[M]The Effigies of a valiant Wight I once beheld, a Templar Knight; Not prostrate, not like those that rest On tombs, with palms together prest, But sculptured out of living stone, 50 And standing upright and alone, Both hands with rival energy Employed in setting his sword free From its dull sheath--stern sentinel Intent to guard St. Robert's cell;[N] 55 As if with memory of the affray Far distant, when, as legends say, The Monks of Fountain's[O] thronged to force From its dear home the Hermit's corse, That in their keeping it might lie, 60 To crown their abbey's sanctity. So had they rushed into the grot Of sense despised, a world forgot, And torn him from his loved retreat, Where altar-stone and rock-hewn seat 65 Still hint that quiet best is found, Even by the _Living_, under ground; But a bold Knight, the selfish aim Defeating, put the Monks to shame, There where you see his Image stand 70 Bare to the sky, with threatening bran Which lingering NID is proud to show Reflected in the pool below. Thus, like the men of earliest days, Our sires set forth their grateful praise: 75 Uncouth the workmanship, and rude! But, nursed in mountain solitude, Might some aspiring artist dare To seize whate'er, through misty air, A ghost, by glimpses, may present 80 Of imitable lineament, And give the phantom an array That less[31] should scorn the abandoned clay; Then let him hew with patient stroke An Ossian out of mural rock, 85 And leave the figurative Man-- Upon thy margin, roaring Bran!-- Fixed, like the Templar of the steep, An everlasting watch to keep; With local sanctities in trust, 90 More precious than a hermit's dust; And virtues through the mass infused, Which old idolatry abused. What though the Granite would deny All fervour to the sightless eye; 95 And touch from rising suns in vain Solicit a Memnonian strain;[P] Yet, in some fit of anger sharp, The wind might force the deep-grooved harp To utter melancholy moans 100 Not unconnected with the tones Of soul-sick flesh and weary bones; While grove and river notes would lend, Less deeply sad, with these to blend!