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

92 ROKEBY. [CANTO I1.
Who deem his forfeit limbs shall pay
The tribute of his bold essay.
xv.
See, he emerges!-desperate now 1
All further course-Yon beetling brow,
In craggy nakedness. sublime,
What heart or foot shall dare to climb?
It bears no tendril for his clasp,
Presents no angle to his grasp:
Sole stay his foot may rest upon,
Is yon earth-bedded jetting stone.
Balanced on such precarious prop,2
He strains his grasp to reach the top.
Just as the dangerous stretch he makes,
By heaven, his faithless footstool shakes!
Beneath its tottering bulk it bends,
It sways,... it loosens,... it descends!
And downward holds its headlong way,
Crashing o'er rock and copsewood spray.
Loud thunders shake the echoing dell!Fell it alone?-alone it fell.
1 [MS.-" See, he emerges!-desperate now
Toward the naked beetling brow,
His progress-heart and foot must fail
Yon utmost crag's bare peak to scale."]
2 [MS.-" Perch'd like an eagle on its top,
Balanced on its uncertain prop.
Just as the perilous stretch he makes,
By heaven, his tottering footstool shakes."]