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Th' attentive monarch heard their brave debates, And, with a fecret joy, his foul dilates.

Young ALPIN burns to urge the war of night,, To mix again with. Haco in the fight.

Eager he flood, and thus the chiefs adrest,
The warrior lab'ring in his manly breast;
"King, gallant chiefs !--this enterprize I claim ;;
Here let me fix my uneftablifh'd fame.

Already you have beat her arduous path,

Reapt glorious harvests in the fields of death :
Repeated feats fix'd fame within your pow'r,
But I gleam once, then fink, and am no more.
Nor am I wholly ign'rant of the fight,

I've urg'd the gloomy battles of the night :
Æbuda's chief once touch'd on ABRIA's strand,

And fwept our mountains with his pilf'ring band ;;
All day they drove our cattle to the fea,

I went at midnight and refcu'd the

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prey ;* With a poor handful, and a faithful fword,. Difpers'd the robbers and their haughty lord.. 'Twas I commanded --- these the gallant men! May we not act that mid-night o'er again?” The Hero fpoke; a murmʼring voice enfu'd loud applaufe.---each Hero's mind fubdued,

The

The glorious danger to the youth refigns:

He tow'rs along, and marshals up his lines.. Some gallant youths, to share his fame, arife,, And mingle in the glorious enterprize.

The warrior-band move on in firm array,, He tow'rs before along the founding fea Thro' their tall fpears the finging tempeft raves,. And, falling headlong on the fpumy waves, Purfues the ridgy sea with awful roar,

And throws the liquid mountains on the shore.. In each fhort paufe, before the billow breaks,, The clanking CALEDONIAN armour speaks.

Thus on fome night when fable tempests roar, The watchman wearying of his lonely hour,. Hears fome rent branch to fqueak 'twixt ev'ry, blast

But in each ruder guft the ereak is loft.

The king and gallant. chiefs, with wifhful eyes, Pursue the youthful warrior as he flies..

His praise thro' all the noble circle ran-----
Approach'd the ghastly figure of a man:

His visage pale; his locks are bleach'd with years;
His tott'ring fteps he onward foarcely bears:

H

His limbs are lac'd with blood, a hideous fight!
And his wet garments fhed the tears of night.
With flow approach he lifts his fading eyes,
And rais'd the fqueaking treble of his voice.
"O king! I feel the leaden hand of death,
To the dark tomb I tread the gen'ral path :
Hear me, O king! for this I left the field,
For this to thee my dying form reveal'd:
NORWAY in vain had interpos'd her flood,
I come, alas! to pay the debt of blood
Poffeft of crimes, which the good king purfu'd,
In fell confpiracy, unbleft! I vow'd
With fierce DoVALUS; that I live to tell!
By us, by us, the great king MALCOLM fell
Touch'd with remorfe, behind my shield I laid
His fmiling child, and wrapt him in my plaid.
Now to the fea we urge our rapid flight,.
Beneath the guilty mantle of the night..
Still in my arms I little Durrus bear;
Behind the voice of men, and arms we hear.
My comrades fly.I lay the infant down,
And with my guilty life from vengeance run.,
They found him, fav'd him; for I knew the voice:
--he faid, and clos'd at once his eyes;

Slowly

Slowly inclin'd, and, tumbling headlong down,
His guilty life breath'd in a feeble! groan."

The mournful monarch stood in dumb surprise; The fate of MALCOLM fill'd afresh his eyes. He folds his arms, and bends his filent look, Then, starting from the gloom of sorrow, spoke.

You fee, my lords, tho' DENMARK's hoftile ftate Long fav'd the traitors from the hand of fate; Yet heav'n, who rules with equal fway beneath, Snatch'd from her arms a victim due to death; DOVALUS fhall not fink among the dead,

But with that vengeance hangs o'er treafon's head.
Still, MALCOLM, ftill, thoù gen'rous, and thou best!
Thy fate hangs heavy on a brother's breaft;
You left a young, you left a helpless fon,
But loft to me, to SCOTLAND, and his throne.
Perhaps, oppreft with hunger and with cold,
He 'tends fome peafant's cattle to the fold;
Or fights a common foldier on the field,
And bows beneath the fcepter he fhould wield."
No more he faid; the noble circle figh'd,
They droop the filent head, nor aught reply'd.
Now dy'd apace the occidental light;
The fubject world receives the flood of night.

The

The king from ev'ry fide his troops recalls;

They fall around and rear their manly walls.
He iffues to return the great command,
They move along, and leave the fatal ftrand.
The city gain'd, each foldier's weary breaft
Forgets the day, and fooths his toil with reft.
The king receives, with hofpitable care,
The gallant chiefs, and drowns in wine the war.
Within the royal hall the nobles fat;
The royal hall, in fimple nature great.

No pigmy art, with little mimickry,

Diftracts the fenfe, or pains the weary eye:

Shields, fpears and helms in beauteous order shone,
Along the walls of uncemented ftone.

Here all the noble warriors crown the bowl,
And with the gen'rous nectar warm the foul;
With focial talk fteal lazy time away,
Recounting all the dangers of the day :
They turn to ALPIN, and the gloomy fight,
And toft the gallant warrior of the night.
Mean time young ALPIN 'girts the fatal wood,
And longs to mix again with DANISH blood.

v HACO had, with martial care,

Ils of oak embrac'd an ample square :

Himself

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