Is seen in Rothiemurcus glade,
Or where the sable pine-tree shade
Dark Tomantoul, and Auchnaslaid,
  Dromouchty, or Glenmore. 470
And yet, whate’er such legends say,
Of warlike demon, ghost, or lay,
  On mountain, moor, or plain,
Spotless in faith, in bosom bold,
True son of chivalry should hold 475
  These midnight terrors vain;
For seldom have such spirits power
To harm, save in the evil hour,
When guilt we meditate within,
Or harbour unrepented sin.’—­ 480
Lord Marmion turn’d him half aside,
And twice to clear his voice he tried,
  Then press’d Sir David’s hand,—­
But nought, at length, in answer said;
And here their farther converse staid, 485
  Each ordering that his band
Should bowne them with the rising day,
To Scotland’s camp to take their way,-
  Such was the King’s command.

XXIII.

Early they took Dun-Edin’s road, 490
And I could trace each step they trode: 
Hill, brook, nor dell, nor rock, nor stone,
Lies on the path to me unknown. 
Much might if boast of storied lore;
But, passing such digression o’er, 495
Suffice it that their route was laid
Across the furzy hills of Braid. 
They pass’d the glen and scanty rill,
And climb’d the opposing bank, until
They gain’d the top of Blackford Hill. 500

XXIV.

Blackford! on whose uncultured breast,
  Among the broom, and thorn, and whin,
A truant-boy, I sought the nest,
Or listed, as I lay at rest,
  While rose, on breezes thin, 505
The murmur of the city crowd,
And, from his steeple jangling loud,
  Saint Giles’s mingling din. 
Now, from the summit to the plain,
Waves all the hill with yellow grain; 510
  And o’er the landscape as I look,
Nought do I see unchanged remain,
  Save the rude cliffs and chiming brook. 
To me they make a heavy moan,
Of early friendships past and gone. 515

XXV.

But different far the change has been,
  Since Marmion, from the crown
Of Blackford, saw that martial scene
  Upon the bent so brown: 
Thousand pavilions, white as snow, 520
Spread all the Borough-moor below,
  Upland, and dale, and down:—­
A thousand did I say?  I ween,
Thousands on thousands there were seen
That chequer’d all the heath between 525
  The streamlet and the town;
In crossing ranks extending far,
Forming a camp irregular;
Oft giving way, where still there stood
Some relics of the old oak wood, 530
That darkly huge did intervene,
And tamed the glaring white with green: 
In these extended lines there lay
A martial kingdom’s vast array.