Page:Marmion - Walter Scott (ed. Bayne, 1889).pdf/183

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CANTO VI.
153

CANTO SIXTH.

THE BATTLE.

I.While great events were on the gale,And each hour brought a varying tale,And the demeanour, changed and cold,Of Douglas, fretted Marmion bold,5And, like the impatient steed of war,He snuff'd the battle from afar;And hopes were none, that back againHerald should come from Terouenne,Where England's King in leaguer lay,10Before decisive battle-day;Whilst these things were, the mournful ClareDid in the Dame's devotions share:For the good Countess ceaseless pray'dTo Heaven and Saints, her sons to aid.15And, with short interval, did passFrom 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'd20Upon her intervals of rest,Dejected Clara well could bearThe formal state, the lengthen'd prayer,Though dearest to her wounded heartThe hours that she might spend apart.
II.25I said, Tantallon's dizzy steepHung o'er the margin of the deep.
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