Slacken’d each rein, each Scottish brand was bare,
The dancing plumage kiss’d the lurid air!
Their steeds they urge—hark!—“Scotland” is the cry,
The loyal sound the echoing hills reply.
Link’d in one body, small, yet firm they go,
And charge impetuous on the yielding foe.80
Dismay’d, confounded at the glorious sight,
In vain the Gauls would claim the equal fight;
On ev’ry side their comrades strew the plain,
And heaps arise of Gallia’s mighty slain:
The useless sabre drops,—they turn,—they fly,
The serrying cannon follows through the sky.
Thus the rhinoceros, on Afric’s shore,
Hears from afar the tawny lion’s roar,
Cold tremblings o’er his giant members grow,
He flies affrighted from a weaker foe.90
VIII.
Now in full speed t’ avenge their comrades slain,
A Gallic column sweeps along the plain;
And Scotia, aided by an English band,
Against that column makes her glorious stand.
Oh, thou Calliope, inspire the song,
Which falters o’er thy suppliant’s drooping tongue.
Each adverse warrior combats hand to hand,
No other weapon than the wounding brand;
Charger ’gainst charger, man ’gainst man engage,99
Sword clangs ’gainst sword, and all is blood and rage,
Lo! in the thickest of the martial storm,
The Gallic eagle rears her golden form;
Symbol of conquest, ever known to bring
Dark desolation on her fatal wing;
At whose dread sight submissive nations bow’d,
Lord of the mighty, conq’ror of the proud:
Destructive Bird! whose iron pow’r was bore,
By Vict’ry’s gales, to Earth’s remotest shore.
IX.
But gallant Ewart, foremost of the fight,109
Saw her proud form, and mark’d her glitt’ring height.
His steed he spurr’d, and, with determin’d hand,
He grasp’d her staff, and rais’d his Scottish brand:
But brave Dubois (who held the bird of Jove)
Still kept his hold, and fierce contesting strove,
While to his left hand firm the standard clung,
Keen in his right the clashing falchion rung;
He mark’d the Briton with indignant eye,
And tow’rds the breast and downwards to the thigh
Sends the sharp blade,—but Ewart’s sword was there,
And turn’d the blow, averted, into air;120
And sudden rais’d that sword with giant force,
Full on the Frenchman’s crest he drove its course,
Pierc’d the strong helm, and clove the chieftain’s head,
Through brain, through jaws, and e’en the neck it sped;
Then wrathful drew it lukewarm from the brain,
And seiz’d the eagle from the conquer’d slain:
But, ’gainst the victor, with revengeful speed,
An hostile lancer spurr’d his foaming steed,
And urg’d his spear; but, bending from the blow,
The wary Briton disappoints the foe;130
And, ere the lancer could his falchion gain,
He stretch’d him lifeless on the purple plain.
X.
Then stern De Valence, with revengeful eye,
Perceiv’d the deeds of Scottish bravery;
Stirr’d up by vengeance, and the love of fame,
He fir’d his carbine with an hasty aim,—
But miss’d the Scotsman, though not vainly sped,
It pierc’d immortal Campbell’s plumy head.
And could not worth, and could not valour save
The great, the godlike Campbell from the grave?140
Yet is thy death reveng’d,—for Ewart’s blade
Sent thy dark murderer to appease thy shade;
And he the bird of Jove victorious bore,
Red with the streams of its defender’s gore.
XI.
Here Mars, terrific, wheel’d his iron car,
And stirr’d the fight, and gloried in the war;
No modern field could ever yet behold
A fight so slaught’rous, and a war so bold.
The steel-clad Gaul derides the gath’ring storm,
Which pours in torrents o’er his warlike form;150
Yet, though his breast the pond’rous cuirass shield,
His slaughter’d limbs bestrew the bloody field.
Each seem’d resolv’d the victor’s prize to claim,
Each seem’d resolv’d to live, or die, in fame.
But nought could stop the firm, determin’d course
Of Scotia’s strength, of Scotia’s matchless force:
Then, in that hour to Caledon so dear,
Proud Gallia learnt her mighty name to fear:
She turns—she rallies—then again we view
Her numbers fly;—the gallant Scots pursue!160
Yet was that victory bought by many a tear,
O’er Cameron’s, Mitchell’s, and o’er Holmes’s bier;
And long th’ historian and the muse shall tell,
How bright they triumph’d, and how great they fell.