'd not of a wound,
And locked his arms his foeman round.--
Now gallant Saxon, hold thine own!
No maiden's hand is round thee thrown!
That desperate grasp thy frame might feel,
Through bars of brass and triple steel!--
They tug, they strain!--down, down they go,
The Gael above, Fitz-James below.
The Chieftain's gripe his throat compress'd,
His knee was planted on his breast;
His clotted locks he backward threw,
Across his brow his hand he drew,
From blood and mist to clear his sight,
Then gleam'd aloft his dagger bright!
--But hate and fury ill supplied
The stream of life's exhausted tide,
And all too late the advantage came,
To turn the odds of deadly game;
For, while the dagger gleam'd on high,
Keeled soul and sense, reeled brain and eye,
Down came the blow! but in the heath
The erring blade found bloodless sheath.
The struggling foe may now unclasp
The fainting Chief's relaxing grasp;
Unbounded from the dreadful close,
But breathless all, Fitz-James arose.

SCOTT.

[Notes: _Fitz-James_ is James V. in disguise.

_Holy Rood_, or Holy Cross, where was the royal palace of the Scottish
kings.

_Albany_. The Duke of Albany, who was regent of Scotland during part of
the minority of James V.

_Where Rome, the Empress, &c._ And where remnants of Roman encampments
are still to be traced.]

* * * * *

THE BATTLE OF NASEBY.

BY five o'clock in the morning, the whole army, in order of battle,
began to descry the enemy from the rising grounds about a mile from
Naseby, and moved towards them. They were drawn up on a little ascent in
a large common fallow-field, in one line, extending from one side of the
field to the other, the field something more than a mile over; our army
in the same order, in one line, with the reserves.

The king led the main battle of foot, Prince Rupert the right wing of
the horse, and Sir Marmaduke Langdale the left. Of the enemy Fairfax and
Skippon led the body, Cromwell and Roseter the right, and Ireton the
left. The numbers of both armies so equal, as not to differ five hundred
men, save that the king had most horse by about one thousand, and
Fairfax most foot by about five hundred. The number was in each army
about eigh