I 5: bards and raise a tomb. To-night let Connal dwell within his narrow houfe: let not the foul of the valiant wander on the winds. Faint glimmers the moon on Moi-lena, thro' the broad-headed groves of the hill: raise ftones, beneath its beams, to all the fallen in war. Tho' no chiefs were they, yet their hands were ftrong in fight. They were my rock in danger the mountain from which I fpread my eagle-wings.-Thence am I renowned: Carril forget not the low. -- Loud, at once, from the hundred bards, rofe the fong of the tomb. Carril ftrode before them, they are the murmur of ftreams behind him. Silence dwells in the vales of Moi-lena, where each, with its own dark ftream, is winding between the hills. I heard the voice of the bards, leffening, as they moved along. I leaned forward from my shield; and felt the kindling of my foul. Half-formed the words of my fong, burft forth upon the wind. So hears a tree, on the vale, the voice of fpring around: it pours its green leaves to the fun, and shakes its lonely head. The hum of the mountain bee is near it; the hunter fees it, with joy, from the blafted heath. Young Fillan, at a distance ftood. His helmet lay glittering on the ground. His dark hair is loose to the blaft: a beam of ligh is Clatho's fon. He heard the words of the king, with joy; and leaned forward on his fpear. My fon, faid car-borne Fingal, I faw thy deeds, and my foul was glad. The fame of our fathers, I faid, burfts from its gathered cloud.-Thou art brave, son of Clatho; but headlong in the ftrife. So did not Fingal advance, tho' he never feared a foe.-Let thy people be a ridge behind; they are thy ftrength in the field.-Then shalt thou be long renowned, and behold the tombs of thy fathers. The memory of the paft returns, my deeds in other years when first I defcended from ocean on the green-valleyed ifle. We bend towards the voice of the king. The moon looks abroad from her cloud. The grey-skirted mift is near, the dwelling of the ghofts. The fecond night continues. Fingal relates, at the feaft, his own firft expedition into Ireland and his marriage with Roscrána, the daughter of Cormac, king of that ifland. The Irish chiefs convene in the prefence of Cathmor. The fituation of the king defcribed. The ftory of Sul-malla, the daughter of Conmor, king of Inishuna, who in the difguife of a young warrior, had followed Cathmor to the war. The fullen behaviour of Foldath, who had commanded in the battle of the preceding day renews the difference between him and Malthes; but Cathmor, interpofing, ends it. The chiefs feaft, and hear the fong of Fonar the bard. Cathmor returns to reft, at a distance from the army. The ghost of his brother Cairbar appears to him in a dream; and obfcurely foretels the iffue of the war. The foliloquy of the king. He difcovers Sul-malla. Morning comes. Her Soliloquy clofes the book. , TEMOR A: AN EPIC POEM. BOOK FOURTH. (1) BENEATH an oak, faid the king, I fat on Selma's ftreamy rock, when Connal rofe, from the fea, with the broken fpear of Duth-caron. Far-distant stood the youth, and turned away his eyes; for he remembered the fteps of his father, on his own green hills. I darkened in my place dusky thoughts rolled over my foul. The kings of Erin rofe before me. I half- unsheated my fword. Slowly approached the chiefs; they lifted up their filent eyes. Like a ridge of clouds, they wait for the bursting forth of my voice: (1) This episode has an immediate connection with the ftory of Connal and Duth caron in the latter end of the third book. Fingal, fitting beneath an oak, near the palace of Selma, difcovers Connal juft landing from Ireland. The danger which threatened Cormac king of Ireland induces him to fail immediately to that ifland.- -The story is introduced, by the king, as a pattern for the future behaviour of Fillan, whofe rashness in the preceding battle is reprimanded. VOL. III. G |