head. The hum of the mountain bee is near it; the hunter fees it, with joy, from the blasted heath. YOUNG Fillan, at a diftance ftood. His helmet lay glittering on the ground. His dark hair is loose to the blast. A beam of light is Clatho's fon! He heard the words of the king, with joy. He leaned forward on his fpear. "My fon," faid car-borne Fingal; "I faw thy deeds, and my foul was glad. The fame of our fathers, I said, bursts from its gathering cloud. Thou art brave, fon of Clatho: but headlong in the ftrife. So did not Fingal advance, though he never feared a foe. Let thy people be a ridge behind. They are thy ftrength in the field. Then fhalt thou be long renowned, and behold the tombs of the old. The memory of the paft returns, my deeds in other years: when firft I defcended from ocean on the greenvalleyed ifie." WE bend towards the voice of the king. The moon looks abroad from her cloud. The greykirted mift is near the dwelling of the ghofts! ARGUMENT to Book IV. THE fecond night continues. Fingal relates, at the feast, his own first expedition into Ireland, and his marriage with Ros-crána, the daughter of Cormac, king of that island. The Irish chiefs convene in the presence of Cathmor. The fituation of the king described. The story of Sul-mala, the daughter of Conmor, king of Inis-huna, who, in the difguife of a young warrior, had followed Cathmor to the war. The fullen behaviour of Foldath, who had commanded in the battle of the preceding day, renews the difference between him and Malthos; but Cathmor, interpofing, ends it. The chiefs feast, and hear the fong of Fonar the bard. Cathmor returns to reft, at a distance from the army. The ghoft of his brother Cairbar appears to him in a dream; and obfcurely foretels the issue of the war. king. He discovers Sul-malla. foliloquy clofes the book. The foliloquy of the Morning comes. Her TEMOR A: AN ЕРІС РОЕМ. BOOK IV. BENE ENEATH an oak," faid the king, "I fat on Selma's ftreamy rock, when Connal rofe, from the fea, with the broken fpear of Duth-caron. Far-distant flood the youth. He turned away his eyes. He remembered the fteps of his father, on his own green hills. I darkened in my place. Dufky thoughts flew over my foul. The kings of Erin rofe before me. I half-unfheathed the This episode has an immediate connection with the story of Connal and Duth-caron, in the latter end of the third book. Fingal, fitting beneath an oak, near the palace of Selma, discovers Connal juft landing from Ireland. The danger which threatened Cormac king of Ireland induces him to fail immediately to that ifland. The story is introduced, by the king, as a pattern for the future behaviour of Fillan, whose rafhnefs in the preceding battle is reprimanded. fword. |