XXXIII.

But scant three miles the band had rode, When o’er a height they passed, And, sudden, close before them showed His towers, Tantallon vast; Broad, massive, high, and stretching far, And held impregnable in war, On a projecting rock they rose, And round three sides the ocean flows, The fourth did battled walls enclose, And double mound and fosse. By narrow drawbridge, outworks strong, Through studded gates, an entrance long, To the main court they cross; It was a wide and stately square; Around were lodgings, fit and fair, And towers of various form, Which on the court projected far, And broke its lines quadrangular. Here was square keep, there turret high, Or pinnacle that sought the sky, Whence oft the warder could descry The gathering ocean-storm.