Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

416 THE POEMS OF OSSLA.N.
often they returned, and the sons of Selma fell. The
king stood, among the tombs of his warriors. He darkly-
bent his mournful face. His soul was rolled into itself:
and he had marked the place where he was to fall :
when Trathal came, in his strength, his brother from
cloudy Morven. Nor did he come alone. Colgar was
at his side : Colgar the son of the king and of white-
bosomed Solin-corma.
" As Trcnmor, clothed with meteors, descends from
the halls of thunder, pouring the dark storm before him
over the troubled sea : so Colgar descended to battle,
and wasted the echoing field. His father rejoiced over
the hero : but an arrow came ! His tomb was raised
without a tear. The king was to revenge his son.
He lightened forward in battle, till Bolga yielded at her
streams !
" When peace returned to the land : when his blue
waves bore the king to Morven : then he remembered
his son, and poured the silent tear. Thrice did the
bards, at the cave of Furmono, call the soul of Colgar.
They called him to the hills of his land. He heard
them in his mist. Trathal placed his sword in the
cave, that the spirit of his son might rejoice."
" Colgar, son of Trathal," said Fillan, " thou wcrt
renowned in youth ! but the king hath not marked my
sword, bright streaming on the field. I go forth with
the crowd. I return without my fame. But the foe
approaches, Ossian ! I hear their murmur on the heath.
The sound of their steps is like thunder, in the bosom
of the ground, when the rocking hills shake their groves,
and not a blast pours from the darkened sky !"
Ossian turned sudden on his spear. He raised the
flame of an oak on high. I spread it large on Mora's
wind. Cathmor stopt in his course. Gleaming he
stood, like a rock, on whose sides are the wandering
blasts ; which seize its echoing streams, and clothe