Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

Long fhe remain'd-th' enamour'd Knight, Impatient at her stay,

And all unfit to tafte delight

When BIRTHA was away..

Betakes him to the fecret Bower;
His footsteps foftly move;
Impell'd by every tender power,
He fteals upon his love.

O, horror! horror! blafting fight!
He fees his BIRTHA's charms,
Reclin'd with melting fond delight,
Within a ftranger's arms.

Wild frenzy fires his frantic hand,
Diftracted at the fight,

He flies to where the lovers ftand,
And ftabs the ftranger Knight.

"Die traitor, die, thy guilty flames
"Demand th' avenging fteel"
"It is my brother, fhe exclaims,
"'Tis EDWY-Oh farewell!

An aged peafant, Epwy's guide,
The good old ARDOLPH fought;
He told him that his bofom's pride,
His EDWY, he had brought.

O how the father's feelings melt!
How faint and how revive!
Juft fo the Hebrew Patriarch felt,
To find his fon alive.

"Let me behold my darling's face, "And blefs him ere I die!

Then with a swift and vigorous pace, He to the the Bower did hie.

O fad reverse !—fank on the ground
His flaughter'd son he view'd,
And dying BIRTHA close he found
In brother's blood imbru'd.

Cold, fpeechless, senseless ELDRED near
Gaz'd on the deed he'd done :
Like the blank ftatue of Despair,
Or Madness grav'd in ftone.

The father faw-fo Jepthah ftood,
So turn'd his woe-fraught eye,
When the dear, destin'd child he view'd,
His zeal had doom'd to die.

He look'd the woe he could not speak,
And on the pale corfe preft
His wan, difcolour'd, dying cheek,
And filent, funk to rest.

Then BIRTHA faintly rais'd her eye,
Which long had ceas'd to ftream,
On ELDRED fix'd with many a figh
Its dim, departing beam.

The cold, cold dews of haftening death Upon her pale face stand;

And quick and fhort her failing breath, And tremulous her hand.

The cold, cold dews of haftening death,
The dim, departing eye,

The quivering hand, the fort quick breath
He view'd-and did not die.

He faw her fpirit mount in air,
Its kindred skies to feek!

His heart its anguish could not bear,
And yet it would not break.

The mournful Muse forbears to tell
How wretched ELDRED died:

She draws the Grecian Painter's veil,
The vaft diftress to hide.

Yet Heaven's decrees are juft and wife,

And man is born to bear,

Joy is the portion of the skies,
Beneath them, all is care.

* In the celebrated Picture of the Sacrifice of Iphigenia, Timanthes having exhaufted every image of grief in the by-ftanders, threw a veil over the face of the father, whofe forrow he was utterly unable to exprefs. PLIN. Book xxxv.

THE END.

THE

BLEEDING ROCK,

A

LEGENDARY TALE.

The annual wound allur'd

The Syrien damfels to lament his fate,
In amorous ditties all a fummer's day;
While fmooth Adonis from his native Rock
Ran purple to the fea fuppos'd with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded.

MILTON.

N

« ПредишнаНапред »