Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 2

297
165 Wlieu the high king of heroes is uot on the field ?
Fokhx, k^ad my frieuds to action ;
Thon art a flame of devom'iua; fire."
and devolves
tlie comniaml
on Folda.
Folda moved onward from Moma
As a cloud, the dwelling-robe of ghosts.
170 He drew, like a raging fire,
A blade of steel from his side."
He bade advance to battle
Each clan with speed on the heath.
Like grey and white-backed waves uprising,
175 Poured on the plain the host's high strength.
Haughty and great strode he himself,
His red eye rolling in wrath.
He summoned Cormuls chief from the Dun-
Eatho of towers, and he gave heed :
Folda orders
the tribes to
go forward,
180 " Cormul, thou seest the mountain-pass ;
Behold it green behind the foe :
Send thy strong warriors thither.
Lest Selma, worsted, should escape,
And balk my sword of its renown.
185 Bards of Erin greenest in hue,
Let not your voice be heard in song ;
Morven's sons shaU fall by the wave
Beneath the sword without bard or praise —
and sends
Cormul, chief
of Dun liatho,
to occupy a
narrow jiass
behind Fin-
gal's liost, so
as to cut off
their retreat.
He orders the
bards to be
silent, so that
the movement
might not be
observed ;
calls Cormul, chief of Dunratlio, and his words were heard.
" Cormul, thou heholdest that path. It winds green behind the
foe. Place thy people there, lest Selma should escape I'rom my
sword. Bards of green-valleyed Erin, let no voice of yours arise.
The sons of Morven must fall without song. They are the foes of