Page:Marmion - Walter Scott (ed. Bayne, 1889).pdf/167
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CANTO V.
137
A summons to proclaim;But indistinct the pageant proud,730As fancy forms of midnight cloud,When flings the moon upon her shroud A wavering tinge of flame;It flits, expands, and shifts, till loud,From midmost of the spectre crowd,735 This awful summons came:—
XXVI.'Prince, prelate, potentate, and peer, Whose names I now shall call,Scottish, or foreigner, give ear!Subjects of him who sent me here,740At his tribunal to appear, I summon one and all:I cite you by each deadly sin,That e'er hath soil'd your hearts within;I cite you by each brutal lust,745That e'er defiled your earthly dust,— By wrath, by pride, by fear,By each o'er-mastering passion's tone,By the dark grave, and dying groan!When forty days are pass'd and gone,750I cite you at your Monarch's throne, To answer and appear.'—Then thundered forth a roll of names:—The first was thine, unhappy James! Then all thy nobles came;755Crawford, Glencairn, Montrose, Argyle,Ross, Bothwell, Forbes, Lennox, Lyle,—Why should I tell their separate style? Each chief of birth and fame,Of Lowland, Highland, Border, Isle,760Fore-doom'd to Flodden's carnage pile, Was cited there by name;And Marmion, Lord of Fontenaye,Of Lutterward, and Scrivelbaye;