Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

448 THE POEMSOf OSSIA.V.
blue sea. But when night came down, I struck,
at times, the warning boss : 1 struck, and looked
on high, for fiery-haired Ul-erin.* Nor absent
was the star of heaven. It travelled red 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-Iena,
where its blue waters tumbled, in the bosom of
echoing woods. Here Cormac, in his secret halls
avoids the strength of Colc-ulla. Nor he alone,
avoids the foe. The blue eye of Ros-cranna is
there: Ros-cranna, white-handed maid, the daugh-
ter of the king !
' Gray, on his pointless spear came forth the
aged steps of Cormac. He smiled from his wav-
ing 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 I Why should fear come amongst us, like
a ghost of night. The soul of the valiant grows
when foes increase in the field. Roll no dark-
ness, 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 !" at length he said, " I roll no
cloud before thee. Thou burnest in the fire of
thy fathers. I behold thy fame. It marks thy
course in battle, like a stream of light. But wait
the coming of Cairbar; my son must join tiiy
* Ul-erin. 'the guide to Ireland/ a star known by thai
name in the days of Fingal.