cave in the field of the fun. The blast will ruftle in my trees. I fhall think it is Cuthóna's voice. But fhe is diftant far, in the halls of the mighty Conlath! CUTHONA. Ha! what cloud is that? It carries the ghofts of my fathers. I fee the skirts of their robes, like grey and watry mift. When fhall I fall, O Rumar? Sad Cuthóna forefees her death. behold me, before I houfe *? Will not Conlath enter the narrow OSSIAN. He shall be hold thee, O maid! He comes along the heaving fea. The death of Tofcar is dark on his fpear. A wound is in his fide! He is pale at the cave of Thona. He fhews his ghaftly wound. Where art thou with thy tears, Cuthóna? The chief of Mora dies. The vifion grows dim on my mind. I behold the chiefs no more! But, O ye bards of future times, remember the fall of Conlath with tears. He fell before his day. Sadness darkened in his hall. His mother looked to his shield on *The grave. the the wall, and it was bloody *. She knew that her hero fell. Her forrow was heard on Mora. Art thou pale on thy rock, Cuthóna, befide the fallen chiefs? Night comes, and day returns, but none appears to raise their tomb. Thou frighteneft the screaming fowls away. Thy tears for ever flow. Thou art pale as a watry cloud, that rifes from a lake! The fons of green Selma came. They found Cuthóna cold. They raised a tomb over the heroes. She refts at the fide of Conlath! Come not to my dreams, O Conlath! Thou haft received thy fame. Be thy voice far diftant from my hall; that fleep may descend at night. O that I could forget my friends: till my footsteps should ceafe to be feen! till I come among them with joy and lay my aged limbs in the narrow houfe! *It was the opinion of the times, that the arms left by the heroes at home, became bloody the very inftant their owners were killed, though at ever so great a distance. ARGUMENT. Fingal in his voyage to Lochlin, whither he had been invited by Starno the father of Agandecca, touched at Berrathon, an ifland of Scandinavia, where he was kindly entertained by Larthmor, the petty king of the place, who was a vaffal of the fupreme kings of Lochlin. The hofpitality of Larthmor gained him Fingal's friendship, which that hero manifested, after the imprisonment of Larthmor by his own fon, by fending Offian and Tofcar, the father of Malvina, fo often mentioned, to rescue Larthmor, and to punish the unnatural behaviour of Uthal. Uthal was handfome, and, by the ladies, much admired. Nina-thoma, the beautiful daughter of Torthóma, a neighbouring prince, fell in love and fled with him. He proved unconftant! for another lady, whofe name is not mentioned, gaining his affections, he confined Nina-thoma to a defert ifland near the coaft of Berrathon. She was relieved by Offian, who, in company with Tofcar, landing on Berrathon, defeated the forces of Uthal, and killed him in a fingle combat. Nina-thoma, whofe love not all the bad behaviour of Uthal could erafe, hearing of his death, died of grief. In the mean time Larthmor is restored, and Offian and Toscar return in triumph to Fingal. The poem opens with an elegy on the death of Malvina the daughter of Tofcar, and clofes with prefages of Offian's death. |