The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

50 -tROKEBY. [CANTO I.
Gain'd but the high and.happy lot,
In these poor arms to front the shot --
All this thou know'st, thy gestures tell;
Yet hear it o'er, and mark it well.'Tis honour bids me now relate
Each circumstance of Mortham's fate.
XIX.
" Thoughts, from the tongue that slowly part,
Glance quick as lightning through the heart.
As my spur press'd my courser's side,
Philip of Mortham's cause was tried,
And, ere the charging squadrons mix'd,
His plea was cast, his doom was fix'd.
I watch'd him through the doubtful fray,
That changed as March's moody day,l
Till, like a stream that bursts its bank,2
Fierce Rupert thunder'd on our flank.'Twas then, midst tumult, smoke, and strife,
Where each man fought for death or life,'Twas then I fired my petronel,
And Mortham, steed and rider, fell.
One dying look he upward cast
Of wrath and anguish-'twas his last.
1 [MS. —" That changed as with a whirlwind's sway."]
2 [ " dashing
On thy war-horse through the ranks,
Like a stream which burst its banks."
BYRON'S WorCks, vol. x. p. 275.]