Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

66 OSSIAN
ascend.* Calmar stood forth to meet them in the pride
of his kindling soul. But pale was the face of the chief.
He leaned on his father's spear. That spear which he
brought from Lara, when the soul of his mother was
sad ; the soul of the lonely Alcletha, waning in the
sorrow of years. But slowly now the hero falls, like a
tree on the plain. Dark Cuthullin stands alone like a
rock in a sandy vale. The sea comes with its waves,
and roars on its hardened sides. Its head is covered
with foam ; the hills are echoing around.
Now from the grey mist of the ocean, the white-
sailed ships of Fingal appear. High is the grove of
their mast, as they nod, by turns, on the rolling wave.
Swaran saw them from the hill. He returned from the
sons of Erin. As ebbs the resounding sea, through the
hundred isles of Inistore ; so loud, so vast, so immense
returned the sons of Lochlin against the king. But
bending, weeping, sad, and slow, and dragging his long,
spear behind, Cuthullin sunk in Crorala's wood, and
mourned his fallen friends. He feared the face of
Fingal, who was wont to greet him from the fields of
renown !
"How many lie there of my heroes ! the chiefs of
Erin's race I they that were cheerful in the hall when
the sound of the shells arose I No more shall I find
their steps in the heath. No more shall I hear their
voice in the chase. Pale, silent, low on bloody beds,
are they who were my friends ! O spirits of the lately
dead, meet Cuthullin on his heath ! Speak to him on
the wind, when the rustling tree of Tura's cave
resounds. There, far remote, I shall lie unknown. No
bard shall hear of me. No grey stone shall rise to my
* The Scandinavians being of course encamped on the shore,
near their ships in the bay of Carniona, having as yet gained no
advantage over Cuthullin, had naturally to ascend the hill to
get to the heath of Lena and the Irish army, whose position
was near Cromla — the cave— hill. C.