The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott ... Notes & life of the author.

CA1STO VL BOIE".'Twas while he toil'd him to be freed,
And with the rein to raise the steed,
That from amazement's iron trance
All Wycliffe's soldiers wak'd at once.
Sword, halberd, musket-but, their blows
Hail'd upon Bertram as he rose;
| i A score of pikes, with each a wound,
Bore down and pinn'd him to the ground;
But still his struggling force he rears,'Gainst hacking brands and stabbing spcLrsl
Thrice from assailants shook him free,
Once gain'd his feet, and twice his knee,
By tenfold odds oppress'd at length,
Despite his struggles and his strength,
He took a hundred mortal wounds,
As mute as fox'mongst mangling hounds
And when he died, his parting groan
Had more of laughter than of moan!
I -They gaz'd, as when a lion dies,
And hunters scarcely trust their eyes,
But bend their weapons on the slain,
Lest the grim king should rouse again!
Then blow and insult some renew'd,
And from the trunk, the head had hew'd,
But Basil's voice the deed forbade;
A mantle o'er the c6rse he laid:~ t ""Fell as he was in act and mind,
He left no bolder heart behind:
|i Then give him, for a soldier meet,
A soldier's cloak for windingsheet."
XXXIV.
No more of death and dying pang,
1 l1 No more of trump and bugle clang,
Though through the sounding woods there come
Banner and bugle, trump and drum,
Arm'd with such pow'rs as well had freed
Young Redmond at his utmost need,
And back'd with such a band of horse,
As might less ample pow'rs enforce;
Possess'd of ev'ry proof and sign
That gave an heir to Mortham's line,
And yielded to a father's arms
An image of his Edith's charms,
Mortham is come, to hear and see
Of this strange morn the history.
What saw he?-not the' church's floor,
Cumber'd with dead and stain'd with gore;