And, bidden to a spare but cheerful meal, At their long board. The fare indeed was such But might have pleased a nicer taste than mine; And sheds a grace on all. Theirs Time as yet Had changed not. Some were almost in the prime; Nor was a brow o'ercast. Seen as they sate, Ranged round their ample hearth-stone in an hour Of rest, they were as gay, as free from guile, Music; and gathering news from them that came, Then all was changed; and, sallying with their pack Into that blank of nature, they became Unearthly beings. Anselm, higher up, Just where it drifts, a dog howls loud and long, Oft has a venerable roof received me; St. BRUNO'S once +-where, when the winds were hushed, Nor from the cataract the voice came up, You might have heard the mole work underground, So great the stillness of that place; none seen, * Alluding to Barri, a dog of great renown in his day. He is here admirably represented by a pencil that has done honour to many of his kind, but to none who deserved it more. His skin is stuffed, and preserved in the Museum of Berne. The Grande Chartreuse. C Save when from rock to rock a hermit crossed By some rude bridge-or one at midnight tolled All, all observant of the sacred law Of Silence. Nor is that sequestered spot, 6 Once called 'Sweet Waters,' now The Shady Vale,' To me unknown; that house so rich of old, So courteous, and, by two that passed that way,† The Poet's payment.-But, among them all, None can with this compare, the dangerous seat Thaw not, but gather-there is that within, Which, where it comes, makes Summer; and, in thought, * Vallombrosa, formerly called Acqua Bella. + ARIOSTO and MILTON. Milton was there at the fall of the leaf. Restored, renewed, advancing as with songs, THE DESCENT. My mule refreshed-and, let the truth be told, But patient, diligent, and sure of foot, Shunning the loose stone on the precipice, Snorting suspicion while with sight, smell, touch, Where in his sledge the Laplander had turned On and say nothing-lest a word, a breath |