Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal > Volume 1

A POEM. 9?
is feafed. Liften to the found of lii's woods: perhaps
his ghclt is there ; but he is far difiant, on Morven,
beneath the fword of a foreign foe." Such were the
won^s of Fingal, when the bard raifed the fong of peace ;
we ftopued our upUfted fwords, and fpared the feeble
foe. We laid Erragon in that tomb ; and I raifed the
voice of grief: the clouds of night came rolling down,
and the ghoft of Erragon appeared to feme. His face
was cloudy and dark ; and an half-formed figh is in his
breaft. Bbft be thy foul, O king of Sora ! thine arm
was terrible in war !
Eoi ma fat, in Aldo's hall, at the light of a f.aming
oak : the night came, bur he did not return ; and the
foi;! of Eorma is fad. " What detains thee, hunter of
Cena ? for thou didft promife to return'. Has the deer
been diftant far ; and do the dark v inds figh, round
thee, on the heath ? I am in the land of ftrangers, where
is my friend ? But Aldo, come from thy echoing hills,
O my beft beloved !"
Her eyes are turned toward the gate, and {he liflens
to the ruftling blaft. She thinks it is Aklo's tread
and joy rifes in her face : but forrow returns a-
eain, like a thin clcTid on the moon. " And wilt thou'
not return, my love ? Let me behold the face of the
hill. The moon is in the eafl. Calm and bright is
the breaft of the lake ! When fnali I behold his dogs
returning from the chafe ? When fliall I hear his- voice,
loud and diftant on the wind ? Come norn thy eekoing
hills, krnrer of woody Cona !".
His thin ghoft appeared, on a rock, like the watry
beam of the moon, when it ruflies from between two
clouds, and the midn'ght fliovver is on the field. She
followed the empty form over the heatli, for (he knew
that her hero fell. I heard her approaching cries on
the A\'ind, like the mournful voice of the breeze, Mhea
It li-.rhs on the gra's of the cave.
^he came, fiie found her hero : her voi^e was hea:'d
no mere ; filcnt fi;e rolled her fad eyes ; flie was pale
as a watry cloud, that rifes from the lake, to the bi.5,m