BOOK THE FIFTH.
171
No more the aged matron at her door
Humm'd cheery to her spinning wheel, and mark'd
Her children dancing to the roundelay.
It was a hurried, melancholy scene! 245
The chieftains strengthening still the massy walls,
Survey them with the prying eye of fear.
The eager youth in dreadful preparation
Strive in the mimic war. Silent and stern
They urge with fearful haste their gloomy work. 250
All day the armourer's busy beat was heard,
All night it sounded. In the city dwelt
Such a dead silence of all pleasant sounds,
As in the forest when the lowering clouds
Meet, and the deep and hollow wind is heard 255
That omens tempest: trembles to its voice
The grove, and casts a darker gloom around."
Humm'd cheery to her spinning wheel, and mark'd
Her children dancing to the roundelay.
It was a hurried, melancholy scene! 245
The chieftains strengthening still the massy walls,
Survey them with the prying eye of fear.
The eager youth in dreadful preparation
Strive in the mimic war. Silent and stern
They urge with fearful haste their gloomy work. 250
All day the armourer's busy beat was heard,
All night it sounded. In the city dwelt
Such a dead silence of all pleasant sounds,
As in the forest when the lowering clouds
Meet, and the deep and hollow wind is heard 255
That omens tempest: trembles to its voice
The grove, and casts a darker gloom around."
"At length the foe approach. The watchman sounds
His dreadful warning. From the lofty tower
Of old cathedral I beheld the scene. 260
His dreadful warning. From the lofty tower
Of old cathedral I beheld the scene. 260
"Trembling
