Fold in behind each other, and so make A circular vale, and land-lock'd, as might seem, Half hid by rocks and fruit-trees. Beneath my feet, Swings in its winnow! All the air is calm. The smoke from cottage-chimnies, ting'd with light, Rises in columns: from this house alone, Close by the waterfall, the column slants, And feels its ceaseless breeze. But what is THIS? That cottage, with its slanting chimney-smoke, One arm between its fore legs, and the hand A curious picture, with a master's haste Peel'd from the birchen bark! Divinest maid! The pressure still remains! O blessed couch! Daughter of genius! stateliest of our maids! And not ungentle e'en to me! My heart, Why beats it thus? Through yonder coppice-wood Needs must the pathway turn, that leads straightway On to her father's house. She is alone! The night draws on-such ways are hard to hit And fit it is I should restore this sketch, And I may be her guide the long wood through Earl HENRY. Oh! I were most base, Not loving Oropeza. True, I woo'd her, That kindled love with love. And when her sire, My suit with insult, and in memory Her blessings overtook and baffled them! But thou art stern, and with unkindly countenance Art inly reasoning whilst thou listen'st to me. SANDOVAL. Anxiously, Henry! reasoning anxiously. But Oropeza Earl HENRY. Blessings gather round her! Within this wood there winds a secret passage, She, nothing trembling, led me thro' that gloom, And to the covert by that silent stream, No leaflet stirr'd; the air was almost sultry; So deep, so dark, so close, the umbrage o'er us! The gloom and stillness of the balmy night-air. A little further on an arbor stood, Fragrant with flowering trees-I well remember Their snow-white blossoms made-thither she led me, I heard her heart beat-if 'twere not my own. SANDOVAL. A rude and scaring note, my friend! Earl HENRY. Oh! no! I have small memory of aught but pleasure. |