Himself beneath a tree, the ftorm defends,

And keeps in arms, around, his watchful friends.

The fair Aurelia by the hero's fide,

An awful warrior, and a blooming bride,
Who plac'd in martial deeds her virgin-care,
Wields in her fnowy hand the afhen spear.
A filver mail hung round her flender waift,
The corflet rifes on her heaving breast.

On her white arm the brazen buckler shows,
The fhining helm embrac'd her marble brows;
Her twining ringlets, flowing down behind,
Sung grateful mufic to the nightly wind.

Fate was unkind; juft as the lovers wed,
Nor yet had tafted of the nuptial bed;
Great SUENO's trumpet call'd the youth to war,
He figh'd, embrac'd, and left the weeping fair.
With love embolden'd, up the virgin rose,

From her foft breast the native woman throws;
And with the gallant warrior clothes the wife,
Following her HACO to the bloody ftrife.

She fought her love thro' war's destructive path, And often turn'd from him the hand of death. The chief, attentive, all the youth furvey'd,

And in the warrior found the lovely maid.

She leans, inclining, on her martial spear,
And only for the youth employs her fear.

The valiant SCOT affails the oaken wall :
The bulwark groans, the brave defenders fall.
With founding steel the firm barrier he ply'd,
And pour'd his warriors in on ev'ry fide.
The godlike HACO rushing thro' the night,
Now here, now there oppos'd th' invaders might
To ev'ry corner gave divided aid,

Still, ftill fupported by the martial maid.

Thus when the ocean, fwelling o'er the ftrand,
Invades with billowy troops the fubject land;
The fed'lous fwains the earthen weight oppose,
And fill the fiffures where the tempeft flows.
So valiant HACO flew to ev'ry fide,

And stemm'd with pointed steel the manly tide ;]
With great effort preferv'd the narrow field,
And 'twixt the fair and danger kept the shield.
She, only fhe, employs the Hero's care;
HACO forgot, he only thinks on her.

He longs to fink with glory to the dead,

But can he leave in grief the captive maid ?
Her dying image hags his fancy's eyes,
What fhou'd he do, if fair AUKELIA dies?

Love, mighty love, arrested all his pow'r ;
He wish'd for flight who never fled before.

But as the lionefs, to fave her young, Defpifes death, and meets the hunter-throng; So, starting from the fable maze of care, He faces death, and shields the lovely fair. The martial maid with equal love poffeft Wou'd dart 'twixt danger and her Haco's breaft; Oppofe her buckler to the lifted spear,

And turn from him the iron hand of war.

Now godlike ALPIN hew'd his bloody path

Thro' DANISH ranks, and mark'd his fteps with death.

Th' inclofed fquare with defp'rate hand he fhears, And reaps a bloody field of men and spears. Groans, crashing steel, and clangour of the fight, Increase the stormy chorus of the night.

The DANES, diminish'd, meet th' unequal war, Where two fall'n oaks confine an inner square: Join their broad fhields, the close-wedg'd column

rear,

And on the SCOTTISH battle turn the spear.

On ev'ry fide the CALEDONIANS close,

Hemming the defsp'rate phalanx of the foes,

To give the final stroke to battle, croud:
While HACO thus befpoke the DANES aloud;
"Ye fons of North, unfortunate, tho' brave!
Here fate has marked out our common grave;
Has doom'd our bodies to enrich these plains:
Then die reveng'd--like warriors and like DANES!"
He spoke, and turning to the martial maid,
Embrac'd her foftly, and thus, fighing, faid;
"Shall then my spouse, my love, my only joy,

Shall fair AURELIA with her HACO die!

Thy death afflicts me.----I in vain complain;
I'll fave AURELIA, or expire----a DANE !"
He said, and gath❜ring up his spacious shield
Prepar'd to meet the battle in the field...

Young ALDIN heard. It touch'd his feeling

breaft,

He ftopt the war, and thus the DANE addi eft.
"Our CALEDONIA, now reliev'd of fear,

Feels pity rifing in the place of care;
Difdains to tyrannize o'er vanquifh'd foes,
And for her steel on them her pity throws..
I now difmifs brave Haco from the field,
And own the gen'rous prefent of the fhield."

He

He faid:

---

his thanks returns the royal DANE,

Himself escorts them to the founding main.

A ship escap'd the flame, within a bay, Where bending rocks exclude the rougher fea, Secure from stormy winds in safety rides,

And flowly nods on the recoiling tides;
Thither they bend, and launching to the sea,
Plow with the crooked beak the watʼry way;
Their fable journey to the North explore,
And leave their fleeping friends upon the shore.-

End of Canto third

D 3.

CANTO IV