Is it the hand of Clare," he said, "Or injured Constance, bathes my head?” 66 Then, as remembrance rose,— Speak not to me of shrift or prayer! I must redress her woes. Short space, few words, are mine to spare; O think of your immortal weal! Lord Marmion started from the ground, As light as if he felt no wound; Though in the action burst the tide, Would spare me but a day! For wasting fire, and dying groan, Might bribe him for delay. XXXIII. With fruitless labour, Clara bound, And strove to staunch, the gushing wound : Ever, he said, that, close and near, And that the priest he could not hear, For that she ever sung, "In the lost battle, borne down by the flying, Where mingles war's rattle with groans of the dying!" So the notes rung; "Avoid thee, Fiend!-with cruel hand, O think on faith and bliss!- But never aught like this." A light on Marmion's visage spread, With dying hand, above his head He shook the fragment of his blade, And shouted" Victory!— "Charge, Chester, charge! On, Stanley, on!".... Were the last words of Marmion. XXXIV. By this, though deep the evening fell, Still rose the battle's deadly swell, For still the Scots, around their king, Unbroken, fought in desperate ring. Where's now their victor vaward wing, Where Huntley, and where Home? O for a blast of that dread horn, On Fontarabian echoes borne, That to King Charles did come, When Rowland brave, and Olivier, And every paladin and peer, On Roncesvalles died! Such blast might warn them, not in vain, To quit the plunder of the slain, And turn the doubtful day again, While yet on Flodden side, Afar, the Royal Standard flies, And round it toils and bleeds and dies, In vain the wish-for far away, And placed her on her steed; And led her to the chapel fair, Of Tilmouth upon Tweed. There all the night they spent in prayer, XXXV. But as they left the dark'ning heath, That fought around their king. But yet, though thick the shafts as snow, Though charging knights like whirlwinds go, Though bill-men deal the ghastly blow, Unbroken was the ring; The stubborn spear-men still made good 3 |