Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

Book III.] F I N G A L. 49
' With eyes red rolling in ligr tears, she came.
* With raven-locks loose floating in the air, 1()5
* Her white breasts heaving with a thousand sighs
* (So swells protuberant streamy Lubar's foam) :
* Slie came — and Starno pierc'd her side with steel —
* And prostrate on the grouml the fair one fell ;
* So, when thro' all the grove still silence reigns, 110
' And echoes deepen in the winding vale ;
' From llonan's rocks descends a wreath of snow.
' Fingal tlicn strictly ey'd his valiant chiefs —
' His valiant chiefs directly flew to arms.
* The gloomy choice of certain death or flight 115
* The roaring battle then to Lochlin left.
* The maid of raven-hair now pale in death
* Secure within his bounding ship he clos'd.
* On Ardven high her stately tomb ascends,
* And loudly roar the billows of the main 120
* Round Agandecca's silent, dark abode.*
* May bliss attend her soul' Cuchuliin said,
* And blessed be the mouth of sweetest song !
* Strong was Fingal, when fir'd with youthful blood,
* And strong remains his potent arm of age! 125
' Before the king of echoing Morvcn's hills
* Again shall Lochlin fall upon the field.—
' Forth from a cloud, O moon, now dart thy face ;
' Light his white sails upon the wave of night.
' And, if on yonder loujing cloud there sit 130
' A pow'rful spirit clad with heav'nly strength ;
* From all the secret dangers of the rock
* His dark ships turn, thou rider of the storm.'
In these, or words like these, Cuchuliin spoke,
Where sounds the mountain-stream ; when up the hill 135