Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

336 The Poems of Ossian.
gon, the humid, rolling ey ts of Loi-jiia. Her yellow
hair flies on the wind of ocean. Her white breast
heaves, like snow on heath ; when the gentle winds
arise, and slowly move it in the light. She saw young
Aldo, like the beam of Sora's setting sun. Her
soft heart sighed. Tears filled her eyes. Her
white arm supported her head. Three days she sat
within the hall, and covered her grief with joy. On
the fourth she fled with the hero, along the troubled
sea. They came to Cona's mossy towers, to Fingal
king of spears.
" Aldo of the heart of pride 1" said Fingal, rising
in wrath ; shall I defend thee fi-om the rage of Sora's
injured king? Who will now receive my people
into their halls ? Who will give the feast of stran-
gers, since Aldo, of the little soul, has dishonoured
ray name in Sora ? Go to thy hills, thou feeble
hand ! Go : hide thee in thy caves. Mournful is
the battle we must fight, with Sora's gloomy king.
Spirit of the noble Trenmor ! when will Fingal cease
to fight ? I was born in the midst of battles,* and
my steps must move in blood to the tomb. But
my hand did not injure the weak, my steel did not
touch the feeble in arms. I behold thy tempests,
O Morven ! which will overturn my haUs; when my
children are dead in battle, and none remains to
dwell in Selma. Then will the feeble come, but they
will not know my tomb. My renown is only in song.
My deeds shall be as a dream to future times !"
His people gathered around Erragon, as the storms
round the ghost of night ; when he calls them from
the top of Morven, and prepares to pour them on
the land of the stranger. He came to the shore of
Cona. He sent his bard to the king; to demand
the combat of thousands, or the land of many hills !
Fingal sat in his hall with the friends of his youth
around him. The young heroes were at the chase, far
* Comhal, the father of Fingal, was slain in battle, against the tribe
of Morni, the very day that Fingal was born ; so that he may, wHU
propriety, be soid to bavo been 'born in the midst of battJ«i.'