THE LADY OF THE LAKE. CANTO SIXTH. The Guard-Room. I. THE sun, awakening, through the smoky air Of the dark city casts a sullen glance, And yield his drowsy eyes to the kind nurse of men What various scenes, and, O! what scenes of woe, Are witness'd by that red and struggling beam! The fever'd patient, from his pallet low, Through crowded hospital beholds its stream; The ruin'd maiden trembles at its gleam, The debtor wakes to thought of gyve and jail, The love-lorn wretch starts from tormenting dream; The wakeful mother, by the glimmering pale, Trims her sick infant's couch, and sooths his feeble wail. II. At dawn the towers of Stirling rang With soldier-step and weapon-clang, While drums, with rolling note, foretell Through narrow loop and casement barr'd, In comfortless alliance shone The lights through arch of blacken'd stone, Faces deform'd with beard and scar, All hagard from the midnight watch, While round them, or beside them flung, At every step their harness rung. III. These drew not for their fields the sword, Like tenants of a feudal lord, |