And there his word the speaker staid, Or pointed to his dagger blade. Thus giddy rumor shook the town, CANTO SIXTH. The Guard-Boom. I. THE sun, awakening, through the smoky air And warning student pale to leave his pen, What various scenes, and O, what scenes of woe, Are witness'd by that red and struggling beam! The fever'd patient, from his pallet low, Through crowded hospital beholds its stream; The ruin'd maiden trembles at its gleam, The debtor wakes to thought of gyve and jail, The love-lorn wretch starts from tormenting dream ; The wakeful mother, by the glimmering pale, Trims her sick infant's couch, and soothes his feeble wail. II. At dawn the towers of Stirling rang Through narrow loop and casement barr'd,1 In comfortless alliance shone 2 The lights through arch of blacken'd stone, III. These drew not for their fields the sword, 1 MS.: "Through blacken'd arch and casement barr'd." 2 MS.: "The lights in strange alliance shone Beneath the arch of blacken'd stone." |