He, as they shoot the lofty mountains o'er,
Pursues in thought, and sends his soul before.
Thus they with supple joints the chase pursue,
Rise on the hills, and vanish on the brow.
On the blue heavens arose a night of clouds;
The radiant lord of day his glory shrouds :
The rushing whirlwind speaks with growling breath,
Roars through the hill, and scours along the heath;
Deep rolling thunder, rumbling from afar,
Proclaims with murmuring voice th' aerial war:
Fleet lightnings flash in awful streams of light,
Dart through the gloom, and vanish from the sight:
The blustering winds through heaven's black concave sound,
Rain batters earth, and smokes along the ground.
Down the steep hill the rushing torrents run,
And cleave with headlong rage their journey on;
The lofty mountains echo to the fall;
A muddy deluge stagnates on the vale.
Culena moved along the level ground;
A hart descends before the opening hound:
From the recoiling cord she twanged the dart,
And pierced the living vigour of the hart:
He starts, he springs; but falling as he flies,
Pours out his tim❜rous soul with weeping eyes.
As o'er the dying prey the huntress sighed,
Before the wind heaven pours a sable tide,
And lowering threats a storm: a rocky cave,
His sleeky hounds, a faithful tribe, before,
Are bathed with blood, and varied o'er with gore.
Drenched with the rain, the noble youth descends,
And in the cave the growling storm defends.
Bend in their course, majestically slow,
And to the land their lazy journey plow.
Thus spungy clouds on heav'n's blue vault arise,
And float, before the wind, along the skies;
Their wings opposed to the illustrious sun,
Shine, as they move, majestically on.
Thus godlike Harold brought his floating aid,
Unknowing Sueno's numbered with the dead.
From Anglia's coasts he called his troops afar,
To aid his brother in the foreign war.
Arrived, he in the wave the anchor throws,
Attempts to land, and Albion's chiefs oppose;
Wave on the fatal shore the pointed spear,
And send the arrow whizzing through the air.
The Danes return the flying death afar,
And, as they crowd away, maintain the war.
An arrow tore through air its murmʼring path,
Fell on the king, and weighed him down to death :
Quick, from the wound, the blood tumult'ous sprung,
And o'er the sand the reeking weapon flung:
Prone on the strand an awful trunk he lies,
While sleep eternal steals upon his eyes.
The mournful chiefs around the dying stood,
Some raise the body, others stem the blood:
In vain their care;-the soul for ever fled,
And fate had numbered Indulph with the dead.
Culena, whom y
young Duffus set apart,
With a green bank secured the hostile dart.
Her father's fate assailed her tender ear,
She beat her snowy breast, and tore her hair:
Frantic along the sand she run, she flew,
And on the corse distressful beauty threw :
She called her father's shade with filial cries,
And all the daughter streaming from her eyes.
Bent on revenge the furious Duffus strode,
And eyed, with angry look, the sable flood.
A ship, which near had took its nodding stand,
Fixed with the pitchy haulser to the strand,
Remains of Sueno's fleet, the hero viewed,
And to the mournful warriors spoke aloud:
"Let those whose actions are enchained by years Honour the mighty dead with friendly tears;
While we of youth, descending to the main,
The boat he seized, and, meas'ring back the deep,
Wafted his brave companions to the ship;
The haulser broke, unfurled the swelling sail,
And caught the vig'rous spirit of the gale:
Before the sable prow the ocean parts,
And groans beneath the vessel as it darts.
Now on the foe the Scottish warriors gain;
Swells on the approaching eye the floating Dane.
Fierce Ulric's skill brought up the lazy rear,
Famed in the fields of main to urge the war.
Twice seven years, in base pursuit of gain,
He plowed the waves, the common foe of men;
At last to Harold aiding arms he joined ;
Grasping the spoil with avaricious mind.
At first he shoots the leaping shaft afar,
And manages with skill the distant war.
The chiefs of Albion, with collected might,
Bear on the foe, and close the naval fight.
Deck joined to deck, and man engaged with man,
Sword spoke with sword, and Scot transfixed his Dane.
The smoking oak is covered o'er with gore,
Till the whole pirate crew are now no more.
The empty hull from wave to wave is tossed,
Nods as it floats, the sport of every blast.
The Caledonian chiefs again pursue:
The Scandinavian fleet o'er ocean flew.
T'elude the foe the Danes fly diff'rent ways;
And cut with sep'rate prows the hoary seas.
Some bear to sea, some rush upon the land,
And fly amain on earth, a trembling band.
As, in pursuit of doves, on rapid wings
The darting hawk through air his journey sings;
But when the parting flock divides the sky,
Hovers, in doubt this way or that to fly,-
So undetermined long young Duffus stood;
At length he sighed, and thus began aloud :
"While thus, O chiefs, we urge the flying Dane,
Unmourned, unhonoured lies the mighty slain;
'Tis ours to grace with woe great Indulph's bier,
And o'er his fallen virtue shed the tear."
The warrior spoke: the Caledonians sighed,
And with returning prow the waves divide;
With swelling sail bring on the fatal shore,
A mournful train of tear-distilling maids:
Above the rest the beauteous queen appears,
And heightens all her beauties with her tears.
Now in the tomb the godlike Indulph laid,
Shared the dark couch with the illustrious dead:
All o'er his grave the mournful warriors sigh,
And give his dust the tribute of the eye.
Removing, as the night inwrapt the sky,
They share the nuptial feast with solemn joy.
The royal Duffus, with a husband's care,
Soothed in his martial arms the sorrowing fair,
O'er Albion's rocks exerted his command,
And stretched his sceptre o'er a willing land.
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