Ill with King James's mood that day, Suited gay feast and minstrel lay; Soon were dismissed the courtly throng, And soon cut short the festal song. Nor less upon the saddened town 880 The evening sunk in sorrow down. The burghers spoke of civil jar, Of rumored feuds and mountain war, Of Moray, Mar, and Roderick Dhu, All up in arms--The Douglas too, 885 They mourned him pent within the hold, "Where stout Earl William was of old." And there his word the speaker stayed, And finger on his lip he laid, Or pointed to his dagger blade. 890 But jaded horsemen, from the west, At evening to the Castle pressed; And busy talkers said they bore Tidings of fight on Katrine's shore; At noon the deadly fray begun, 895 And lasted till the set of sun. Thus giddy rumor shook the town, Till closed the Night her pennons brown. CANTO SIXTH THE GUARD-ROOM I The sun, awakening, through the smoky air Of the dark city casts a sullen glance, Rousing each caitiff to his task of care, Of sinful man the sad inheritance; Summoning revelers from the lagging dance, 5 Scaring the prowling robber to his den; Gilding on battled tower the warder's lance, And warning student pale to leave his pen, And yield his drowsy eyes to the kind nurse of men. What various scenes, and, Oh! what scenes of woe, 10 Are witnessed by that red and struggling beam! The fevered patient, from his pallet low, Through crowded hospital beholds its stream; The ruined maiden trembles at its gleam; The debtor wakes to thought of gyve and jail; 15 The love-lorn wretch starts from tormenting dream; The wakeful mother, by the glimmering pale, Trims her sick infant's couch, and soothes his feeble wail. II