The death-bolts deadliest the thinn'd files along, Even where the thickest of war's tempest lower'd, They reach'd no nobler breast than thine, young, gallant Howard! XXX. There have been tears and breaking hearts for thee, With fruits and fertile promise, and the spring I turn'd from all she brought to those she could not bring." XXXI. I turn'd to thee, to thousands, of whom each The archangel's trump, not glory's, must awake So honour'd but assumes a stronger, bitterer claim. |