'-I cannot help it; ill intent I've none, my pretty Innocent! I weep-I know they do thee wrong, These tears-and my poor idle tongue. Oh, what a kiss was that! my cheek How cold it is! but thou art good; Thine eyes are on me-they would speak, I think, to help me if they could. Blessings upon that soft, warm face, My heart again is in its place!
'While thou art mine, my little Love, This cannot be a sorrowful grove ; Contentment, hope, and mother's glee,
I seem to find them all in thee:
Here's grass to play with, here are flowers; I'll call thee by my darling's name; Thou hast, I think, a look of ours, Thy features seem to me the same; His little sister thou shalt be;
And, when once more my home I see,
I'll tell him many tales of Thee.'
[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.]
HAPPY time of youthful lovers (thus
My story may begin) O balmy time,
In which a love-knot on a lady's brow Is fairer than the fairest star in heaven!
To such inheritance of blessed fancy
(Fancy that sports more desperately with minds Than ever fortune hath been known to do)
The high-born Vaudracour was brought, by years Whose progress had a little overstepped
His stripling prime. A town of small repute, Among the vine-clad mountains of Auvergne,
Was the Youth's birth-place. There he wooed a Maid Who heard the heart-felt music of his suit
With answering vows. Plebeian was the stock, Plebeian, though ingenuous, the stock,
From which her graces and her honours sprung: And hence the father of the enamoured Youth, With haughty indignation, spurned the thought Of such alliance. From their cradles up, With but a step between their several homes, Twins had they been in pleasure; after strife And petty quarrels, had grown fond again; Each other's advocate, each other's stay; And, in their happiest moments, not content, If more divided than a sportive pair
Of sea-fowl, conscious both that they are hovering Within the eddy of a common blast,
Or hidden only by the concave depth
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 Could, by the simple opening of a door, Let itself in upon him:-pathways, walks,
Swarmed with enchantment, till his spirit sank, Surcharged, within him, overblest to move Beneath a sun that wakes a weary world To its dull round of ordinary cares; 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, Carried about her for a secret grief
The threatened shame, the parents of the Maid Found means to hurry her away by night, And unforewarned, that in some distant spot She might remain shrouded in privacy, Until the babe was born. When morning came, The Lover, thus bereft, stung with his loss, And all uncertain whither he should turn, Chafed like a wild beast in the toils; but soon Discovering traces of the fugitives,
Their steps he followed to the Maid's retreat. Easily may the sequel be divined— Walks to and fro-watchings at every hour; And the fair Captive, who, whene'er she may, Is busy at her casement as the swallow Fluttering its pinions, almost within reach, About the pendant nest, did thus espy Her Lover!-thence a stolen interview, Accomplished under friendly shade of night.
I pass the raptures of the pair;—such theme Is, by innumerable poets, touched In more delightful verse than skill of mine Could fashion; chiefly by that darling bard Who told of Juliet and her Romeo,
And of the lark's note heard before its time, And of the streaks that laced the severing clouds In the unrelenting east.-Through all her courts The vacant city slept; the busy winds,
That keep no certain intervals of rest,
Moved not; meanwhile the galaxy displayed
Her fires, that like mysterious pulses beat Aloft ;-momentous but uneasy bliss!
To their full hearts the universe seemed hung On that brief meeting's slender filament!
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;
Which granted, Bride and Bridegroom then would flee To some remote and solitary place, Shady as night, and beautiful as heaven, Where they may live, with no one to behold Their happiness, or to disturb their love. But now of this no whisper; not the less, If ever an obtrusive word were dropped Touching the matter of his passion, still, In his stern father's hearing, Vaudracour 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- 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 crossed his mind, no sense Of hasty anger, rising 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
« AnteriorContinua » |