Page:Marmion - Walter Scott (ed. Bayne, 1889).pdf/137

 And lightning from his eye did part,
  As on the battle-day;
 Such glance did falcon never dart,
585  When stooping on his prey.
'Oh! well, Lord-Lion, hast thou said,
Thy King from warfare to dissuade
 Were but a vain essay:
For, by St. George, were that host mine,
590Not power infernal, nor divine,
Should once to peace my soul incline,
Till I had dimm'd their armour's shine
 In glorious battle-fray!'
Answer'd the Bard, of milder mood:
595'Fair is the sight,—and yet 'twere good,
 That Kings would think withal,
When peace and wealth their land has bless'd,
'Tis better to sit still at rest,
 Than rise, perchance to fall.'

XXX.
600Still on the spot Lord Marmion stay'd,
For fairer scene he ne'er survey'd.
 When sated with the martial show
 That peopled all the plain below,
 The wandering eye could o'er it go,
605 And mark the distant city glow
  With gloomy splendour red;
 For on the smoke-wreaths, huge and slow,
 That round her sable turrets flow,
  The morning beams were shed,
610 And tinged them with a lustre proud,
 Like that which streaks a thunder-cloud.
Such dusky grandeur clothed the height,
Where the huge Castle holds its state,
 And all the steep slope down,
615Whose ridgy back heaves to the sky,
Piled deep and massy, close and high,
 Mine own romantic town!