XXX.

Still on the spot Lord Marmion stayed, For fairer scene he ne’er surveyed. When sated with the martial show That peopled all the plain below, The wandering eye could o’er it go, And mark the distant city glow With gloomy splendour red; For on the smoke-wreaths, huge and slow, That round her sable turrets flow, The morning beams were shed, And tinged them with a lustre proud, Like that which streaks a thunder-cloud. Such dusky grandeur clothed the height, Where the huge castle holds its state, And all the steep slope down, Whose ridgy back heaves to the sky, Piled deep and massy, close and high, Mine own romantic town! But northward far, with purer blaze, On Ochil mountains fell the rays, And as each heathy top they kissed, It gleamed a purple amethyst. Yonder the shores of Fife you saw; Here Preston Bay and Berwick Law: And, broad between them rolled, The gallant Frith the eye might note, Whose islands on its bosom float, Like emeralds chased in gold. Fitz Eustace’ heart felt closely pent; As if to give his rapture vent, The spur he to his charger lent, And raised his bridle hand, And making demivolte in air, Cried, “Where’s the coward that would not dare To fight for such a land!” The Lindesay smiled his joy to see; Nor Marmion’s frown repressed his glee.