And one, his little hand in hers, Then Jacqueline the silence broke. She clasped her father's knees and spoke, While D'Arcy as before looked on, Tho' from his manly cheek was gone "His praises from your lips I heard, And, if in aught his Sire has erred, She, whom in joy, in grief you nursed; On her you thought-but to be kind! Oh are they gone from yours? Two kneeling at your feet behold; One-one how young;-nor yet the other old. Oh spurn them not-nor look so cold If Jacqueline be cast away, Her bridal be her dying day. -Well, well might she believe in you! He shook his aged locks of snow; And twice he turned, and rose to go. "That very look thy mother wore When she implored, and old Le Roc consented. True, I have done as well as suffered wrong. -Nor canst thou, D'Arcy, feel resentment long; For D'Arcy's tears bedewed his hand; "Let each meet each as friend to friend, All things by all forgot, forgiven. And that dear Saint-may she once more descend To make our home a heaven !— But now, in my hands, your's with her's unite. A father's blessing on your heads alight! Nor let the least be sent away. All hearts shall sing 'Adieu to sorrow!' St. Pierre has found his child to-day; And old and young shall dance to-morrow." Had Louis * then before the gate dismounted, Like Henry when he heard recounted + (What time the miller's maid Colette Sung, while he supped, her chansonnette) Then had the monarch with a sigh confessed -Without it what are all the rest? To love, and to be loved again. *Louis the Fourteenth. Alluding to a popular story related of Henry the Fourth of France similar to ours of "The King and Miller of Mansfield." ODE TO SUPERSTITION*. I. 1. ENCE, to the realms of Night, dire Demon, hence! Thy chain of adamant can bind That little world, the human mind, And sink its noblest powers to impotence. Wake the lion's loudest roar, Clot his shaggy mane with gore, With flashing fury bid his eye-balls shine; Meek is his savage, sullen soul, to thine! Thy touch, thy deadening touch has steeled the breast, Whence, thro' her April-shower, soft Pity smiled; Has closed the heart each godlike virtue blessed, To all the silent pleadings of his child. + At thy command he plants the dagger deep, At thy command exults, tho' Nature bids him weep! * Written in early youth. M I. 2. When, with a frown that froze the peopled earth Thou dartedst thy huge head from high, Night waved her banners o'er the sky, And, brooding, gave her shapeless shadows birth. Rocking on the billowy air, Ha! what withering phantoms glare ! As blows the blast with many a sudden swell, At each dead pause, what shrill-toned voices yell! And, thro' the mist, reveals the terrors of his form. I. 3. O'er solid seas, where Winter reigns, And holds each mountain-wave in chains, The fur-clad savage, ere he guides his deer * Lucretius, I. 63. |