Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal > Volume 2

waked the memory of her land ; wlicrc she dwelt by
her peaceful streams, before he came to the war cf
Con-mor.
" Daughter of strangers," he said; (she trembling
turned away) " long have I marked in her armour, the
young pine of Inis-huna. But my 30ul, I said, is folded
in a storm. Why should that beam arise, till my steps
return in peace ? Have I lyeen pale in thy presence,
when thou bidst me to fear the king ? The time of dan-
ger, O miud, is the season of my soul ; for then it swells
a mighty stream, and rolls me on the foe.
" Beneath the moss-covered rock of Lona, near his
own winding stream : grey in his locks of age, dwells
Clonmal '' king of harps. Above him is his echoing
oak, and the dun-bounding of roes. The noise of our
strife reaches his ear, as he bends in the thoughts of
years. There let thy rest be, Sul-malla, until our bat-
tle cease. Until I return, in my arms, from the skirts
of the evening mist that rises on Lona, round the dv/ell-
ing of my love."
A light fell OH the soul of the maid ; it rose kindled
before the king. She turned her face to Cathmor : her
locks are struggling v/ith winds. " Sooner shall the
eagle of heaven be torn from the streams of his roaring
wind, when he sees the dun prey before him, the young
sons of the bounding roe, than thou, O Cathm.or, be
tui-ned from the stjife of reiiown. Soon may I see thee,
warrior, from the skirts oi" ihe evening mist, when it is
rolled around me, on Lona of the streams. While yet
thou art distant far, strike, Cathmor, sti-ike the shield,
that joy may return to my darkened soul, as I lean on
the mossy rock. But if tliou should fall — I am in the
land of strangers ; O send thy voice, from thy cloud,
to die maid of Inis-huna."
h Claon-mal, • crooked eye-brov/.' From t!ie retired lifc of this
person, it a|?years, that he was of the order of the dniids ; which sup-
position is not, at all, invalidated by the appellation of ' king of
harps/ here bestowed on hira; for all agree that tiie bard* were of
the aurabej of thp druids cri-inally.