Resentment of my country's fate,

Within my filial breast shall beat;
And, spite of her insulting foe,

My sympathizing verse shall flow:

"Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn

"Thy banished peace, thy laurels torn."

XLI.

ODE TO INDEPENDENCE.

STROPHE.

SMOLLET.

THY spirit, Independence, let me share,
Lord of the lion-heart and eagle-eye;
Thy steps I follow, with my bosom bare,

Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.
Deep in the frozen regions of the north,

A goddess violated brought thee forth,

Immortal Liberty, whose looks sublime

Hath bleached the tyrant's cheek in every varying

clime.

What time the iron-hearted Gaul,

With frantic superstition for his guide,

Armed with the dagger and the pall,

The sons of Woden to the field defied
The ruthless hag, by Weser's flood,

In Heaven's name urged the infernal blow;
And red the stream began to flow:

The vanquished were baptized with blood!

ANTISTROPHE.

The Saxon prince in horror fled,
From altars stained with human gore
And Liberty his routed legions led

In safety to the bleak Norwegian shore.
There in a cave asleep she lay,

Lulled by the hoarse-resounding main;
When a bold savage past that way,
Impelled by destiny, his name Disdain.
Of ample front the portly chief appeared:

The hunted bear supplied a shaggy vest;

Line 16th, Charlemagne obliged four thousand Saxon prisoners to embrace the Christian religion, and immediately af

The drifted snow hung on his yellow beard;

And his broad shoulders braved the furious blast.

1

He stopt; he gazed; his bosom glowed,

And deeply felt the impression of her charms:
He seized the advantage fate allowed,

And straight compressed her in his vigorous arms.

STROPHE.

The curlieu screamed, the tritons blew

Their shells to celebrate the ravished rite;

Old Time exulted as he flew;

And Independence saw the light.

The light he saw in Albion's happy plains,
Where under cover of a flowering thorn,

While Philomel renewed her warbled strains,

The auspicious fruit of stolen embrace was born

The mountain Dryads seized with joy,

ter they were baptized, ordered their throats to be cut.Their prince Vitikind fled for shelter to Gotrick, king of Denmark.

The smiling infant to their charge consigned;
The Doric muse caressed the favourite boy;

The hermit Wisdom stored his opening mind.
As rolling years matured his age,

He flourished bold and sinewy as his sire;
While the mild passions in his breast assuage
The fiercer flames of his maternal fire.

ANTISTROPHE

Accomplished thus, he winged his way,
And zealous roved from pole to pole,

The rolls of right eternal to display,

And warm with patriot thoughts the aspiring soul.

On desert isles it was he that raised

Those spires that gild the Adriatic wave,

Where Tyranny beheld amazed

Fair Freedom's temple, where he marked her grave.

Line 12th, Although Venice was built a considerable time before the æra here assigned for the birth of Independence, the republic had not yet attained to any great degree of power and splendour.