Page:Marmion - Walter Scott (ed. Bayne, 1889).pdf/188

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MARMION.
VI.De Wilton's History.'Forget we that disastrous day,170When senseless in the lists I lay. Thence dragg'd,—but how I cannot know,  For sense and recollection fled,— I found me on a pallet low,  Within my ancient beadsman's shed.175 Austin,—remember'st thou, my Clare,How thou didst blush, when the old man,When first our infant love began, Said we would make a matchless pair?—Menials, and friends, and kinsmen fled180From the degraded traitor's bed,—He only held my burning head,And tended me for many a day,While wounds and fever held their sway.But far more needful was his care,185When sense return'd to wake despair; For I did tear the closing wound, And dash me frantic on the ground,If e'er I heard the name of Clare.At length, to calmer reason brought,190Much by his kind attendance wrought, With him I left my native strand,And, in a Palmer's weeds array'dMy hated name and form to shade, I journey'd many a land;195No more a lord of rank and birth,But mingled with the dregs of earth. Oft Austin for my reason fear'd,When I would sit, and deeply broodOn dark revenge, and deeds of blood,200 Or wild mad schemes uprear'd.My friend at length fell sick, and said, God would remove him soon:And, while upon his dying bed, He begg'd of me a boon—
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