DEPARTED Child! I could forget thee once A shadow, never, never to be displaced The Child she mourned had overstepped the pale Of Infancy, but still did breathe the air That sanctifies its confines, and partook Reflected beams of that celestial light To all the Little-ones on sinful earth Not unvouchsafed-a light that warmed and cheered Those several qualities of heart and mind Which, in her own blest nature, rooted deep, Daily before the Mother's watchful eye, Have you espied upon a dewy lawn That Nature prompts them to display, their looks, An undistinguishable style appears And character of gladness, as if Spring Lodged in their innocent bosoms, and the spirit Of the rejoicing morning were their own. Such union, in the lovely Girl maintained Her sad approach, and stole away to find, In walks whose boundary is the lost One's grave, Heaven As now it is, seems to her own fond heart, Immortal as the love that gave it being. XXVII. THE SAILOR'S MOTHER. ONE morning (raw it was and wet A foggy day in winter time) A Woman on the road I met, Not old, though something past her prime : The following tale was written as an Episode, in a work from which its length may perhaps exclude it. The facts are true; no invention as to these has been exercised, as none was needed. O HAPPY time of youthful lovers (thus My story may begin) O balmy time, Who heard the heart-felt music of his suit Plebeian, though ingenuous, the stock, Of sea-fowl, conscious both that they are hovering Of neighbouring billows from each other's sight. Thus, not without concurrence of an age Unknown to memory, was an earnest given By ready nature for a life of love, For endless constancy, and placid truth; But whatsoe'er of such rare treasure lay Reserved, had fate permitted, for support Of their maturer years, his present mind Was under fascination;-he beheld A vision, and adored the thing he saw. Arabian fiction never filled the world With half the wonders that were wrought for him. Earth breathed in one great presence of the spring; Life turned the meanest of her implements, Before his eyes, to price above all gold ; The house she dwelt in was a sainted shrine; Her chamber-window did surpass in glory The portals of the dawn; all paradise A man too happy for mortality! So passed the time, till whether through effect Of some unguarded moment that dissolved Virtuous restraint—ah, speak it, think it, not! Deem rather that the fervent Youth, who saw So many bars between his present state And the dear haven where he wished to be In honourable wedlock with his Love, Was in his judgment tempted to decline To perilous weakness, and entrust his cause To nature for a happy end of all; Deem that by such fond hope the Youth was swayed, And bear with their transgression, when I add ! That Julia, wanting yet the name of wife, To conceal The threatened shame, the parents of the Maid And unforewarned, that in some distant spot Until the babe was born. When morning came, I pass the raptures of the pair;-such theme And of the lark's note heard before its time, To their full hearts the universe seemed hung They parted; and the generous Vaudracour Reached speedily the native threshold, bent On making (so the Lovers had agreed) A sacrifice of birthright to attain A final portion from his father's hand; Persisted openly that death alone Should abrogate his human privilege Divine, of swearing everlasting truth, Upon the altar, to the Maid he loved. "You shall be baffled in your mad intent If there be justice in the court of France," Muttered the Father.-From these words the Youth Conceived a terror; and, by night or day, Stirred nowhere without weapons, that full soon Found dreadful provocation: for at night When to his chamber he retired, attempt Was made to seize him by three armèd men, Acting, in furtherance of the father's will, Under a private signet of the State. One the rash Youth's ungovernable hand Slew, and as quickly to a second gave A perilous wound-he shuddered to behold The breathless corse; then peacefully resigned His person to the law, was lodged in prison, And wore the fetters of a criminal. Have you observed a tuft of winged seed That, from the dandelion's naked stalk, Mounted aloft, is suffered not to use Its natural gifts for purposes of rest, Driven by the autumnal whirlwind to and fro Through the wide element? or have you marked The heavier substance of a leaf-clad bough, Within the vortex of a foaming flood, Tormented? by such aid you may conceive The perturbation that ensued ;--ah, no! Desperate the Maid-the Youth is stained with blood; Unmatchable on earth is their disquiet! Yet 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 Which granted, Bride and Bridegroom then would Yea, his first word of greeting was,-“All right flee To some remote and solitary place, Is gone from me; my lately-towering hopes, I thine the conscience-stricken must not woo "One,are we not?" exclaimed the Maiden-"One, For innocence and youth, for weal and woe?" |