Page:Marmion - Walter Scott (ed. Bayne, 1889).pdf/46

III.
A distant trampling sound he hears;
He looks abroad, and soon appears,
O'er Horncliff-hill a plump of spears,
30 Beneath a pennon gay;
A horseman, darting from the crowd,
Like lightning from a summer cloud,
Spurs on his mettled courser proud,
 Before the dark array.
35Beneath the sable palisade,
That closed the Castle barricade,
 His buglehorn he blew;
The warder hasted from the wall,
And warn'd the Captain in the hall,
40 For well the blast he knew;
And joyfully that knight did call,
To sewer, squire, and seneschal.

IV.
'Now broach ye a pipe of Malvoisie,
 Bring pasties of the doe,
45And quickly make the entrance free
And bid my heralds ready be,
And every minstrel sound his glee,
 And all our trumpets blow;
And, from the platform, spare ye not
50To fire a noble salvo-shot;
 Lord Marmion waits below!'
Then to the Castle's lower ward
 Sped forty yeomen tall,
The iron-studded gates unbarr'd,
55Raised the portcullis' ponderous guard,
The lofty palisade unsparr'd,
 And let the drawbridge fall.

V.
Along the bridge Lord Marmion rode,
Proudly his red-roan charger trode,