[23] Ben Venue. [24] "Turn to bay," i.e., to face an antagonist, when escape is no longer possible. [25] "The Trosachs" is the name now applied to the valley between Lochs Katrine and Achray. [26] Echoed back their barks or chidings. IX. Close on the hounds the Hunter came, To cheer them on the vanish'd game; But, stumbling on[27] the rugged dell, The gallant horse exhausted fell. The impatient rider strove in vain To rouse him with the spur and rein, For the good steed, his labors o'er, Stretch'd his stiff limbs, to rise no more; Then, touch'd with pity and remorse, He sorrow'd o'er the expiring horse. "I little thought, when first thy rein I slack'd upon the banks of Seine,[28] That Highland eagle e'er should feed On thy fleet limbs, my matchless steed! Woe worth[29] the chase, woe worth the day, That costs thy life, my gallant gray!" [27] In. [28] The river which flows through Paris, France. [29] Be to (from the old verb _worthen_, "to become"). X. Then through the dell his horn resounds, From vain pursuit to call the hounds. Back limp'd, with slow and crippled pace, The sulky leaders of the chase; Close to their master's side they press'd, With drooping tail and humbled crest; But still the dingle's hollow throat Prolong'd the swelling bugle note. The owlets started from their dream, The eagles answer'd with their scream, Round and around the sounds were cast Till echo seem'd an answering blast; And on the Hunter hied his way,[30] To join some comrades of the day; Yet often paused, so strange the road, And wondrous were the scenes it show'd. [30] "Hied his way," i.e., hastened. XI. The western waves of ebbing day Roll'd o'er the glen their level way;[31] Each purple peak, each flinty spire, Was bathed in floods of living fire. But not a setting beam could glow Within the dark ravines below, Where twined the path in shadow hid, Round many a rocky pyramid, Shooting abruptly from the dell Its thunder-splinter'd pinnacle; Round many an insulated[32] mass, The native bulwarks of the pass, Huge as the tower[33] which builders vain Presumptuous piled on Shinar's plain. The rocky summits, split and rent, Form'd turret, dome, or battlement, Or seem'd fantastically set With cupola or minaret, Wild crests as pagod[34] ever deck'd, Or mosque of Eastern architect. Nor were these earth-born castles bare, Nor lack'd they many a banner fair; For, from their shiver'd brows display'd, Far o'er the unfathomable glade, All twinkling with the dewdrop sheen,[35] The brier-rose fell in streamers green, And creeping shrubs, of thousand dyes, Waved in the west wind's summer sighs. [31] "The western waves," etc., i.e., the horizontal rays of the setting sun. [32] Isolated.