THE RED KING'S WARNING.

At length, to solve those words of flame,
Fearless, but meek, the prophet came;
One glance he gave, and all was clear!
"King! there is reason in thy fear;
Those words proclaim, thy empire ends-
The day of wrath and woe impends:
Weighed in the balance, wanting found,
Thou and thy kingdom strike the ground."-
That night, by the servants of his train,
Belshazzar, the mighty king, was slain !

301

HEINE (altered).

III. THE RED KING'S WARNING.

Historians relate that the death of William Rufus, in the New Forest, was
preceded by several predictions clearly announcing his fate.
WITH hound and horn the wide New Forest rung,
When William Rufus, at the bright noon-day,
Girt by his glittering train, to saddle sprung,

And to the chase spurred forth his gallant gray.
O'er hill, o'er dale, the hunters held their track;
But that gray courser, fleeter than the wind,
Was foremost still-and as the king looked back,
Save Tyrrell, all were far and far behind.
Slow through a distant pass the train defiled;
Alone the king rode on when in mid course,
Lo! rushed across his path a figure wild,
And on his bridle-rein with giant force
Seized* then swift pointing to a blighted oak,
Thus to the astonished king his warning spoke.
"Curb thy race of headlong speed!
Backward, backward turn thy steed!
Death is on thy onward track,
Turn, O, turn thy courser back!

"See'st thou, King, yon aged tree, -
Blighted now, alas! like me?

Once it bloomed in strength and pride,
And my cottage stood beside;

"Till on Hastings' fatal field

England's baleful doom was sealed!

* The right hand should be here thrust forward, as in the act of grasping the bridle, while the other hand should be extended, pointing to the supposed object. There should be a suspensive pause at "Seized."

Till the Saxon stooped to own
Norman lord on English throne!

"Where the forest holds domain,
Then were fields of golden grain;
Hamlets then and churches stood
Where we see the wide waste wood.

"But the Norman king must here
Have his wood to hunt his deer.
What were we? - He waved his hand,
And we vanished from the land.

"Fiercely burned my rising ire
When I saw our cots on fire!
When ourselves were forced to fly,
Or to beg, or rob, or die!

"Then on William's head abhorred,
Then my deepest curse I poured.

Turning to this aged oak,

Thus in madness wild I spoke :

"Powers of Hell, or Earth, or Air,
Grant an injured Saxon's prayer!
Ne'er may one of William's race
Pass alive this fatal place!

"Powers of Hell, or Earth, or Air,

Give a sign ye grant my prayer!
Give! O, give!

While yet I spoke,

Lightning struck yon witness oak!

"Shun, O King! thy certain lot!
Fly with speed the fatal spot!
Here to death thy uncle passed;
Here thy nephew breathed his last!

"Yes, my curse has worked too well!
Sorrow seized me when they fell.
Would, O, would I might revoke
What in madness wild I spoke!

"Monarch! to my words give heed, Backward, backward turn thy steed! Danger, death, beset thee round;

Chase not on the fated ground!"

ENTRY OF THE AUSTRIANS INTO NAPLES. 303

--

"Away," fierce William cried, "ill-boding seer!.
Think'st thou to strike thy sovereign's heart with fear?
Think'st thou with idle threats to bar my way?
-I scorn thy warning!-On! my gallant gray!"
He plunged his spurs deep in his courser's side,
When from the blighted oak, as he advanced,
Right to the monarch's heart an arrow glanced:
The blood gushed forth, he FELL!—he GROANED! -

-he DIED! ANON. (altered).

IV.-ENTRY OF THE AUSTRIANS INTO NAPLES.
Ay, down to the dust with them, slaves as they are!
From this hour let the blood in their dastardly veins,
That shrunk at the first touch of Liberty's war,

Be wasted for tyrants, or stagnate in chains!

On, on, like a cloud, through their beautiful vales,
Ye locusts of tyranny, blasting them o'er!—
Fill, fill up their wide sunny waters, ye sails,

Moore

From each slave-mart of Europe, and shadow their shore!

Let their fate be a mock-word; let men of all lands
Laugh out, with a scorn that shall ring to the poles,
When each sword that the cowards let fall from their hands
Shall be forged into fetters to enter their souls!

And deep, and more deep, as the iron is driven,
Base slaves! let the whet of their agony be,

To think- as the doomed often think of that heaven

They had once within reach—that they might have been free!

When the world stood in hope, when a spirit, that breathed
The fresh hour of the olden time, whispered about,
And the swords of all Italy, half-way unsheathed,
But waited one conquering cry, to flash out,

When around you the shades of your mighty in fame,
Filicajas and Petrarchs, seemed bursting to view,
And their words and their warnings, like tongues of bright flame
Over Freedom's apostles, fell kindling on you,-

O, shame! that in such a proud moment of life,
Worth the history of ages, when had you but hurled

One bolt at your tyrant invader, that strife

Between freemen and tyrants had spread through the world, –

That then-O! disgrace upon manhood! — even then
You should falter, should cling to your pitiful breath,
Cower down into beasts, when you might have stood men,
And prefer the slave's life of prostration to death!
It is strange, it is dreadful; -shout, Tyranny! shout
Through your dungeons and palaces, "Freedom is o'er!"
If there lingers one spark of her life, tread it out,

And return to your empire of darkness once more! MOORE.

.NE'ER can forget it, that night of dismay;
ts horrors still rise in appalling array.
Jo; were I to live to a patriarch's age,
I will still be recorded in memory's page:
Still rings in my ears the announcement so dread,
Once heard, ne'er forgotten, of "breakers ahead!"
The breeze that kissed lightly the face of the deep
its billows seemed scarcely to wake from their sleep,
And gayly our bark, like a swan in its pride,
Was slowly and gracefully breasting the tide,
When the voice of the mariner heaving the lead
Rang forth the alarm of "breakers ahead!"

There was rushing on deck, there was running below,
There was terror and madness, the frenzy of woe,
The scream of dismay that pierced wildly the air,
The agonized dumbness of silent despair;
And many a slumberer sprang from his bed,
Half conscious, but echoing "breakers ahead!”

There was bending of knees, there were efforts to pray,
From lips unaccustomed that tribute to pay;
While the triumph of faith in that moment was seen,
In meek resignation depicted serene;

The calm of the soul o'er the features was spread,
It heard without shrinking of "breakers ahead!

There were pleadings for mercy, and vows without end,
Petitions, and promises life to amend :

"O, save us we perish!" the heart-broken cry;
"O, save us, poor sinners, unfitted to die!"
With ravings of soul, fit to waken the dead,
All wrung by the warning of "breakers ahead!"

O God, in thy mercy, give us to discern

Thy judgments impending, thy warnings to learn;
From reckless contempt of thy word and thy will
Let thy Spirit of comfort deliver us still;

And faith in the Saviour, for sinners who bled,

Be our safeguard and refuge 'mid "breakers ahead!"

305

ONWARDS! throw all terrors off!
Slight the scorner, scorn the scoff!
In the race, and not the prize,
Glory's true distinction lies.
Triumph herds with meanest things, -
Common robbers, vilest kings,
Midst the reckless multitude!
But the generous, but the good,
Stand in modesty alone,
Still serenely struggling on,
Planting peacefully the seeds
Of bright hopes and better deeds.

Mark the slowly-moving plough :
Is its day of victory now?
It defiles the emerald sod,

'Whelms the flowers beneath the clod.

Wait the swiftly coming hours,
Fairer green and sweeter flowers,
Richer fruits, will soon appear,
Cornucopias of the year!

BOWRING.

VII. — LEONIDAS.

SHOUT for the mighty men

Who died along this shore,

-

Who died within this mountain's glen!

For never nobler chieftain's head

Was laid on Valor's crimson bed,

Nor ever prouder gore

Sprang forth, than theirs who won the day
Upon thy strand, Thermopyla!