LARA.

CANTO I.

I.

THE Serfs are glad through Lara's wide domain,
And Slavery half forgets her feudal chain;
He, their unhoped, but unforgotten lord,
The long self-exiled chieftain is restored:
There be bright faces in the busy hall,

Bowls on the board, and banners on the wall;
Far checkering o'er the pictured window, plays
The unwonted faggots' hospitable blaze;

And gay retainers gather round the hearth,
With tongues all loudness, and with eyes all mirth.

II.

The chief of Lara is return’d again :

And why had Lara cross'd the bounding main?

II

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15

Left by his sire, too young such loss to know,
Lord of himself;-that heritage of woe
That fearful empire which the human breast
But holds to rob the heart within of rest!-
With none to check, and few to point in time
The thousand paths that slope the way to crime;
Then, when he most required commandment, then
Had Lara's daring boyhood govern❜d men.

It skills not, boots not step by step to trace
His youth through all the mazes of its race;
Short was the course his restlessness had run,
But long enough to leave him half undone.

III.

And Lara left in youth his father-land;

But from the hour he waved his parting hand
Each trace wax'd fainter of his course, till all
Had nearly ceased his memory to recal.

His sire was dust, his vassals could declare,

20

25

'Twas all they knew, that Lara was not there; 30 Nor sent, nor came he, till conjecture grew

Cold in the many, anxious in the few.

His hall scarce echoes with his wonted name,

His portrait darkens in its fading frame,