hyme whatever to "The
Cohort eagles _fly_."--You have no rhyme to _fly_. _Flew_ and _fly_,
also, are perhaps too near, considering that each word closes a line
of the same sort. I don't well like "_Thus_ in a torrent," either.
If it were, "In one broad torrent," etc., it strikes me that it
would be more spirited.

_Scott._--Granted as to most of these observations--Read, "in one
_dark_ torrent broad and strong," etc.--The "imperial name" is
_true_, therefore must stand.

STANZA XII.--"Nor was one forward footstep _stopped_."

_James._--This staggering word was intended, I presume, but I don't
like it.

{p.074} _Scott._--Granted. Read _staid_, etc.

IBID.--"Down were the eagle banners sent,
Down, down the horse and horsemen went."

_James._--This is very spirited and very fine; but it is
unquestionably liable to the charge of being very nearly a direct
repetition of yourself. See _Lord of the Isles_, Canto vi. Stanza
24:--

"_Down! down!_ in headlong overthrow,
_Horseman and horse_, the foremost go," etc.

This passage is at once so striking and so recent, that its close
similarity to the present, if not indeed its identity, must strike
every reader; and really, to borrow from one's self is hardly much
better than to borrow from one's neighbors. And yet again, a few lines
lower--

"As hammers on the _anvils_ reel,
Against the cuirass _clangs_ the steel."

See _Lady of the Lake_, Canto vi. Stanza 18:--

"I heard the broadswords' deadly _clang_,
As if an hundred _anvils_ rang."

Here is precisely the same image, in very nearly the same words.

_Scott._--I have altered the expression, but made a note, which, I
think, will vindicate my retaining the simile.

STANZA XIII.--"As their own Ocean-rocks hold _stance_."

_John._--I do not know such an English word as _stance_.

_Scott._--Then we'll make it one for the _nance_.

IBID.--"And _newer_ standards fly."

_James._--I don't like _newer_.

_Scott._--"And _other_ standards fly."

IBID.--"Or can thy memory fail to _quote_,
Heard to thy cost the vengeful note."

_James._--Would to God you would alter this _quote_!

_John._--Would to God _I_ could!--I certainly should.--

_Scott._--"Or can thy memory fail to know,
Heard oft before in hour of woe."