fcene,

Air, ocean, earth, drew broad her blackeft veil, Vapour and cloud. Around th' unfleeping ifle, Yet howl'd the whirlwind, yet the billow groan'd;

And, in mix'd horror, to Amyntor's ear
Borne through the gloom, his fhrieking fenfe ap-
pali'd.

Shook by each blaft, and fwept by every wave,
Agaip pale memory labours in the ftorm:
Again from her is torn, whom more than life
His fondnefs lov'd. And now, another fewer
Of forrow, o'er the dear unhappy maid,
Efful ve fream'd; till late, through every power
The foul fubdued funk fad to flow repofe:
And all her darkening fcenes, by dim degrees,
Were quench'd in total night. A panfe from
pain

Not long to laft: for Fancy, oft awake
While reafon fleeps, from her illufive cell
Call'd up wild fhapes of vifonary fear,
Of vifonary blifs, the hour of reft

15

21

To mock with mimic rews. And lo! the deeps
In airy tumult fwell. Beneath a hill
Amyntor heaves of overwhelming feas;

Or rides, with dizzy dread, from cloud to cloud,
The billow's back. Anon, the shadowy world
Shifts to fome boundlefs continent unknown, 25
Where folitary, o'er the ftarlefs void,

Dumb filence broods. Through heaths of dreary length,

Slow on he drags his ftaggering ftep infrin
With breathlefs toil; hears torrent floods afar
Roar through the wild; and, plung'd in central

caves,

Falls headlong many a fathom into night.
Yet there, at once, in all her living charms,
And brightening with their glow the brown abyfs,
Rofe Theodora. Smiling, in her eye
Sat, without cloud, the foft-confenting foul,
That, guilt unknowing, had no wish to hide.
A fpring of fuddien myrtles flowering round
Their walk embower'd; while nightingales be-
neath

35

45

Sung fpoufals, as along th' enamel'd turf
They feem'd to fly, and interchang'd their fouls,
Melting in mutual foftnefs. Thrice his arms 41
The Fair encircled: thrice he fled his grasp,
And fading into darknefs mix'd with air-
O, turn! O, ftay thy flight!--fo loud he cry'd,
Sleep and its train of humid vapours fled.
He groan'd, he gaz'd around: his inward fenfe
Yet glowing with the vifion's vivid beam,
Still, on his eye, the hovering fhadow blaz’d :
Her voice fill murmur'd in his tinkling ear;
Grateful deception! till returning thought
Left broad awake, amid th' incumbent jour
Of mute and mournful night, again he felt
His grief inflam'd throb fresh in every vein.
To phrenfy ftung, upftarting from his couch,

50

fo

Nor ow'd fubmiffion to the will of heaven,
Reftrains him; but, as paffion whirls his thought,
Fond expectation, that perchance efcap❜d,,
Though paffing all belief, the frailer fkiff,
To which himself had borne th' unhappy Fair,
May yet be feen. Around, o'er fea and fhere,
He roll'd his ardent eye; but nought around
On land or wave within his ken appears,
Nor fkiff, nor floating core, on which to fed
The laft fad tear, and lay the covering hok!!

And now, wide open'd by the wakeful hours
Heaven's orient gate, forth on her progrefs comes
Aurora fmiling, and her purple lamp
Lifts high o'er earth and fea: while, all-unveil'd,
The vaít horizon on Amyntor's eye
Pours full its fcenes of wonder, wildly great, 75
Magnificently various. From this steep,
Difus'd immenfe in rolling rofpect lay
The northern deep. Amidft, from fpace to
fpace,

crown,

As flow th' afcending mifts difperfe in air,
Shoot gradual from her bofom : and beyond,
Like diftant clouds blue-floating on the verge
Of evening fkies, break forth the dawning bills.
A thousand landscapes! barren fome and bare,
Rock pil'd on rock, amazing, up to heaven, 85
Of horrid grandeur: fome with founding af,
Cr oak broad-fhadowing, or the spiry growth
Of waving pine high-plum'd, and all behold
More lovely in the fun's adorning beam;
Who now, fair-rifing o'er yon eafiern cliff,
The vernal verdure tinctures gay with gold.
Meanwhile Aurelius, wak'd from fweet repofe,
Repofe that Temperance fheds in timely dews
On all who live to her, his mournful guest
Came forth to hail, as hofpitable rites
And Virtue's rule enjoin: but first to Fim,
Spring of all charity, who gave the heart
With kindly fenfe to glow, his matin-fong,
Superior duty, thus the fage addrest:

95

Fountain of light! from whom yon orient fun Ico First drew his fplendor; Source of life and love! Whofe fmile now wakes o'er earth's rekindling

face

The boundlefs blufh of fpring; O, First, and Beft!

Thy effence, though from human fight ard fearch,
Though from the climb of all created thought, 105
Ineffably remov'd; yet man himself,

Thy loweft child of reafon, man may, read
Unbounded power, intelligence fupreme,
The Maker's hand, on all his works impreft,
In characters coeval with the fun,
And with the fun to laft; from world to world,
From age to age, in every clime, difelos'd,
Sole revelation through all time the fame.
Hail, univerfal Goodnefs! with full fream
For ever flowing from beneath the throne

110

115

life:

From all that live on earth, in air and fea,
The great community of Nature's fons,
To thee, firft Father, ceafelefs praise afcend!
And in the reverent hymn my grateful voice 120
Be duly heard, among thy works not least,
Nor loweft; with intelligence inform❜d,

125

To know thee, and adore; with free-will crown'd,
Where Virtue leads, to follow and be blest.
O, whether by thy prime decree ordain'd
To days of future life; or whether now
The mortal hour is inftant, ftill vouchsafe,
Parent and friend, to guide me blameless on
Through this dark scene of error and of ill,
Thy truth to light me, and thy peace to chear. 130
All elfe, of me unaik'd, thy will fupreme
With-hold or grant: and let that will be done.
This from the foul in filence breath'd fincere,
The hill's fteep fide with firm elastic step
He lightly feal'd; fuch health the frugal board,
The morn's fresh breath that exercise refpires 135
In mountain-walks, and confcience free from blame,
Our lite's best cordial, can through age prolong.
There, loft in thought, and self-abandon'd, lay
The man unknown; nor heard approach his hoft,
Nor rais'd his drooping head. Aurelius mov'd
By foft compaffion, which the favage scene,
Shut up and barr'd amid surrounding feas
From human commerce, quicken'd into fenfe
Of sharper forrow, thus apart began.

145

O fight, that from the eye of wealth or pride, Ev'n in their hour of vaineft thought, might

draw

A feeling tear; Whom yesterday beheld
By love and fortune crown'd, of all poffeft
That Fancy, tranc'd in faireft vifion, dreams; 150
Now loft to all, each hope that foftens life,
Each blifs that chears, there, on the damp earth
fpread,

Beneath a heaven unknown, behold him now!
And let the gay, the fortunate, the great,

The proud, be taught, what now the wretched feel,

155

The happy have to fear. O man forlorn,
Too plain I read thy heart, by fondness drawn
To this fad feene, to fights that but inflame
Its tender anguish-

Hear me, heaven! exclaim'd The frantic mourner, could that anguish rise To madness and to mortal agony,

160

165

I yet would blefs my fate; by one kind pang,
From what I feel, the keener pangs of thought
For ever freed. To me the fun is loft:
To me the future flight of days and years
Is darkness, is despair-But who complains
Forgets that he can die. O, fainted maid!
For fuch in heaven thou art, if from thy feat
Of holy reft, beyond thefe changeful skies,
If names on earth moft facred once and dear,
A lover and a friend, if yet these names
Can wake thy pity, dart one guiding ray
To light me where, in cave or creek, are thrown
Thy lifelefs limbs: that I-O grief fupreme! 175
O fate remorfelefs! was thy lover fav'd
For fuch a tak?-that I thofe dear remains,

180

Beneath the hallow'd vault; and, weeping there
O'er thy cold urn, await the hour to clofe
Thefe eyes in peace, and mix this duft with
thine!

Such, and fo dire, reply'd the cordial friend
In pity's look and language, fuch, alas!
Were late my thoughts. Whate'er the human
heart

Can moft afflict, grief, agony, despair,
Have all been mine, and with alternate war 185
This bofom ravag'd. Hearken then, good youth;
My ftory mark, and from another's fate,
Pre-eminently wretched, learn thy own,
Sad as it feems, to balance and to bear.

190

210

Then doom'd to feel what guilt alone should fear,
The hand of public vengeance: arm'd by rage,
Not juftice; rais'd to injure, not redrefs;
To rob, not guard; to ruin, not defend :
And all, O fovereign Reafon! all deriv'd
From power that claims thy warrant to do wrong!
A right divine to violate unblam'd
Each law, each rule, that, by himself observ'd,
The God prefcribes whofe fanction kings pretend!
O Charles! O monarch! in long exile train'd,
Whole hopelefs years, th' oppreffor's hand to
know

216

220

How hateful and how hard; thyself reliev'd.
Now hear thy people, groaning under wrongs
Of equal load, adjure thee by thofe days
Of want and woe, of danger and defpair,
As heaven has thine, to pity their distress!
Yet, from the plain good meaning of my heart,
Be far th' unhallow'd licence of abuse;
Be far th' bitterness of faintly zeal,
That impious hid behind the patriot's name
Masks hate and malice to the legal throne,
In juftice founded, circumfcrib'd by laws,
The prince to guard-but guard the people

too:

225

Chief, one prime good to guard inviolate,
Soul of all worth, and fum of human blifs, 230
Fair Freedom, birthright of all thinking kinds,
Reafon's great charter, from no king deriv'd,
By none to be reclaim'd, man's right divine,
Which God, who gave, indelible pronounc'd.

But if, difclaiming this his heaven-own'd right,,
This firft beft tenure by which monarchs rule;
If, meant the bleffing, he becomes the bane,
The wolf, not thepherd, of his fubje&-flock,
To grind and tear, not fhelter and protect,
Wide-wafting where he reigns-to fuch a prince,
Allegiance kept were treason to mankind; 241
And loyalty, 'revolt from virtue's law.
For fay, Amyntor, does juft heaven enjoin
That we should homage hell? or bend the knee
To earthquake, or volcano, when they rage, 245
Rend earth's firm frame,, and in one boundless
grave

Engulph their thoufands? Yet, O grief to tell!
Yet fuch, of late, o'er this devoted land,

Was public rule. Our fervile ftripes and chains,
Our fighs and groans refounding from the fteep
Of wintery hill, or wafte untravel'd heath,
251
Latt refuge of our wretchedness, not guilt,
Proclaim'd it loud to heaven; the arm of power
Extended tatal, but to crush the head
It ought to fereen, or with a parent's love
Reclaim from error; not with deadly hate,
The tyrant's law, exterminate who err.

255

261

In this wide ruin were my fortunes funk : Myfelf, as one contagious to his kind, Whom nature, whom the focial life renounc'd, Unfummon'd, unimpleaded was to death, To fhameful death, adjudg'd; against my head The price of blood proclaim'd, and at my heels Let loose the murderous cry of human hounds. And this blind fury of commiffion'd rage, 265 Of party-vengeance, to a fatal foe,

Known and abhorr'd for deeds of direft name, Was given in charge: a foe, whom blood-ftain'd zeal

For what-O hear it not, all-righteous heaven! Left thy rous'd thunder burft-for what was deem'd

275

Religion's caufe, had favag'd to a brute,
More deadly fell than hunger ever stung
To prowl in wood or wild. His band he arm'd,
Sons of perdition, mifcreants with all guilt
Familiar, and in each dire art of death
Train'd ruthlefs up. As tigers on their prey,
On my defenceless lands thofe fiercer beafts
Devouring fell: nor that sequester'd shade,
That fweet recefs, where Love and Virtue long
In happy league had dwelt, which war itfelf 280
Beheld with reverence, could their fury fcape;
Defpoil'd, defac'd, and wrapt in wafteful flames!
For flaine and rapine their confuming march,
From hill to vale, by daily ruin mark'd.
So borne by winds along, in baneful cloud, 285
Embody'd locufts from the wing defcend
On herb, fruit, flower, and kill the ripening

year:

291

While, wafte behind, deftruction on their track
And ghaftly famine wait. My wife and child
He dragg'd, the ruffian dragg'd-O heaven! do I,
A man, furvive to tell it? At the hour
Sacred to reft, amid the fighs and tears
Of all who fay and curs'd his coward rage,
He forc'd, unpitying, from their midnight-bed,
By menace, or by torture, from their fears
My laft retreat to learn, and ftill detains
Beneath his roof accurft, that best of wives,

295

Emelia, and our only pledge of love,
My blooming Theodora! Manhood there,
And nature bleed-Ah! let not bufy thought 300
Search thither, but avoid the fatal coaft:
Discovery, there, once more my peace of mind
Might wreck; once more to defperation fink
My hopes in heaven. He faid; but O fad Mufe!
Can all thy moving energy, of power 395
To fhake the heart, to freeze th' arrefted blood,
With words that weep, and ftrains that agonize;
Can all this mournful magic of thy voice
Tell what Amyntor feels? O heaven! art thou-
What have I heard?-Aurelius! art thou he?-
Confufion! horror !-that most wrong'd of men!
And, O moft wretched too! alas! no more,
No more a father-On that fatal flood,
Thy Theodora-At these words he fell.
A deadly cold ran freezing through his veins 315
And life was on the wing her loath'd abode
For ever to forfake. As on his way
The traveller, from heaven by lightning ftruck,
Is fix'd at once immoveable; his eye
With terror glaring wild; his ftiffening limbs
In fudden marble bound: fo ftood, fo look'd
The heart-fmote parent at this tale of death,
Half-utter'd, yet too plain. No fign to rife,
No tear had force to flow; his fenfes all.
Thro' all their powers, fufpended, and fubdued
To chill amazement. Silence for a space-
Such dismal filence faddens earth and sky
Ere first the thunder breaks-on either fide
Fill'd up this interval fevere. At laft
As from fome vifion that to phrenfy fires
The fleeper's brain, Amyntor waking wild,
A poniard, hid beneath his various robe,
Drew furious forth-Me, me, he cry'd, on me
Let all thy wrongs be visited; and thus
My horrors end-then madly would have plung'd
The weapon's hoftile point. His lifted arm, 336
Aurelius, though with deep difmay and dread
And anguith fhook, yet his superior foul
Collecting, and refuming all himself,
Seiz'd ludden: then perufing with strict eye, 340
And beating heart, Amyntor's blooming form;
Nor from his air or feature gathering aught
To wake remembrance, thus at length befpoke,
O dire attempt! Whoe'er thou art, yet ftay
Thy hand self-violent; nor thus to guilt,
If guilt is thine, accumulating add
A crime that nature fhrinks from, and to which
Heaven has indulg'd no mercy. Sovereign
Judge!

330

345

Shall man firft violate the law divine,
That plac'd him here dependent on thy nod, 350
of fair difmiffion hence; fhall man do this,
Refign'd, unmurmuring, to await his hour
Then dare thy prefence, rush into thy fight,
Red with the fin, and recent from the stain,
Of unrepented blood? Call home thy fenfe; 355
Know what thou art, and own his hand most juft,
Rewarding or afflicting-But say on.

My foul, yet trembling at thy frantic deed,
Recalls thy words, recalls their dire import :
They urge ine on; they bid me afk no more-360
What would I aft? My Theodora's fate,

Ah! me! is known too plain. Have I then finn'd,

60

Unblam'd pronounce? that name to every fon 55
By heaven made facred; and by Nature's hand,
With Honour, Duty, Love, her triple pale,
Fenc'd ftrongly round, to bar the rude approach
Of each irreverent thought.-Thefe eyes, alas!
The curs'd effects of fanguinary zeal
Too near bebeld: its madnefs how extreme;
How blind its fury, by the prompting priest,
Each tyrant's ready inftrument of ill,
Train'd on to holy mischief. Scene abhorr'd!
Fell Cruelty let loofe in Mercy's name :
Intolerance, while o'er the free-born mind
Her heaviest chains were caft, her iron fcourge
Severest hung, yet during to appeal

65

That Power whofe law is meeknefs; and, for deeds

75

7

90

That outrage heaven, belying heaven's command.
Flexile of will, misjudging, though fincere, 71
Rolando caught the fpread infection, plung'd
Implicit into guilt, and headlong urg'd
His courfe unjust to violence and rage.
Unmanly rage! when nor the charm divine
Of Beauty, nor the Matron's facred age,
Secure from wrongs could innocence fecure,
Found reverence or diftin&tion. Yet fuftain'd
By confcious worth within, the matchlels pair
Their threatening fate, imprisonment and fcorn So
And death denounc'd, unfhrinking, unfubdued
To murmur or complaint, fuperior bore,
With patient hope, with fortitude re gn'd,
Nor built on pride, nor counting vain applaufe;
But calmly conftant, without effort great, 85
What reafon dictates, and what heaven approves.
But how proceed, Aurelius? in what founds
Of gracious cadence, of affuafive power,
My further story clothe? O could I fteal
From Harmony her fofteft-warbled train
Of melting air! or Zephyre's vernal voice!
Or Philomela's fong, when love diffolves
To liquid blandihment his evening-lay,
All nature filing round! then might I fpeak;
Then might Amyntor, unoffending, tell,
How unperceiv'd and fecret through his breaft,
A morning rifes o'er the midnight-shade,
What firft was ow'd humanity to both,
Affifting piety and tender thought,
Grew fwit and flent into love for one:
My fole offence-if love can then offend,
When virtue lights and reverence guards its flame.
O Theodora! who thy world of charms,
That foul of fweetnefs, that fort glow of youth,
Warin on thy cheek, and beaming from thine eye,
Unmov'd could fee? that dignity of eafe,
That grace of air, by happy nature thine!
For all in thee was native; from within
Spontaneous flowing, as fome equal stream
From its unfailing fource! and then too feen 110
In milder lights; by forrow's fhading hand
Touch'd into power more exquifitely folt,
By tears adori'd, intender'd by diftreis.
Ofweetnefs without name! when Love looks on
With Pity's melting eye, that to the foul
Endears, ennobles her, whom fare amics,
Or fortune leaves unhappy! Paffion then
Refines to Virtue: then a purer train

VOL. VII.

95

100

106

115

120

Of heaven-infpir'd emotions, undebas'd
By fell-regard, or thought of due reture,
The breaft expanding, all its powers exalt
To emulate what reafon beit conceives
Of love celeftial; whofe prevenient aid
Forbids approaching ill; or gracious draws,
When the lone heart with anguifh inly bleeds, 125
From pain its fting, its bitterness from woe!

By this plain court ip of the honeft heart
To pity mov'd, at length my pleaded vows
The gentle maid with unreluctant car
Would oft admit; would oft endearing crown
With miles of kind affent, with looks that fpoke,
In bluft ing foftnefs, her chafte bofom touch'd
To mutual love. O fortune's faireft hour!
O feen, but not enjoy'd, just hail'd and lost -
Is flattering brightnefs! Theodora's form, 135
Event unfear'd had caught Rolando's eye:
And Love, if wild Def re, of Fancy born,
By furious paffions nurs'd, that facred name
Profanes not, Love his ftubborn breaft diffolv'd
To tranfient goodness. But my thought shrinks.
- back,

140

Reluctant to proceed; and filial awe,
With pious hand, would o'er a parent's crime
The veil of filence ard oblivious night
Permitted throw. His impious fuit repell'd,
Aw'd from her eye, and from her lip fevere 145
Dafh'd with indignant fcorn; each harbour'd
thought

150

Of foft emotion or of focial fenfe,
Love, Pity, Kindnefs, alien to a foul
That Bigot-rage embofoms, fled at once:
And all the favage reaffum'd his breast.
'Tis just, he cry'd: who thus invites difdain,
Deferves repulfe; re who, by flave-like arts,
Would meanly fteal what force may nobler take,
And, greatly daring, dignify the deed.
When next we incet, our mutual blush to spare,
Thine from diffembling, from bafe Hattery mine,
Shall be my care. This threat, by brutal fcora
Keen'd and embitter'd, terrible to both,
To one prov'd fatal. Silent-wafting grief,
The mortal worm that on Emilia's frame
Had prey'd unfees, now deep thro'all her powers
Its poifon fpread, and kill'd their vital growth.
Sickening, fhe funk beneath this double weight
Of fame and horr r.-Dare I yet proceed?
Aurelius, O most injur'd of mankind!
Shall yet my tale, exafperating, add
To woe, new anguish? and to grief, despair-
She is no more-

160

165

O Providence fevere!
Aurelius fmote his breaft, and groaning cry'd;
But curb'd a fecond groan, repell'd the voice 171
Qf froward grief and to the Will fupreme,
In juftice awful, lowly bending his,
Nor figh, nor murmur, ncr repining plaint,
By all the war of nature though affailed,
Efcap'd his lips. What! fall we from heaven's
grace

With life receiving happiness, our share
Of ill refufe? And are afficions aught
But mercies in difguife? th' alternate cup,
Medicinal though bitter, and prepar'd

I i