Above the bursting fires, and rolling smoke,
The Saxon banner waves.
I thank thee, Lord! 60
My brothers live! cried Adela, and knelt
Upon the platform, with uplifted hands,
And look to heaven;--then rising, with a smile:
We have watched, I and this old man here,
Hour after hour, through the long lingering night,
And now 'tis almost morning: I will stay
Till I have heard my brother's distant horn
From the west woods;--but you are weary, youth?
Oh, no! I will keep watch with you till dawn;
To me most soothing is an hour like this! 70
And who that saw, as now, the morning stars
Begin to pale, and the gray twilight steal
So calmly on the seas, and wide-hushed world,
Could deem there was a sound of misery
On earth; nay, who could hear thy gentle voice,
Fair maid, and think there was a voice of hate
Or strife beneath the stillness of that cope
Above us! Oh! I hate the noise of arms--
Here will I watch with you. Then, after pause,
Poor England is not what it once has been; 80
And strange are both our fortunes.
Atheling,
(Adela answered) early piety
Hath disciplined my heart to every change.
How didst thou pass in safety from this land 85
Of slavery and sorrow?
He replied:
When darker jealousy and lowering hate
Sat on the brow of William, England mourned,
And one dark spirit of conspiracy 90
Muttered its curses through the land. 'Twas then,
With fiercer glare, the lion's eye was turned
On me:--My sisters and myself embarked--
The wide world was before us--we embarked,
With some few faithful friends, and from the sea
Gazed tearful, for a moment, on the shores
We left for ever (so it then appeared).
Poor Margaret hid her face; but the fresh wind
Swelled the broad mainsail, and the lessening land,
The towers, the spires, the villages, the smoke, 100
Were seen no more.
When now at sea, the winds
Blew adverse, for to Holland was our course:
More fearful rose the storm; the east wind sang
Louder, till wrecked upon the shores of Forth
Our vessel lay. Here, friendless, we implored
A short sojourn and succour. Scotland's ki