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I

pass the raptures of the Pair, -such theme Is, by innumerable poets, touched

In more delightful verse than skill of mine

Could fashion, chiefly by that darling bard
Who told of Juliet and her Romeo,

And of the lark's note heard before its time,
And of the streaks that laced the severing clouds
In the unrelenting east. Through all her courts
The vacant city slept; the busy winds,
That keep no certain intervals of rest,
Moved not; meanwhile the galaxy displayed
Her fires, that like mysterious pulses beat
Aloft; momentous but uneasy bliss!

To their full hearts the universe seemed hung On that brief meeting's slender filament!

They parted; and the generous Vaudracour
Reached speedily the native threshold, bent
On making (so the Lovers had agreed)

A sacrifice of birthright to attain
A final portion from his Father's hand;

Which granted, Bride and Bridegroom then would flee
To some remote and solitary place,
Shady as night, and beautiful as heaven,
Where they may live, with no one to behold
Their happiness, or to disturb their love.
But now of this no whisper; not the less,
If ever an obtrusive word were dropped
Touching the matter of his passion, still,
In his stern Father's hearing, Vaudracour
Persisted openly that death alone
Should abrogate his human privilege
Divine, of swearing everlasting truth,
Upon the altar, to the Maid he loved.

that full soon

"You shall be baffled in your mad intent If there be justice in the Court of France," Muttered the Father. From these words the Youth Conceived a terror, and, by night or day, Stirred nowhere without weapons Found dreadful provocation: for at night When to his chamber he retired, attempt Was made to seize him by three armed men, Acting, in furtherance of the Father's will, Under a private signet of the State. One, did the Youth's ungovernable hand Assault and slay; - and to a second, gave A perilous wound, he shuddered to behold The breathless corse; then peacefully resigned His person to the law, was lodged in prison, And wore the fetters of a criminal.

Have you beheld a tuft of winged seed That, from the dandelion's naked stalk, Mounted aloft, is suffered not to use Its natural gifts for purposes of rest, Driven by the autumnal whirlwind to and fro Through the wide element? or have you marked The heavier substance of a leaf-clad bough,

Within the vortex of a foaming flood,

Tormented? by such aid you may conceive
The perturbation of each mind:-ah, no!
Desperate the Maid- the Youth is stained with blood;
But as the troubled seed and tortured bough

Is Man, subjected to despotic sway.

For him, by private. influence with the Court
Was pardon gained, and liberty procured;
But not without exaction of a pledge,
Which liberty and love dispersed in air.

He flew to her from whom they would divide him
He clove to her who could not give him peace
Yea, his first word of greeting was, - "All right
Is gone from me; my lately-towering hopes,
To the least fibre of their lowest root,
Are withered; thou no longer canst be mine,
I thine the Conscience-stricken must not woo
The unruffled Innocent, I see thy face,
Behold thee, and my misery is complete!"

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Doomed to a third and last captivity, His freedom he recovered on the eve Of Julia's travail. When the babe was born, Its presence tempted him to cherish schemes Of future happiness. "You shall return, Julia," said he, "and to your Father's house Go with the Child. You have been wretched, yet The silver shower, whose reckless burthen weighs Too heavily upon the lily's head, Oft leaves a saving moisture at its root. Malice, beholding you, will melt away. Go!-t is a Town where both of us were born; None will reproach you, for our truth is known;

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End happily as they began!" These gleams
Appeared but seldom; oftener was he seen
Propping a pale and melancholy face
Upon the Mother's bosom; resting thus

His head upon one breast, while from the other
The Babe was drawing in its quiet food.

-That pillar is no longer to be thine,

Fond Youth! that mournful solace now must pass
Into the list of things that cannot be !
Unwedded Julia, terror-smitten, hears
The sentence, by her Mother's lip pronounced,
That dooms her to a Convent. - Who shall tell,
Who dares report, the tidings to the Lord
Of her affections? So they blindly asked
Who knew not to what quiet depths a weight
Of agony had pressed the Sufferer down;-
The word, by others dreaded, he can hear
Composed and silent, without visible sign
Of even the least emotion. Noting this,
When the impatient Object of his love
Upbraided him with slackness, he returned
No answer, only took the Mother's hand
And kissed it seemingly devoid of pain,
Or care, that what so tenderly he pressed,
Was a dependant on the obdurate heart
Of One who came to disunite their lives

For ever - sad alternative! preferred, By the unbending Parents of the Maid, To secret 'spousals meanly disavowed. - So be it!

In the city he remained

A season after Julia had withdrawn
To those religious walls. He, too, departs-
Who with him? - even the senseless Little-one!
With that sole Charge he passed the city-gates,
For the last time, attendant by the side
Of a close chair, a litter, or sedan,

In which the Babe was carried. To a hill,
That rose a brief league distant from the town,
The Dwellers in that house where he had lodged
Accompanied his steps, by anxious love
Impelled, they parted from him there, and stood
Watching below, till he had disappeared

On the hill top. His eyes he scarcely took,
Throughout that journey, from the vehicle
(Slow-moving ark of all his hopes!) that veiled
The tender Infant: and at every inn,

And under every hospitable tree
At which the Bearers halted or reposed,
Laid him with timid care upon his knees,
And looked, as mothers ne'er were known to look,
Upon the Nursling which his arms embraced.
-This was the manner in which Vaudraccur
Departed with his Infant; and thus reached
His Father's house, where to the innocent Child
Admittance was denied. The young Man spake
No words of indignation or reproof,
But of his Father begged, a last request,
That a retreat might be assigned to him
Where in forgotten quiet he might dwell,
With such allowance as his wants required;
For wishes he had none. To a Lodge that stood
Deep in a forest, with leave given, at the age
Of four-and-twenty summers, he withdrew;
And thither took with him his infant Babe,
And one Domestic for their common needs,
An aged Woman. It consoled him here
To attend upon the Orphan, and perform
Obsequious service to the precious Child,
Which, after a short time, by some mistake
Or indiscretion of the Father, died. -
The Tale I follow to its last recess
Of suffering or of peace, I know not which:

Theirs be the blame who caused the woe, not mine!

From this time forth, he never shared a smile With mortal creature. An Inhabitant Of that same Town, in which the Pair had left So lively a remembrance of their griefs, By chance of business, coming within reach Of his retirement, to the forest lodge Repaired, but only found the Matron there, Who told him that his pains were thrown away, For that her Master never uttered word To living Thing-not even to her. - Behold! While they were speaking, Vaudracour approached, But, seeing some one near, even as his hand Was stretched towards the garden gate, he shrunk – And, like a shadow, glided out of view. Shocked at his savage aspect, from the place The Visitor retired.

Thus lived the Youth

Cut off from all intelligence with man,

And shunning even the light of common day;
Nor could the voice of Freedom, which through France
Full speedily resounded, public hope,

Or personal memory of his own deep wrongs,
Rouse him but in those solitary shades
His days he wasted, an imbecile mind!

THE ARMENIAN LADY'S LOVE.

Hardships for the brave encountered,

Even the feeblest may endure:

If Almighty Grace through me thy chains unbind,

[The subject of the following poem is from the Orlandus of My Father for slave's work may seek a slave in

the author's friend, Kenelm Henry Digby; and the liberty is taken of inscribing it to him, as an acknowledgment, however unworthy, of pleasure and instruction derived from his numerous and valuable writings, illustrative of the piety and chivalry of the olden time.]

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mind."

7.

"Princess, at this burst of goodness,

My long-frozen heart grows warm!"
"Yet you make all courage fruitless,
Me to save from chance of harm;
Leading such Companion I that gilded Dome,
Yon Minarets, would gladly leave for his worst home."

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"Gracious Allah! by such title
Do I dare to thank the God,
Him who thus exalts thy spirit,

Flower of an unchristian sod!

Or hast thou put off wings which thou in heaven dost wear?

* See, in Percy's Reliques, that fine old ballad, "The Spanish What have I seen, and heard, or dreamt? where am

Lady's Love;" from which Poem the form of stanza, as suitable

to dialogue, is adopted.

I? where?"

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