Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 1

378 THE WAR OF CAROS:
bard !" " And do thine eyes," said Oscar, " be-
hold the chief, hke the dim meteor of night?
Say, Ryno, say, how fell Hidallan, the renowned
in the days of my fathers ? His name remains
on the rocks of Cona. I have often seen the
streams of his hills ! "
Fingal, replied the bard, drove Hidallan
from his wars. The king's soul was sad for
Comala, and his eyes could not behold the chief.
Lonely, sad along the heath, he slowly moved,
with silent steps. His arms hang disordered on
his side. His hair flies loose from his brow.
The tear is in his down-cast eyes ; a sigh half-
silent in his breast ! Three days he strayed un-
seen, alone, before he came to Lamor's halls:
the mossy halls of his fathers, at the stream of
Balva. ^ There Lamor sat alone beneath a tree;
for he had sent his people with Hidallan to war.
The stream ran at his feet, his grey head rested
on his staff. Sightless are his aged eyes. He
hums the song of other times. The noise of
Hidallan's feet came to his ear : he knew the
tread of his son.
" Is the son of Lamor returned ; or is it the
sound of his ghost? Hast thou fallen on the
s This is perhaps that small stream, still retaining the name
of Balva, which runs through the romantic valley of Glentivar
in Stirlingshire. Balva signifies a silent stream; and Glentivar
the sequestered vale.