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sun, and shakes its lonely head. The hum of the mountain-bee is near it; the hunter sees it, with joy, from the blasted heath.

Young Fillan at a distance stood. His helmet lay glittering on the ground. His dark hair is loose to the blast: a beam of light is Clatho's son. He heard the words of the king with joy; and leaned forward on

his spear.

"My son," said car-borne Fingal; "I saw thy deeds, and my soul was glad. The fame of our fathers, I said, bursts from its gathered cloud. Thou art brave, son of Clatha; but headlong in the strife.

So did not Fingal advance, though he never feared a foe. Let thy people be a ridge behind; they are thy strength in the field. Then shalt thou be long renowned, and behold the tombs of thy fathers. The memory of the past returns, my deeds in other years: when first I descended from ocean on the green-valleyed isle." We bend towards the voice of the king. The moon looks abroad from her cloud. The greyskirted mist is near the dwelling of the ghosts.

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The Argument.

The second night continues. Fingal relates, at the feast, his own first expedition into Ireland, and his marriage with Ros-crana, the daughter of Cormac, king of that island. The Irish chiefs convene in the presence of Cathmor. The situation of the king described. The story of Sul-malla, the daughter of Con-mor, king of Inis-huna, who, in the disguise of a young warrior, had followed Cathmor to the war. The sullen behaviour of Foldath, who had commanded in the battle of the preceding day, renews the difference between him and Malthos; but Cathmor interposing, ends it. The chiefs feast, and hear the song of Fonar the bard. Cathmor retires to rest, at a distance from the army. The ghost of his brother Cairbar appears to him in a dream; and obscurely foretels the issue of the war. The soliloquy of the king. He discovers Sul-malla. Morning comes. Her soliloquy closes the book.

BOOK IV.

"BENEATH d an oak," said the king, “I sat on Selma's streamy rock, when Connal rose, from the sea, with the broken spear of Duth-caron. Far distant stood the youth, and turned away his eyes; for he remembered the steps of his father, on his own green hills. I darkened in my place: dusky thoughts rolled over my soul. The kings of Erin rose before me. I halfunsheathed my sword. Slowly approached the chiefs; they lifted up their silent eyes. Like a ridge of clouds, they wait for the bursting forth of my voice: it was to them a wind from heaven to roll the mist away.

"I bad my white sails to rise, before the roar of Cona's wind. Three hundred youths looked, from their waves, on Fingal's bossy shield. High on the mast it hung, and marked the dark-blue sea. But when the night came down, I struck, at times, the warning boss: I struck, and looked on high, for fiery-haired Ul-erin'. Nor wanting was the star of heaven: it travelled red

d This episode has an immediate connection with the story of Connal and Duth-caron, in the latter end of the third book. Fingal, sitting beneath an oak, near the palace of Selma, discovers Connal just landing from Ireland. The danger which threatened Cormac, king of Ireland, induces him to sail immediately to that island. The story is introduced, by the king, as a pattern for the future behaviour of Fillan, whose rashness in the preceding battle is reprimanded.

Ul-erin, the guide to Ireland,' a star known by that name in the days of Fingal, nd very useful to those who sailed, by night, from the Hebrides, or Caledonia, to e coast of Ulster.

between the clouds: I pursued the lovely beam, on the faint-gleaming deep. With morning, Erin rose in mist. We came into the bay of Moi-lena, where its blue waters tumbled, in the bosom of echoing woods. Here Cormac, in his secret hall, avoided the strength of Colculla. Nor he alone avoids the foe: the blue eye of Ros-crana is there : Ros-crana white-handed maid, the daughter of the king.

"Grey, on his pointless spear, came forth the aged steps of Cormac. He smiled, from his waving locks, but grief was in his soul. He saw us few before him, and his sigh arose. "I see the arms of Trenmor," he said; and these are the steps of the king! Fingal! thou art a beam of light to Cormac's darkened soul. Early is thy fame, my son: but strong are the foes of Erin. They are like the roar of streams in the land, son of car-borne Comhal."

"Yet they may be rolled away," I said, in my rising soul. "We are not of the race of the feeble, king of blue-shielded hosts. Why should fear come amongst us, like a ghost of night? The soul of the valiant grows, as foes increase in the field. Roll no darkness, king of Erin, on the young in war."

"The bursting tears of the king came down. He seized my hand in silence. "Race of the daring Trenmor, I roll no cloud before thee. Thou burnest in the fire of thy fathers. I behold thy fame. It marks thy course in battles, like a stream of light. coming of Cairbar": my son must join thy sword. He calls the sons of Ullin, from all their distant streams."

But wait the

f Ros-crana, 'the beam of the rising sun;' she was the mother of Ossian. The Irish bards relate strange fictions of this princess. Their stories, however, concerning Fingal, if they mean by him Fion Mac-comhal, are so inconsistent, and notoriously fabulous, that they do not deserve to be mentioned; for they evidently bear along with them the marks of late invention.

Cormac had said that his foes were "like the roar of streams," and Fingal continues the metaphor. The speech of the young hero is spirited, and consistent with that sedate intrepidity, which eminently distinguishes his character throughout.

b Cairbar, the son of Cormac, was afterwards king of Ireland. His reign was short. He was succeeded by his son Artho, the father of that Cormac who was murdered by Cairbar, the son of Borbar-duthul. Cairbar, the son of Cormac, long after his son Artho was grown to man's estate, had, by his wife Beltanno, another son, whose name was Ferard-artho. He was the only one remaining of the race of Conar the first king of Ireland, when Fingal's expedition against Cairbar the son of Borbar-duthul hap pened. See more of Ferard-artho in the eighth book. M

VOL. II.

We came to the hall of the king, where it rose in the midst of rocks: rocks, on whose dark sides were the mark of streams of old. Broad oaks bend around with their moss: the thick birch waves its green head. Half-hid, in her shady grove, Ros-crano raised the song. Her white hands rose on the harp. I beheld her bluerolling eyes. She was like a spirit of heaven half-folded in the skirt of a cloud.

"Three days we feasted at Moi-lena; she rose bright amidst my troubled soul. Cormac beheld me dark. He gave the white-bosomed maid. She came with bending eye, amidst the wandering of her heavy locks. She came. Straight the battle roared. Colc-ulla rushed; I seized my spear. My sword rose, with my people, against the ridgy foe. Alnecma fled. Fingal returned with fame.

Colc-ulla fell.

"He is renowned, O Fillan, who fights, in the strength of his people, The_bard pursues his steps, through the land of the foe. But he who fights alone, few are his deeds to other times. He shines to-day a mighty light. To-morrow, he is low. One song contains his fame. His name is on one dark field. He is forgot, but where his tomb sends forth the tufts of grass."

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Such were the words of Fingal, on Mora of the roes. Three bards, from the rock of Cormul, poured down the pleasant song. Sleep descended, in the sound, on

The attitude of Ros-crana is aptly illustrated by this simile; for the ideas of those fimes concerning the spirits of the deceased, were not so gloomy and disagreeable as those of succeeding ages. The spirits of women, it was supposed, retained that bezoty which they possessed while living, and transported themselves, from place to play, with that gliding motion, which Homer ascribes to the gods. The descriptions which poets, less ancient than Ossian, have left us of those beautiful figures, that appeared sometimes on the hills, are elegant and picturesque. They compare them to the rain. bow on streams;' or the gliding of sun-beams on the hills'

A chief who lived three centuries ago, returning from the war, understood that his wife or mistress was dead. The bard introduces him speaking the following soliloquy, when he cane within sight of the place where he had left her, at his departure.

"My soul darkens in sorrow. I behold not the smoke of my hall. No grey ¿x bounds at my streams. Silence dwells in the valley of trees.

"Is that a rain-bow on Crunath? It flies: and the sky is dark. Again, thou movest, bright on the heath, thou sun-beam clothed in a shower! Ha! is it she, my love: her gliding course on the bosom of winds!"

In succeeding times the beauty of Ros-crana passed into a proverb, and the highest compliment that could be paid to a woman, was to compare her person with the daugh ter of Cormac.

'S tu fein an Ros-crana.

Siol Chormaec na n’joma lan.

the broad-skirted host. Carril returned, with the bards, from the tomb of Dun-lora's king. The voice of morning shall not come, to the dusky bed of the hero. No more shalt thou hear the tread of roes, around thy narrow house.

As roll the troubled clouds, round a meteor of night, when they brighten their sides with its light, along the heaving sea: so gathered Erin, around the gleaming form of Atha's king. He, tall in the midst, careless lifts, at times, his spear: as swells or falls the sound of Fonar's distant harp. Near him leaned, against a rock, Sul-malla of blue eyes, the white-bosomed daughter of Con-mor, king of Inis-huna. To his aid came blue-shielded Cathmor, and rolled his foes away. Sulmalla beheld him stately in the hall of feasts; nor careless rolled the eyes of Cathmor on the long-haired

maid.

The third day arose, and Fithilm came from Erin of the streams. He told of the lifting up of the shield"

In order to illustrate this passage, I shall give, here, the history on which it is founded, as I have gathered it from other poems. The nation of the Firbolg, who in habited the South of Ireland, being originally descended from the Belga, who possessed the south and south-west coast of Britain, kept up, for many ages, an amicable correspondence with their mother country; and sent aid to the British Belge, when they were pressed by the Romans or other new comers from the continent. Con-mor king of Inis-huna, (that part of South Britain which is over against the Irish coast) being attacked, by what enemy is not mentioned, sent for aid to Cairbar, lord of Atha, the most potent chief of the Firbolg. Cairbar dispatched his brother Cathmor to the assistance of Con-mor. Cathmor, after various vicissitudes of fortune, put an end to the war, by the total defeat of the enemies of Inis-huna, and returned in triumph to the residence of Con-mor. There, at a feast, Sul-malla, the daughter of Con-mor, fell desperately in love with Cathmor, who, before her passion was disclosed, was recalled to Ireland, by his brother Cairbar, upon the news of the intended expedition of Fingal, to re-establish the family of Conar on the Irish throne. The wind being contrary, Cathmor remained, for three days, in a neighbouring bay, during which time, Sul-malla disguised herself in the habit of a young warrior, and came to offer him her service in the war, Cathmor accepted of the proposal, sailed to Ireland, and arrived in Ulster a few days before the death of Cairbar.

island.'

·

Sul-malla, slowly rolling eyes. Caon-mor, mild and tall.' Inis-huna, greenm Fithil, an inferior bard.' It may either be taken here for the proper name of a man, or in the literal sense, as the bards were the heralds and messengers of those times. Cathmor, it is probable, was absent, when the rebellion of his brother Cairbar, and the assassination of Cormac king of Ireland happened. The traditions, which are handed down with the poem, say that Cathmor and his followers had only arrived from Inis-huna, three days before the death of Cairbar, which sufficiently clears his charac ter from any imputation of being concerned in the conspiracy with his brother.

related by Ossian in one of his lesser poems. The ceremony which was used by Fingal, when he prepared for an expedition, is A bard, at midnight, went to the hall, where the tribes feasted upon solemn occasions, raised the war song, and thrice called the spirits of their deceased ancestors, to come, on their clouds, and behold the actions of their children. He then fixed the shield of Trenmor, on a tree on the rock of Selma, striking it, at times, with the blunt end of a spear, and singing the war song between. Thus he did, for three successive nights, and in the mean time, messengers were dispatched to convene the tribes; or, as Ossian expresses it, to call them from all their streams. This phrase alludes to the situation of the residence of the clans,

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