The World's Greatest Books [Volumes 1-15, 17-20]

For feat of strength, or exercise,

Shaped in proportion fair; And hazel was his eagle eye, And auburn of the darkest dye

His short curled beard and hair. Light was his footstep in the dance,

And firm his stirrup in the lists; And, oh! he had that merry glance

That seldom lady's heart resists. Lightly from fair to fair he flew, And loved to plead, lament, and sue— Suit lightly won, and short-lived pain, For monarchs seldom sigh in vain.

Marmion was then told that the English aggressions on the border had been so deliberate and serious as to leave little hope of peace being maintained, but he was bidden to accept the hospitality of Lord Angus at Tantallon Castle till the return of the herald who had been sent into England to demand satisfaction for these injuries. Meantime, the Abbess of Whitby, returning by sea with Clara, from the condemnation of Constance, was captured and brought to Edinburgh. To her horror, she and her train were placed by the Scottish monarch under the charge of Marmion, and directed to remain with him at Tantallon, and finally to be conducted by him to England, where Clara would be handed over to her kinsman, Lord Fitz Clara. But having been allowed to accept an invitation to stop at a convent of Cistercian nuns near North Berwick, the holy mother became separated from Clara and the Palmer, but not before she had placed in the hands of the latter the documents establishing the innocence of de Wilton and the treachery of Marmion which she had received from Constance at her trial.

Canto III

One night, when she was pacing the battlements of Tantallon Castle, absorbed in thoughts of religion and of de Wilton, Clara found some armour lying in her path, and was wondering what it was doing there when suddenly de Wilton himself confronted her. He told her how, after recovering from the wounds received in the combat with Marmion, he had left England and had travelled as a palmer in many foreign lands; how, still in this guise, he had come to Norham and guided his mortal enemy to Scotland; how at Gifford Moor he had had a midnight encounter with Marmion and beaten him to the earth; how the Abbess of Whitby had given him documents which cleared his

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hame and incriminated Marmion; how he bad told his tale to Douglas, Lord Angus, and was to be re-knighted by him on the morrow, and how he meant immediately afterwards to repair to Surrey's camp to aid his country's cause in the great battle which was then impending. Needless to tell the joy of Clara, who assisted him in girding on his knightly armour and watched him ride forth at break of day.

Meantime, Marmion, impatient for the battle, left the Castle a little later on the same errand, accompanied by Clara, but not before he had quarrelled with his host, who refused to take his hand at parting. It was not long before he missed the Palmer from his company, and on making enquiries learned how that holy man, arrayed in armour, mounted on one of Lord Angus's steeds, and looking very like de Wilton, had left Tantallon earlier in the day.

The instant that Fitz-Eustace spoke, A sudden light on Marmion broke; " Ah ! dastard fool, to reason lost! " He muttered: " 'Twas not fay nor ghost I met upon the moonlight wold, But living man of earthly mould.

O dotage blind and gross! Had I but fought as wont, one thrust Had laid de Wilton in the dust,

My path no more to cross. How stand we now? He told his tale To Douglas; and with some avail;

'Twas therefore gloomed his rugged brow— Will Surrey dare to entertain 'Gainst Marmion charge disproved and vain?

Small risk of that, I trow, Yet Clare's sharp questions must I shun, Must separate Constance from the nun— Oh! what a tangled web we weave When first we practice to deceive! A Palmer, too!—no wonder why I felt rebuked beneath his eye: I might have known there was but one Whose look could quell Lord Marmion."

Stung with these thoughts, Marmion urged on his troops, and by evening reached the Tweed* In the morning, however, the

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sight of the two armies encamped near Flodden drove away his gloom, and leaving Clara on an eminence in the rear in charge of two of his squires, he straightway galloped to Lord Surrey, who joyfully greeted him and assigned him a position in the vanguard lines. Meantime, as the battle progressed and the fortune of the day seemed going against England, first one squire, Blount, and then the other, Eustace, deserted Clara and plunged into the fight. But she was not left long alone before Marmion was brought back by Blount and Eustace, mortally wounded.

When, doffed his casque, he felt free air,

Around 'gan Marmion wildly stare:

" Where's Harry Blount? Fitz-Eustace where?

Linger ye here, ye hearts of hare!

Redeem my pennon—charge again!

Cry, ' Marmion to the rescue!' Vain—

That shout shall ne'er be heard again!

Yet my last thought is England's: fly—

To Dacre bear my signet-ring:

Tell him his squadrons up to bring. Fitz-Eustace, to Lord Surrey hie.

Tunstall lies dead upon the field—

His life-blood stains the spotless shield;

Edmund is down; my life is reft;