Yet oft, in holy writ, we see
  Even such weak minister as me
May the oppressor bruise:  925
  For thus, inspired, did Judith slay
    The mighty in his sin,
  And Jael thus, and Deborah’—­
    Here hasty Blount broke in: 
’Fitz-Eustace, we must march our band; 930
Saint Anton’ fire thee! wilt thou stand
All day, with bonnet in thy hand,
  To hear the Lady preach? 
By this good light! if thus we stay,
Lord Marmion, for our fond delay, 935
  Will sharper sermon teach. 
Come, don thy cap, and mount thy horse;
The Dame must patience take perforce.’—­

XXXII.

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

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;
Broad, massive, high, and stretching far, 975
And held impregnable in war. 
On a projecting rock they rose,
And round three sides the ocean flows,
The fourth did battled walls enclose,
  And double mound and fosse. 980
By narrow drawbridge, outworks strong,
Through studded gates, an entrance long,
  To the main court they cross. 
It was a wide and stately square: 
Around were lodgings, fit and fair, 985
  And towers of various form,
Which on the court projected far,
And broke its lines quadrangular. 
Here was square keep, there turret high,
Or pinnacle that sought the sky, 990
Whence oft the Warder could descry
  The gathering ocean-storm.