MARMION. CANTO SIXTH. The Battle. 1. WHILE great events were on the gale, And hopes were none, that back again Where England's King in leaguer lay, Before decisive battle-day; While these things were, the mournful Clare Did in the Dame's devotions share : For the good Countess ceaseless pray'd To Heaven and Saints, her sons to aid, From prayer to book, from book to mass, And all in high baronial pride,— A life both dull and dignified; Yet as Lord Marmion nothing press'd Upon her intervals of rest, Dejected Clara well could bear The formal state, the lengthen'd prayer; The hours that she might spend apart. II. I said, Tantallon's dizzy steep Hung o'er the margin of the deep. |