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THE chace is over. No noise on Ardven but the torrent's roar'! Daughter of Morni, come

* Comala, the maid of the pleasant brow.---Melilcoma, softrolling eye.---Dersagrena, the brightness of a sun-beam. MAC

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No noise on Ardven but the torrent's roar.]

The opening of Comala, and many subsequent passages, are in

from Crona's banks. Lay down the bow, and take the harp. Let the night come on with songs, let our joy be great on Ardven.

MELILCOMA.

Night comes apace, thou blue-eyed maid; grey night grows dim along the plain. I saw a deer at Crona's stream; a mossy bank he seemed through the gloom; but soon he bounded away. A meteor played round his branching horns! the awful faces of other times looked from the clouds of Crona!

2

DERSAGRENA.

These are the signs of Fingal's death. The king of shields is fallen! and Caracul prevails. Rise, Comala, from thy rock; daughter of Sarno, rise in tears. The youth of thy love is low; his ghost is on our hills.

blank verse, and almost in rhyme; for which the reason is obvious, that it was originally written in English verse.

* The awful faces of other times looked from the clouds.] Supra Fingal, i. 39. From VIRGIL, Æn. ii. 522. Quoted by

Macpherson.

Apparent diræ facies, inimicaque Troja

Numina magna deum.

And the dire forms of hostile gods appear. DRYDEN. Imitated in the Highlander, iii. 23.

With swords unsheathed the awful forms appeared.

MELILCOMA.

There Comala sits forlorn! two grey dogs near shake their rough ears, and catch the flying breeze. Her red cheek rests upon her arm; the mountain wind is in her hair. She turns her blue eyes towards the fields of his promise. Where art thou, O Fingal, the night is gathering around?

COMALA,

O Carun' of the streams! why do I behold thy waters rolling in blood? Has the noise of the battle been heard *; and sleeps the king of Morven? Rise, moon, thou daughter of the sky! look from between thy clouds; rise, that

3 Carun, or Cara'on, a winding river. This river retains still the name of Carron, and falls into the Forth some miles to the north of Falkirk. MACPHERSON.

Buchanan, deceived by Nennius, has placed the wall of Severus between the Forth and the Clyde, with a garrison at Carron, where Macpherson, who quotes Buchanan's verses, represents Fingal as encountering Caracalla.

Caronis ad undam

Terminus Ausonii signat divortia regni.

* O Carun of the streams! why do I behold thy waters rolling in blood? Has the noise of the battle been heard on thy banks.] First edit. From the Braes of Yarrow.

Why runs thy stream, O Yarrow, Yarrow red?
Why on thy bracs heard the voice of sorrow?

I

may behold the gleam of his steel, on the field of his promise. Or rather let the meteor, that lights our fathers through the night, come, with its red beam, to shew me the way to my fallen hero. Who will defend me from sorrow? Who from the love of Hidallan? Long shall Comala look before she can behold Fingal in the midst of his host; bright as the coming forth of the morning, in the cloud of an early shower".

HIDALLAN 7.

Dwell, thou mist of gloomy Crona, dwell on the path of the king. Hide his steps from mine

5 Let the meteor, which lights our fathers through the night, come, with its red beam.] The Aurora Borealis, which Comala invokes, from Thomson's Winter.

By dancing meteors then, that ceaseless shake
A waving blaze refracted o'er the heavens
Even in the depth of polar night they find
A wondrous day, enough to light the chase,
Or guide their daring steps to Finland fairs.
"To shew me the way to my fallen hero."

6 Bright as the coming forth of the morning, in the cloud of an early shower.] His going forth is prepared as the morning.— For your goodness is as the morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. Hosea, vi. 3. 4.

7 Hidallan was sent by Fingal to give notice to Comala of his return; he, to revenge himself on her for slighting his love some time before, told her that the king was killed in battle.

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