"It left uncertain that decisive time

"That made my feelings nervous and sublime.

"Still all was kindness, and at morn and eve "I made a visit, talk'd, and took my leave : "Kind were the lady's looks, her eyes were bright, "And swam, I thought, in exquisite delight; "A lovely red suffused the virgin cheek,

"And spoke more plainly than the tongue could speak; "Plainly all seem'd to promise love and joy, "Nor fear'd we ought that might our bliss destroy.

"Engaged by business, I one morn delay'd

My usual call on the accomplish'd maid; "But soon, that small impediment removed, "I paid the visit that decisive proved; "For the fair lady had, with grieving heart, "So I believed, retired to sigh apart:

"I saw her friend, and begg'd her to intreat My gentle nymph her sighing swain to meet.

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"The gossip gone-What dæmon, in his spite "To love and man, could my frail mind excite, "And lead me curious on, against all sense of right? "There met my eye, unclosed, a closet's door"Shame! how could I the secrets there explore?

"Pride, honour, friendship, love, condemn'd the deed,
"And yet, in spite of all, I could proceed!
"I went, I saw-Shall I describe the hoard
"Of precious worth in seal'd deposits stored
"Of sparkling hues? Enough-enough is told,
""Tis not for man such mysteries to unfold.
"Thus far I dare-Whene'er those orbits swam
"In that blue liquid that restrain'd their flame,
"As showers the sunbeams-when the crimson glow
"Of the red rose o'erspread those cheeks of snow,
" I saw,
but not the cause-'twas not the red
"Of transient blush that o'er her face was spread;
" "Twas not the lighter red, that partly streaks
"The Catherine pear, that brighten'd o'er her cheeks,
" Nor scarlet blush of shame-but such disclose
"The velvet petals of the Austrian rose

"When first unfolded, warm the glowing hue,
"Nor cold as rouge, but deep'ning on the view:
"Such were those cheeks-the causes unexplored
"Were now detected in that secret hoard;

"And ever to that rich recess would turn

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My mind, and cause for such effect discern.

"Such was my fortune, O! my friends, and such "The end of lofty hopes that grasp'd too much. "This was, indeed, a trying time in life,

"I lost at once a mother and a wife;

VOL. II.

E

"Yet compensation came in time for these, "And what I lost in joy, I gain'd in ease.”

"But," said the Squire, "did thus your courtship

"Yes; and had sense her feelings to restrain,
"Nor ask'd me once my conduct to explain;
"But me she saw those swimming eyes explore,
"And explanation she required no more:
"Friend to the last, I left her with regret —

Nay, leave her not, for we are neighbours yet.

"These views extinct, I travell'd, not with taste, "But so that time ran wickedly to waste;

"I penn'd some notes, and might a book have made, "But I had no connexion with the trade;

Bridges and churches, towers and halls, I saw, "Maids and madonnas, and could sketch and draw: "Yes, I had made a book, but that my pride "In the not making was more gratified.

"There was one feeling upon foreign ground,

"That more distressing than the rest was found;

"That though with joy I should my country see, "There none had pleasure in expecting me.

"I now was sixty, but could walk and eat;

My food was pleasant, and my slumbers sweet; "But what could urge me at a day so late "To think of women?-my unlucky fate. "It was not sudden; I had no alarms, "But was attack'd when resting on my arms; "Like the poor soldier; when the battle raged

"The man escaped, though twice or thrice engaged, "But when it ended, in a quiet spot

"He fell, the victim of a random-shot.

"With my good friend the Vicar oft I spent "The evening hours in quiet, as I meant;

"He was a friend in whom, although untried

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By ought severe, I found I could confide;

"A pleasant, sturdy disputant was he,

"Who had a daughter-such the Fates decree,

"To prove how weak is man-poor yielding man, like

me.

“ Time after time the maid went out and in,

"Ere love was yet beginning to begin;

"The first awakening proof, the early doubt, "Rose from observing she went in and out.

My friend, though careless, seem'd my mind to ex

plore,

Why do

you

look so often at the door?'

"I then was cautious, but it did no good,
"For she, at least, my meanings understood;
"But to the Vicar nothing she convey'd
"Of what she thought—she did not feel afraid.

"I must confess, this creature in her mind "Nor face had beauty that a man would blind; "No poet of her matchless charms would write, "Yet sober praise they fairly would excite : "She was a creature form'd man's heart to make "Serenely happy, not to pierce and shake; "If she were tried for breaking human hearts, "Men would acquit her-she had not the arts; "Yet without art, at first without design, "She soon became the arbitress of mine; "Without pretensions-nay, without pretence, "But by a native strange intelligence "Women possess when they behold a man "Whom they can tease, and are assured they can';