It was St. Mary's Eve; and all poured forth, From the Firm Land, along the Po, the Brenta, At noon, a distant murmur through the crowd, Such splendour or such beauty. Two and two, Her veil, transparent as the gossamer, Fell from beneath a starry diadem; And on her dazzling neck a jewel shone, A jewelled chain, in many a winding wreath, Before the church, That venerable pile on the sea-brink, Another train they met, no strangers to them, They join, they enter in, and up the aisle Sons in the thought of making them their own; And armed ruffians, robbers from the deep, Where are they now?-ploughing the distant waves; Their sails all set; and they upon the deck Standing triumphant. To the east they go, Steering for Istria; their accursed barks, (Well are they known, the galliot and the galley,) EXERCISE CLXI. SAME SUBJECT CONCLUDED. Now might you see the matrons running wild Each having sworn, and by the holy rood, And from the tower The watchinan gives the signal. In the east Her flag St. Mark's And now she turns the point, Over the waters like a sea-bird flying! Ha! 'tis the same, 'tis theirs! from stern to prow Hung with green boughs, she comes, she comes, restoring All that was lost! Coasting, with narrow search, Friuli- like a tiger in his spring, They had surprised the corsairs where they lay, And casting lots, had slain them, one and all, - and flung them far and wide Into the sea, their proper element; Him first, as first in rank, whose name so long The fierceness of his soul. Thus were the brides Lost and recovered; and what now remained But to give thanks? Twelve breastplates and twelve crowns, Flaming with gems and gold, the votive offerings Of the young victors to their patron saint, Laid at his feet; and to preserve forever She was a firm believer in the existence of those spiritual beings with which fancy had peopled every hill and dale, and every running stream, in her native wilds. In her day, the shepherd, while tending his flock, had seen, in imagination, that playful race from fairy land, dancing in the dewy dell, beneath the light of the broad harvest moon; the "brownie" was no unfrequent visitor at the cottage of the peasant, as well as in the hall of the lordly proprietor; the shriek of the "water-kelpie" had been heard amid the rising storm; and the deceitful glare of the Will-o'-the-wisp had often allured the unsuspicious and homeless wanderer to an untimely grave. In after-years, when Margaret Laidlaw became a mother, it was her practice to amuse her children, during the long nights of winter, with animated recitations from the border ballads: these she would deliver in a strain something between a chant and a song; or she would relate tales of fairy` land or witchcraft, or might, perhaps, thrill the young hearts of her children, by affecting accounts of the death of some unfortunate shepherd, who had perished amidst the snow, when endeavouring to rescue his flock from the wreath under *which they had been buried. But while she thus gave vent to her imagination, she was never forgetful of that which was of still greater importance; we mean the religious instruction of her children: she was in the daily habit of reading passages to them from the sacred volume, and those of a nature which she knew would not only interest, but would also improve, the infant mind. EXERCISE CXLIII. LADIES' HEAD-DRESSES, IN 1707. Addison. THERE is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's headdress. Within my own memory, I have known it rise and fall above thirty degrees. About ten years ago, it shot up to a very great height, insomuch that the female part of our species were much taller than the men. The women were of such an enormous stature, that we appeared as grasshop * *This refers to the commode called by the French fontange, a kind of head-dress worn by the ladies at the beginning of the eighteenth century, which, by means of wire, bore up the hair, and pers before them: at present the whole sex is in a manner dwarfed and shrunk into a race of beauties that seems almost another species. I remember several ladies, who were once very near seven feet high, that at present want some inches of five. How they came to be thus curtailed I cannot learn. Whether the whole sex be at present under any penance which we know nothing of; or whether they have cast their head-dresses in order to surprise us with something in that kind which shall be entirely new; or whether some of the tallest of the sex, being too cunning for the rest, have contrived this method to make themselves appear sizable, is still a secret: though I find most are of opinion, they are at present like trees new lopped and pruned, that will certainly sprout and flourish with greater heads than before. For my own part, as I do not love to be insulted by women who are taller than myself, I admire the sex much more in their present humiliation, which has reduced them to their natural dimensions, than when they had extended their persons and lengthened themselves out into formidable and gigantic figures. I am not for adding to the beautiful edifices of Nature, nor for raising any whimsical superstructure upon her plans: I must therefore repeat it, that I am highly pleased with the "coiffure now in fashion, and think it shows the good sense which at present reigns among the valuable part of the sex. One may observe, that women, in all ages, have taken more pains than men to adorn the outside of their heads; and, indeed, I very much admire, that those female architects who raise such wonderful structures out of ribands, lace, and wire, have not been recorded for their respective inventions. It is certain there have been as many orders in these kinds of building, as in those which have been made of marble. Sometimes they rise in the shape of a pyramid, sometimes like a tower, and sometimes like a steeple. In Juvenal's time, the building grew by several orders and stories, as he has very humorously described it : "With curls on curls they build her head before, And mount it with a formidable tower: A giantess she seems; but look behind, to a the forepart of the cap,- consisting of many folds of fine lace, prodigious height. The transition from this to the opposite extreme was very abrupt and sudden. |