Marmion

To me they make a heavy moan,
Of early friendships past and gone.

XXV.

But different far the change has been, 
  Since Marmion, from the crown 
Of Blackford, saw that martial scene 
  Upon the bent so brown: 
Thousand pavilions, white as snow,   
Spread all the Borough-moor below, 
  Upland, and dale, and down:- 
A thousand did I say? I ween, 
Thousands on thousands there were seen 
That chequer’d all the heath between    
  The streamlet and the town;

In crossing ranks extending far, 
Forming a camp irregular; 
Oft giving way, where still there stood 
Some relics of the old oak wood,         
That darkly huge did intervene, 
And tamed the glaring white with green:

In these extended lines there lay 
A martial kingdom’s vast array.

XXVI.

For from Hebudes, dark with rain,   
To eastern Lodon’s fertile plain, 
And from the southern Redswire edge, 
To farthest Rosse’s rocky ledge: 

From west to east, from south to north, 
Scotland sent all her warriors forth.       
Marmion might hear the mingled hum 
Of myriads up the mountain come;

The horses’ tramp, and tingling clank, 
Where chiefs review’d their vassal rank, 
  And charger’s shrilling neigh;                
And see the shifting lines advance, 
While frequent flash’d, from shield and lance, 
  The sun’s reflected ray.

XXVII.

Thin curling in the morning air, 
The wreaths of failing smoke declare  
To embers now the brands decay’d, 
Where the night-watch their fires had made.

They saw, slow rolling on the plain, 
Full many a baggage-cart and wain, 
And dire artillery’s clumsy car,        
By sluggish oxen tugg’d to war;

And there were Borthwick’s Sisters Seven, 
And culverins which France had given. 
Ill-omen’d gift! the guns remain 
The conqueror’s spoil on Flodden plain. 

XXVIII.

Nor mark’d they less, where in the air 
A thousand streamers flaunted fair; 
  Various in shape, device, and hue, 
  Green, sanguine, purple, red, and blue,