Marmion

But scant three miles the band had rode, 
  When o’er a height they pass’d, 
And, sudden, close before them show’d 
  His towers, Tantallon vast;

Broad, massive, high, and stretching far, 
And held impregnable in war. 
On a projecting rock they rose, 
And round three sides the ocean flows, 
The fourth did battled walls enclose, 
  And double mound and fosse.          
By narrow drawbridge, outworks strong, 
Through studded gates, an entrance long, 
  To the main court they cross.

It was a wide and stately square: 
Around were lodgings, fit and fair, 
  And towers of various form, 
Which on the court projected far, 
And broke its lines quadrangular. 
Here was square keep, there turret high, 
Or pinnacle that sought the sky,              
Whence oft the Warder could descry 
  The gathering ocean-storm.

XXXIV.

Here did they rest.-The princely care 
Of Douglas, why should I declare, 
Or say they met reception fair?    
  Or why the tidings say, 
Which, varying, to Tantallon came, 
By hurrying posts, or fleeter fame, 
  With every varying day?

And, first, they heard King James had won 
  Etall, and Wark, and Ford; and then, 
  That Norham Castle strong was ta’en. 
At that sore marvell’d Marmion;-

And Douglas hoped his Monarch’s hand 
Would soon subdue Northumberland:   

  But whisper’d news there came, 
That, while his host inactive lay, 
And melted by degrees away, 
King James was dallying off the day 
  With Heron’s wily dame.-           

Such acts to chronicles I yield; 
  Go seek them there, and see: 
Mine is a tale of Flodden Field, 
  And not a history.-

At length they heard the Scottish host 
On that high ridge had made their post, 
 Which frowns o’er Millfield Plain; 
And that brave Surrey many a band 
Had gather’d in the Southern land, 
And march’d into Northumberland, 
  And camp at Wooler ta’en.

Marmion, like charger in the stall, 
That hears, without, the trumpet-call, 
  Began to chafe, and swear:- 
‘A sorry thing to hide my head 
In castle, like a fearful maid, 
  When such a field is near!

Needs must I see this battle-day: 
Death to my fame if such a fray 
Were fought, and Marmion away!

The Douglas, too, I wot not why, 
Hath ‘bated of his courtesy: 
No longer in his halls I’ll stay.’ 
Then bade his band they should array 
For march against the dawning day.