"But who that Chief?-His name on every shore
Is famed and fear'd—they ask, and know no more.
With these he mingles not but to command;
Few are his words, but keen his eye and hand.
Ne'er seasons he with mirth their jovial mess,
But they forgive his silence for success.

'Steer to that shore !'-they sail. Do this!'—'tis done.
'Now form and follow me!'-the spoil is won.

Thus prompt his accents and his actions still,

And all obey, and few inquire his will.

*

*

*

*

*

Yet they repine not, so that Conrad 2 guides;
And who dare question aught that he decides ?

*

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*

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Still sways their souls with that commanding art
That dazzles, leads, yet chills the vulgar heart.
What is that spell that thus his lawless train
Confess and envy, yet oppose in vain?

*

What should it be that thus their faith can bind?
The power of Thought,-the magic of the Mind!
Linked with success, assumed and kept with skill,
That moulds another's weakness to its will;
Wields with their hands, but, still to these unknown,
Makes even their mightiest deeds appear his own.
Such hath it been, shall be, beneath the sun,—
The many still must labor for the one!
'Tis Nature's doom; but let the wretch who toils
Accuse not, hate not him who wears the spoils.
Oh! if he knew the weight of splendid chains,
How light the balance of his humbler pains!"
BYRON'S "Corsair," ¶¶ ii.,

viii.

1 Curious to say, this name or title of Bothwell was spelled in documents of the time in twenty-four different ways.

2 Alphonse de Lamartine, in his "Marie Stuart," or Regina," says that Byron predicated his poem, "The Corsair," on the maritime career of Bothwell, Lord High Admiral of Scotland, with whose wife, Lady Jane Gordon (divorced to enable the Earl to marry Mary Stuart), the poet was indirectly connected through his mother's ancestry. See letters of Sir Gilbert Elliot (first Earl of Minto, 1, 2, note and 24, note), said to be kin, by some line of descent, with John Elliot, of the