Page:Poems of Ossian.djvu/259

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Book II.


Connal lay by the sound of the mountain stream, beneath the aged tree. A stone, with its moss, supported his head. Shrill through the heath of Lena he heard the voice of night. At distance from the heroes he lay; the son of the sword feared no foe! The hero beheld, in his rest, a dark-red stream of fire rushing down from the hill. Crugal sat upon the beam, a chief who fell in fight. He fell by the hand of Swaran, striving in the battle of heroes. His face is like the beam of the setting moon. His robes are of the clouds of the hill. His eyes are two decaying flames. Dark is the wound of his breast! "Crugal," said the mighty Connal, son of Dedgal famed on the hill of hinds! "Why so pale and sad, thou breaker of the shields? Thou hast never been pale for fear! What disturbs the departed Crugal?" Dim, and in tears, he stood and stretched his pale hand over the hero. Faintly he raised his feeble voice, like the gale of the reedy Lego!

"My spirit, Connal, is on my hills: my corse on the sands of Erin.[1] Thou shalt never talk with Crugal, nor find his lone steps in the heath. I am light as the blast

  1. From this Campbell infers that Cuthullin attacked Swaran immediately he landed on the beach—a fine sandy one—of Belfast Lough.—E.-T.