Ossian Collection > Poems of Ossian

68 OSSIAN
pleasant on Fingal's soul returned the memory of the
first of his loves !
Ullin came with aged steps, and spoke to Starno's
son. "O thou that dwellest afar, surrounded like a
rock, with thy waves 1 come to the feast of the king,
and pass the day in rest. To-morrow let us fight,
O Swaran, and break the echoing shields." "To-day,"
said Starno's wrathful son, "we break the echoing
shields : to-morrow my feast shall be spread ; but
Fingal shall lie on earth." "To-morrow let his feast
be spread," said Fingal with a smile. "To-day, O my
sons I we shall break the echoing shields. Ossian,
stand thou near my arm. Gaul, lift thy terrible sword.
Fergus, bend thy crooked yew. Throw, Fillan, thy
lance through heaven. Lift your shields like the
darkened moon. Be your spears the meteors of death.
Follow me in the path of my fame. Equal my deeds
in battle."
As a hundred winds on Morven ; as the streams of a
hundred hills ; as clouds fly successive over heaven ; as
the dark ocean assails the shore of the desert : so
roaring, so vast, so terrible, the armies mixed on Lena's
echoing heath. The groan of the people spread over
the hills : it was like the thunder of night, when the
cloud bursts on Cona ; and a thousand ghosts shriek at
once on the hollow wind. Fingal rushed on in his
strength, terrible as the spirit of Trenmor ; when, in a
whirl-wind, he comes to Morven, to see the children of
his pride. The oaks resound on their mountains, and
the rocks fall down before him. Dimly seen, as lightens
the night, he strides largely from hill to hill. Bloody
was the hand of my father, when he whirled the gleam
of his sword. He remembers the battles of his youth.
The field is wasted in his course.
Ryno went on like a pillar of fire. Dark is the
brow of Gaul. Fergus rushed forward with feet of
wind. Fillan like the mist of the hill. Ossian like a