A rustling of proud banner-folds, a peal of stormy drums, All these are in thy music met, as when a leader comes. Thou hast been o'er solitary seas, and from their wastes brought back Each noise of waters that awoke in the mystery of thy track The chime of low soft southern waves on some green palmy shore, The hollow roll of distant surge, the gather'd billows' roar. Thou art come from forests dark and deep, thou mighty rushing Wind! And thou bearest all their unisons in one full swell combined; The restless pines, the moaning stream, all hidden things and free, Of the dim old sounding wilderness, have lent their soul to thee. Thou art come from cities lighted up for the conqueror passing by, Thou art wafting from their streets a sound of haughty revelry ; The rolling of triumphant wheels, the harpings in the hall, The far-off shout of multitudes, are in thy rise and fall. THE VOICE OF THE WIND. 127 Thou art come from kingly tombs and shrines, from ancient minsters vast, Through the dark aisles of a thousand years thy lonely wing hath pass'd; Thou hast caught the anthem's billowy swell, the stately dirge's tone, For a chief, with sword, and shield, and helm, to his place of slumber gone. Thou art come from long-forsaken homes, wherein our young days flew, Thou hast found sweet voices lingering there, the loved, the kind, the true; Thou callest back those melodies, though now all changed and fled Be still, be still, and haunt us not with music from the dead! Are all these notes in thee, wild wind? these many notes in thee? Far in our own unfathom'd souls their fount must surely be; Yes! buried, but unsleeping, there thought watches, memory lies, From whose deep urn the tones are pour'd through all earth's harmonies. THE VIGIL OF ARMS.' A SOUNDING step was heard by night He walk'd in dreams of power and fame, For the hours were few that withheld his name Down the moonlit aisles he paced alone, With a free and stately tread; And the floor gave back a muffled tone But no dim warning of time or fate That youth's flush'd hopes could chill; He look'd to the banners on high that hung, The candidate for knighthood was under the necessity of keeping watch, the night before his inauguration, in a church, and completely armed. This was called "the Vigil of Arms." THE VIGIL OF ARMS. And a royal masque of splendour seem'd Through the solemn arches on it stream'd, With many a gleam of gold: There were crested knight, and gorgeous dame, And he follow'd, till his bold step came To his warrior-father's tomb. But there the still and shadowy might Of the monumental stone, And the holy sleep of the soft lamp's light That over its quiet shone, And the image of that sire, who died These had a power unto which the pride And a spirit from his early years Came back o'er his thoughts to move, Till his eye was fill'd with memory's tears, And his heart with childhood's love! 129 And he look'd, with a change in his softening glance For there they hung, the shield and lance, And the sword of many a field was there, When the knight's bold war-cry hath sunk in prayer, Hush! did a breeze through the armour sigh? Did the folds of the banner shake? Not so!-from the tomb's dark mystery There seem'd a voice to break! He had heard that voice bid clarions blow, And it said "The sword hath conquer'd kings, THE HEART OF BRUCE IN MELROSE ABBEY. HEART! that did'st press forward still,' Aught that so could beat and burn? Silent is thy place at last; 1 "Now pass thou forward, as thou wert wont, and Douglas will follow thee or die!" With these words Douglas threw from him the heart of Bruce into mid-battle against the Moors of Spain. |