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 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
XXXVII. WALTER SCOTT AT THE TOMB OF THE STUARTS IN SAINT PETER'S.
2.
Staff-propt he stands and all his country's pastStreams back before his sadly-kindling eye;
King after King, as cloud on cloud when fast
The storm-rack rushes through the autumnal sky:
Aughrim to Flodden answers! on the blast
Now Mary's, now the Bruce's standards fly:
Those earliest, Irish, kings he sees at last
Cross-crowned on old Iona's shores who lie.
Thus as he gazed, a Voice from vault and shrine
Whispered around him—and from Peter's Tomb—
‘Not one alone but every Royal Line
To my strong gates, as thou to these, shall come
Heart-pierced at last: for mine they were; and mine
The cradles and the graves of Christendom.’
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | |