Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

374 THE POEMS OF OSSIAN.
Dar-thula. could once defend thee ; but age is trembHn|
on his hand. The strength of his arm has failed. Hi«
soul is darkened with grief.'
" We passed the night in sorrow. The light of
morning rose. I shone in the arms of battle. The
gray-haired hero moved before. The sons of Selama
convened around the sounding shield of Colla. But few
were they in the plain, and their locks were gray. The
youths had fallen with Truthil, in the battle of car-borne
Cormac. ' Friends of my youth,' said Colla, ' it was
not thus you have seen me in arms. It was not thus I
strode to battle when the great Confaden fell. But ye
are laden with grief. The darkness of age comes like
the mist of the desert. My shield is worn with years I
my sword is fixed in its place !* I said to my soul,
Thy evening shall be calm ; thy departure like a fading
light. But the storm has returned. I bend like an
aged oak. My boughs are fallen on Selama. I trem-
ble in my place. Where art thou, with thy fallen he-
roes, O my beloved Truthil ! Thou answercst not from
thy rushing blast. The soul of thy father is sad. But
1 will be sad no more ! Cairbar or Colla must fall !
I feel the returning strength of my arm. My heart
leaps at the sound of war.'
" The hero drew his sword. The gleaming blades
of his people rose. They moved along the plain.
Their gray hair streamed in the wind. Cairbar sat at
the feast, in the silent plain of Lena. He saw tho
coming of the heroes. He called his chiefs to war
Why should I tell to Nathos how the strife of battle
grew ? I have seen thee in the midst of thousands, like
* It was the custom of ancient times, that every warrior, at a
certain age, or when he became unfit for the field fixed his arms
in the great hall, where the tribes feasfed upon joyful occasions.
He was afterward never to appear in battle ; and this stage of life
was called the " time of fixing the arms."