Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

TEMORA. 383
fen shall his tomb be seen. It shall rise without a
song. His ghost shall hover, in mist, over the reedy-
pool.'
Malthos heard, with darkening doubt. He rolled
hi3 silent eyes. He knew the pride of Foldath. He
looked up to Fingal on his hills : then darkly turning,
in doubtful mood, he plunged his sword in war.
In Clono's narrow vale,wherebend two trees above
the stream, dark, in his grief, stood Duthno's silent
son. The blood pours from the side of Dermid. His
shield is broken near. His spear leans against a stone.
Why, Dermid, why so sad ? ' I hear the roar of battle.
My people are alone. JMy steps are slow on the heath;
and no shield is mine. Shall he then prevail ? It is
then after Dermid is low! I will call thee forth, O
Foldath ! and meet thee yet in fight.'
He took his spear, with dreadful joy. The son of
Morni came. ' Stay, son of Duthno, stay thy speed.
Thy steps are marked with blood. No bossy shield is
thine. Why shouldest thou fall unarmed?' — ' Son of
Morni! give thou thy shield. It has often rolled back
the war. I shall stop the chief in his course. Son of
Morni! behold that stone! Itlifts its gray head through
grass. There dwells a chief of the race of Dermid.
Place me there in night.'
He slowly rose against the hill. He saw the troubled
field: the gleaming ridges of battle, disjoined and
broken around. As distant fires, on heath by night,
now seem as lost in smoke ; now rearing their red
streams on the hill, as blow or cease the winds, so
met the intermitting war the eye of broad-shielded
Dermid. Through the host are the strides of Foldath,
like some dark ship on wintry waves, when she issues
from between two isles to sport on resounding ocean !
Dermid, with rage, beholds his course. He strives
to rush along. But he fails amid his steps; and the
big tear comes down. He sounds his father's horn.
He thrice strikes his bossy shield. He calls thrice the
name of Foldath, from his roaring tribes. Foldath,
with joy, beholds the chief. He lifts aloft his bloody
spear. As a rock is marked with streams, that fell
troubled down its side in a storm ; so, streaked witU