I pass the raptures of the Pair;-such theme

kly innumerable poets, touched

Laure delightful verse than skill of mine

ason, chiefly by that darling bard

We told of Juliet and her Romeo,

t of the lark's note heard before its time, And of the streaks that laced the severing clouds 1- the unrelenting east. - Through all her courts The vacant city slept; the busy winds, The keep no certain intervals of rest, Kred not; meanwhile the galaxy displayed Hfres, that like mysterious pulses beat tit; - momentous but uneasy bliss!

T their full hearts the universe seemed hung e that brief meeting's slender filament!

They parted; and the generous Vandracour raced speedily the native threshold, bent taking (so the Lovers had agreed)

A scrifice of birthright to attain

portion from his Father's hand;

Work granted. Bride and Bridegroom then would flee
The remote and solitary place,

> a night, and beautiful as heaven,
Where they may live, with no one to behold
Teraappiness, or to disturb their love.
Bare of this no whisper; not the less,
Werer an barusive word were dropped
Ting the matter of his passion, still,
as stera Father's hearing, Vaudracour
Fested openly that death alone
Sabrogate his human privilege
Dene, of swearing everlasting truth,

the altar, to the Maid he loved.

*Ya sti'l be baffled in your mad intent there be justice in the Court of France,"

Nad the Father. From these words the Youth cerred a terror,—and, by night or day,

พ

red now bore without weapons-that full soon dreadful provocation: for at night

Je to his chamber he retired, attempt

Wu made to seize him by three armed men, *gin furtherance of the Father's will, hr a private signet of the State.

dd the Youth's ungovernable hand *ait and slay; —and to a second, gave Arles wound, — he shuddered to behold breathless corse; then peacefully resigned pern to the law, was lodged in prison, And wore the fetters of a criminal.

Ilave you beheld a tuft of winged seed - from the dandelion's naked stalk, ested alet, is suffered not to use satural gifts for purposes of rest, Ieven by the autumnal whirlwind to and fro Pre the wide element or have you marked *he beaver substance of a leaf-clad bough,

Within the vortex of a foaming flood,

Tormented? by such aid you may conceive The perturbation of each mind:—ah, no!

Desperate the Maid- the Youth is stained with blood;
But as the troubled seed and tortured bough
Is Man, subjected to despotic sway.

For him, by private influence with the Court
Was pardon gained, and liberty procured;
But not without exaction of a pledge,
Which liberty and love dispersed in air.

He flew to her from whom they would divide him -
He clove to her who could not give him peace-
Yea, his first word of greeting was, “ All right
Is gone from me; my lately-towering hopes,
To the least fibre of their lowest root,
Are withered; — thou no longer canst be mine,
I thine- the Conscience-stricken must not woo
The unruffled Innocent, I see thy face,
Behold thee, and my misery is complete!"

-

"One, are we not?" exclaimed the Maiden--"One
For innocence and youth, for weal and woe?"
Then with the Father's name she coupled words
Of vehement indignation; but the Youth
Checked her with filial meekness; for no thought
Uncharitable, no presumptuous rising
Of hasty censure, modelled in the eclipse
Of true domestic loyalty, did e'er

Find place within his bosom. - Once again
The persevering wedge of tyranny
Achieved their separation; — and once more
Were they united, to be yet again
Disparted-pitiable lot! But here

A portion of the Tale may well be left

In silence, though my memory could add
Much how the Youth, in scanty space of time,
Was traversed from without; much, too, of thoughts
That occupied his days in solitude

Under privation and restraint; and what,

Through dark and shapeless fear of things to come, And what, through strong compunction for the past, He suffered-breaking down in heart and mind!

Doomed to a third and last captivity,
His freedom he recovered on the eve
Of Julia's travail. When the babe was born,
Its presence tempted him to cherish schemes
Of future happiness. "You shall return,
Julia," said he, "and to your Father's house
Go with the Child. You have been wretched, yet
The silver shower, whose reckless burthen weighs
Too heavily upon the lily's head,

Oft leaves a saving moisture at its root.
Malice, beholding you, will melt away.
Go!-'t is a Town where both of us were born;
None will reproach you, for our truth is known;

I see him sporting on the sunny lawn;
My Father from the window sees him too;
Startled, as if some new-created Thing
Enriched the earth, or Faery of the woods
Bounded before him;- but the unweeting Child
Shall by his beauty win his Grandsire's heart
So that it shall be softened, and our loves
End happily-as they began!" These gleams
Appeared but seldom; oftener was he seen
Propping a pale and melancholy face
Upon the Mother's bosom; resting thus

His head upon one breast, while from the other
The Babe was drawing in its quiet food.
-That pillar is no longer to be thine,

Fond Youth! that mournful solace now must pass
Into the list of things that cannot be !
Unwedded Julia, terror-smitten, hears
The sentence, by her Mother's lip pronounced,
That dooms her to a Convent. Who shall tell,
Who dares report, the tidings to the Lord
Of her affections? So they blindly asked
Who knew not to what quiet depths a weight
Of agony had pressed the Sufferer down;·
The word, by others dreaded, he can hear
Composed and silent, without visible sign
Of even the least emotion. Noting this,
When the impatient Object of his love
Upbraided him with slackness, he returned
No answer, only took the Mother's hand
And kissed it seemingly devoid of pain,
Or care, that what so tenderly he pressed,
Was a dependant on the obdurate heart
Of One who came to disunite their lives

For ever - sad alternative! preferred,
By the unbending Parents of the Maid,
To secret 'spousals meanly disavowed.
- So be it!

In the city he remained

A season after Julia had withdrawn

To those religious walls. He, too, departs-
Who with him?-even the senseless Little-one!
With that sole Charge he passed the city-gates,
For the last time, attendant by the side
Of a close chair, a litter, or sedan,

In which the Babe was carried. To a hill,
That rose a brief league distant from the town,
The Dwellers in that house where he had lodged
Accompanied his steps, by anxious love
Impelled, they parted from him there, and stood
Watching below, till he had disappeared

On the hill top. His eyes he scarcely took,
Throughout that journey, from the vehicle
(Slow-moving ark of all his hopes!) that veiled
The tender Infant: and at every inn,

And under every hospitable tree

At which the Bearers halted or reposed,
Laid him with timid care upon his knees,
And looked, as mothers ne'er were known to look,
Upon the Nursling which his arms embraced.
-This was the manner in which Vaudracour
Departed with his Infant; and thus reached
His Father's house, where to the innocent Child
Admittance was denied. The young Man spake
No words of indignation or reproof,
But of his Father begged, a last request,
That a retreat might be assigned to him
Where in forgotten quiet he might dwell,
With such allowance as his wants required;
For wishes he had none. To a Lodge that stood
Deep in a forest, with leave given, at the age
Of four-and-twenty summers, he withdrew;
And thither took with him his infant Babe,
And one Domestic for their common needs,
An aged Woman. It consoled him here
To attend upon the Orphan, and perform
Obsequious service to the precious Child,
Which, after a short time, by some mistake
Or indiscretion of the Father, died.
The Tale I follow to its last recess

Of suffering or of peace, I know not which:
Theirs be the blame who caused the woe, not mine?

From this time forth, he never shared a smile With mortal creature. An Inhabitant Of that same Town, in which the Pair had left So lively a remembrance of their griefs, By chance of business, coming within reach Of his retirement, to the forest lodge Repaired, but only found the Matron there, Who told him that his pains were thrown away, For that her Master never uttered word To living Thing-not even to her. - Behold! While they were speaking, Vaudracour approached; But, seeing some one near, even as his hand Was stretched towards the garden gate, he shrunk And, like a shadow, glided out of view. Shocked at his savage aspect, from the place The Visitor retired.

Thus lived the Youth

Cut off from all intelligence with man,

And shunning even the light of common day;
Nor could the voice of Freedom, which through Frand
Full speedily resounded, public hope,

Or personal memory of his own deep wrongs,
Rouse him but in those solitary shades
His days he wasted, an imbecile mind!