<P> Constance's hopes of a reconciliation with Marmion are dashed when he abandons her; she ends up being walled up alive in the Lindisfarne convent for breaking her vows . She takes her revenge by giving the Abbess, who is one of her three judges, documents that prove De Wilton's innocence . De Wilton, having returned disguised as a pilgrim, follows Marmion to Edinburgh where he meets the Abbess, who gives him the exonerating documents . When Marmion's host, the Earl of Angus is shown the documents, he arms De Wilton and accepts him as a knight again . De Wilton's plans for revenge are overturned by the Battle of Flodden . Marmion dies on the battlefield, while De Wilton displays heroism, regains his honour, retrieves his lands, and marries Clara . </P> <P> Marmion is a narrative poem with varied meters, "here, rhymed couplets in iambic tetrameter, there, iambic pentameter using alternating rhyme, still elsewhere, hymn meter using a combination of alternating and nested rhyme". </P> <P> To his contemporaries, Scott introduced "a very modern and new form of poetry . He ended the dominance of the heroic couplet and the pentameter, and introduced a more flexible' light horseman sort of stanza"'. </P> <P> Although the book was a huge and lasting commercial success in both Britain and the United States, it did not find favour with contemporary critics . The introductory letters to Scott's friends, which open each canto, were dismissed by the critics as unwarranted intrusions . A hero as flawed as Marmion was also unwelcome at this time and the story was criticised for its obscurity . Francis Jeffrey published a particularly harsh review in the Edinburgh Review . Jeffrey observed that much of the verse was' flat and tedious'; he accused Scott of simply showing off his historical erudition . He also objected to the anachronism of the chivalric code and opposed the warlike sentiments of the introductory epistles . All of Europe was at war when this poem was published, on account of the lengthy Napoleonic Wars . </P>

Who said o what a tangled web we weave