Page:Marmion - Walter Scott (ed. Bayne, 1889).pdf/111

XXVI.
510The quaighs were deep, the liquor strong,
And on the tale the yeoman-throng
Had made a comment sage and long,
 But Marmion gave a sign:
And, with their lord, the squires retire;
515The rest around the hostel fire,
 Their drowsy limbs recline:
For pillow, underneath each head,
The quiver and the targe were laid.
Deep slumbering on the hostel floor,
520Oppress'd with toil and ale, they snore:
The dying flame, in fitful change,
Threw on the group its shadows strange.

XXVII.
Apart, and nestling in the hay
Of a waste loft, Fitz-Eustace lay;
525Scarce, by the pale moonlight, were seen
The foldings of his mantle green:
Lightly he dreamt, as youth will dream,
Of sport by thicket, or by stream,
Of hawk or hound, of ring or glove,
530Or, lighter yet, of lady's love.
A cautious tread his slumber broke,
And, close beside him, when he woke,
In moonbeam half, and half in gloom,
Stood a tall form, with nodding plume;
535But, ere his dagger Eustace drew,
His master Marmion's voice he knew.

XXVIII.
—'Fitz-Eustace! rise,—I cannot rest;
Yon churl's wild legend haunts my breast,
And graver thoughts have chafed my mood:
540The air must cool my feverish blood;
And fain would I ride forth, to see
The scene of elfin chivalry.