Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 2

Book 11. An EPIC POEM. 33
not heard. I tremble for the fon of Fingal.
*' Wliy Ihould the foe come by night ? Why
fliould the dark-haired warrior fail ?" Diftant,
fullen murmurs rife : like the noife of the lake
of Lego, when its waters fhrink, in the days of
froft, and all its burfting ice refounds. The
people of Lara look to heaven, and forefee the
ftorm ! My fteps are forward on the heath. The
fpear of Ofcar in my hand ! Red ftars looked
from high. I gleamed, along the night.
I SAW Fillan filent before me, bending for-
ward from Mora's rock. He heard the Ihout
of the foe. The joy of his foul arofe. He heard
my founding tread, and turned his lifted fpean
*' Comeft thou, fon of night, in peace ? Or doft
thou meet my wrath ? The foes of Fingal are
mine. Speak, or fear my fleel. I ftand not,
in vain, the lliield of Morven's race." " Never
nnyil thou ftand in vain, fan of blue eyed
Clatho ! Fingal begins to be alone. Dark-
nefs gathers on the laft of his days. Yet he has
two * fons who ought to lliinc in v/ar. Who
ought
• That is, two fons in Ireland. Fergus, the fecond fon of
Fingal, was, at that time, on an expedition, which is men-
tioned in one of the lefTer poems. He, according to fome tra-
ditions, was the anceftor of Fergus, the fon of Ere or Arcath,
commonly called Fergus the fecond in the Scotch h-iftories. The
beginning of the reign of Fergus, over the Scots, is placed, by
the moit approved annals of jcotland, in the fourth year of the
Vol.. II. D ^fth