Page:Marmion - Walter Scott (ed. Bayne, 1889).pdf/184

Many a rude tower and rampart there
Repell'd the insult of the air,
Which, when the tempest vex'd the sky,
30Half breeze, half spray, came whistling by.
Above the rest, a turret square
Did o'er its Gothic entrance bear,
Of sculpture rude, a stony shield;
The Bloody Heart was in the Field,
35And in the chief three mullets stood,
The cognizance of Douglas blood.
The turret held a narrow stair,
Which, mounted, gave you access where
A parapet's embattled row
40Did seaward round the castle go.
Sometimes in dizzy steps descending,
Sometimes in narrow circuit bending,
Sometimes in platform broad extending,
Its varying circle did combine
45Bulwark, and bartisan, and line,
And bastion, tower, and vantage-coign:
Above the booming ocean leant
The far-projecting battlement;
The billows burst, in ceaseless flow,
50Upon the precipice below.
Where'er Tantallon faced the land,
Gate-works, and walls, were strongly mann'd;
No need upon the sea-girt side;
The steepy rock, and frantic tide,
55Approach of human step denied;
And thus these lines, and ramparts rude,
Were left in deepest solitude.

III.
And, for they were so lonely, Clare
Would to these battlements repair,
60And muse upon her sorrows there,
 And list the sea-bird's cry;