Stanza XII.—"Nor was one forward footstep stopped."
James.—This staggering word was intended, I presume, but I don't like it.
Scott.—Granted. Read staid, etc.
Ibid.—"Down were the eagle banners sent,
Down, down the horse and horsemen went."
James.—This is very spirited and very fine; but it is unquestionably liable to the charge of being very nearly a direct repetition of yourself. See Lord of the Isles, Canto vi. Stanza 24:—
"Down! down! in headlong overthrow,
Horseman and horse, the foremost go," etc.
This passage is at once so striking and so recent, that its close similarity to the present, if not indeed its identity, must strike every reader; and really, to borrow from one's self is hardly much better than to borrow from one's neighbors. And yet again, a few lines lower—
"As hammers on the anvils reel,
Against the cuirass clangs the steel."
See Lady of the Lake, Canto vi. Stanza 18:—
"I heard the broadswords' deadly clang,
As if an hundred anvils rang."