For in this haunted den, I trow, All night they trampled to and fro.’- The laughing host look’d on the hire,- ‘Gramercy, gentle southern squire, And if thou comest among the rest, With Scottish broadsword to be blest, Sharp be the brand, and sure the blow, And short the pang to undergo.’Here stay’d their talk,-for Marmion Gave now the signal to set on. The Palmer showing forth the way, They journey’d all the morning day.
IV.
The green-sward way was smooth and good, Through Humbie’s and through Saltoun’s wood;A forest-glade, which, varying still, Here gave a view of dale and hill, There narrower closed, till over head A vaulted screen the branches made. ‘A pleasant path,’ Fitz-Eustace said; ‘Such as where errant-knights might see Adventures of high chivalry;Might meet some damsel flying fast, With hair unbound, and looks aghast;And smooth and level course were here, In her defence to break a spear. Here, too, are twilight nooks and dells; And oft, in such, the story tells, The damsel kind, from danger freed, Did grateful pay her champion’s meed.’He spoke to cheer Lord Marmion’s mind; Perchance to show his lore design’d; For Eustace much had pored Upon a huge romantic tome, In the hall-window of his home, Imprinted at the antique dome Of Caxton, or de Worde.Therefore he spoke,-but spoke in vain, For Marmion answer’d nought again.
V.
Now sudden, distant trumpets shrill, In notes prolong’d by wood and hill, Were heard to echo far; Each ready archer grasp’d his bow, But by the flourish soon they know, They breathed no point of war.Yet cautious, as in foeman’s land, Lord Marmion’s order speeds the band, Some opener ground to gain; And scarce a furlong had they rode, When thinner trees, receding, show’d A little woodland plain. Just in that advantageous glade, The halting troop a line had made, As forth from the opposing shade Issued a gallant train.
VI.
First came the trumpets, at whose clang So late the forest echoes rang;
