Page:Marmion - Walter Scott (ed. Bayne, 1889).pdf/173

XXXII.
'Submit we then to force,' said Clare,
940'But let this barbarous lord despair
 His purposed aim to win;
Let him take living, land, and life;
But to be Marmion's wedded wife
 In me were deadly sin:
945And if it be the King's decree,
That I must find no sanctuary,
In that inviolable dome,
Where even a homicide might come,
 And safely rest his head,
950Though at its open portals stood,
Thirsting to pour forth blood for blood,
 The kinsmen of the dead;
Yet one asylum is my own
 Against the dreaded hour;
955A low, a silent, and a lone,
 Where kings have little power.
One victim is before me there.—
Mother, your blessing, and in prayer
Remember your unhappy Clare!'
960Loud weeps the Abbess, and bestows
 Kind blessings many a one:
Weeping and wailing loud arose,
Round patient Clare, the clamorous woes
 Of every simple nun.
965His eyes the gentle Eustace dried,
And scarce rude Blount the sight could bide.
 Then took the squire her rein,
And gently led away her steed,
And, by each courteous word and deed,
970 To cheer her strove in vain.

XXXIII.
But scant three miles the band had rode,
 When o'er a height they pass'd,
And, sudden, close before them show'd
 His towers, Tantallon vast;