Still he would mention Ellis with the pride
Of one who felt himself to worth allied:
Such were his notions-had been long, but now
He wish'd to see if vengeance lived, and how:
He doubted not a mind so strong must feel
Most righteously, and righteous measures deal.

Then would he go, and haply he might find
Some new excitement for a weary mind;
Might learn the miseries of a pair undone,
One scorn'd and hated, lost and perish'd one:
Yes, he would praise to virtuous anger give,
And so his vengeance should be nursed and live.

Ellis was glad to see his landlord come,

A transient joy broke in upon his gloom,

And pleased he led the knight to the superior room;
Where she was wont in happier days to sit,
Who paid with smiles his condescending wit.

There the sad husband, who had seldom been
Where prints acquired in happier days were seen,
Now struck by these, and carried to the past,
A painful look on every object cast:

Sir Owen saw his tenant's troubled state,
But still he wish'd to know the offenders' fate.

"Know you they suffer, Ellis?"-Ellis knew ;"'Tis well! 'tis just! but have they all their due? "Have they in mind and body, head and heart, "Sustain'd the pangs of their accursed part?"

They have!"—" "Tis well!"—" and wants enough to shake

"The firmest mind, the stoutest heart to break.”

"But have you seen them in such misery dwell?" "In misery past description."-"That is well."

"Alas! Sir Owen, it perhaps is just,-
"Yet I began my purpose to distrust;
"For they to justice have discharged a debt,
"That vengeance surely may her claim forget."

"Man, can you pity?"

"Miseries like theirs."

"As a man I feel

"But never would you heal?"

"Hear me, Sir Owen:-I had sought them long, "Urged by the pain of ever present wrong, "Yet had not seen; and twice the year came round"Years hateful now-ere I my victims found: "But I did find them, in the dungeon's gloom "Of a small garret-a precarious home, "For that depended on the weekly pay, "And they were sorely frighten'd on the day; "But there they linger'd on from week to week, "Haunted by ills of which 'tis hard to speak, "For they are many and vexatious all, "The very smallest-but they none were small.

"The roof, unceil'd in patches, gave the snow "Entrance within, and there were heaps below; "I pass'd a narrow region dark and cold, "The strait of stairs to that infectious hold; "And, when I enter'd, misery met my view "In every shape she wears, in every hue, "And the black icy blast across the dungeon flew; "There frown'd the ruin'd walls that once were white; “There gleam'd the panes that once admitted light ; "There lay unsavoury scraps of wretched food; "And there a measure, void of fuel, stood;

VOL. II.

L

"But who shall part by part describe the state "Of these, thus follow'd by relentless fate?

All, too, in winter, when the icy air

"Breathed its bleak venom on the guilty pair.

"That man, that Cecil!-he was left, it seems,
"Unnamed, unnoticed: farewell to his dreams!
"Heirs made by law rejected him of course,
"And left him neither refuge nor resource:-
"Their father's? No: he was the harlot's son

"Who wrong'd them, whom their duty bade them

shun;

"And they were duteous all, and he was all undone.

"Now the lost pair, whom better times had led "To part disputing, shared their sorrow's bed: "Their bed!-I shudder as I speak-and shared "Scraps to their hunger by the hungry spared."

"Man! my good Ellis! can you sigh?”—“I can: "In short, Sir Owen, I must feel as man; "And could you know the miseries they endured, "The poor, uncertain pittance they procured; "When, laid aside the needle and the pen,

"Their sickness won the neighbours of their den,

"Poor as they are, and they are passing poor,
"To lend some aid to those who needed more:
"Then, too, an ague with the winter came,
"And in this state-that wife I cannot name

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Brought forth a famish'd child of suffering and of shame.

"This had you known, and traced them to this scene, "Where all was desolate, defiled, unclean,

"A fireless room, and, where a fire had place,
"The blast loud howling down the empty space,
"You must have felt a part of the distress,

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Forgot your wrongs, and made their suffering less!"

Sought you them, Ellis, from the mean intent "To give them succour ?"

"What indeed I meant

"At first was vengeance; but I long pursued “The pair, and I at last their misery view'd "In that vile garret, which I cannot paint—

"The sight was loathsome, and the smell was faint; “And there that wife,-whom I had loved so well, "And thought so happy, was condemn'd to dwell; "The gay, the grateful wife, whom I was glad "To see in dress beyond our station clad,