MARMION. CANTO SIXTH The Battle. I. WHILE great events were on the gale, And hopes were none, that back again Where England's King in leaguer lay, Before decisive battle-day; While these things were, the mournful Clare Did in the Dame's devotions share : For the good Countess ceaseless pray'd To Heaven and Saints, her sons to aid, From prayer to book, from book to mass, A life both dull and dignified ; Yet as Lord Marmion nothing press'd Upon her intervals of rest, Dejected Clara well could bear The formal state, the lengthen'd prayer, Though dearest to her wounded heart The hours that she might spend apart. II. I said, Tantallon's dizzy steep Hung o'er the margin of the deep. |