I calm'd her fears, and she was calm,
And told her love with virgin pride;
And so I won my Genevieve,

My bright and beauteous Bride!

And now once more a tale of woe,
A woeful tale of love I sing;
For thee, my Genevieve, it sighs,
And trembles on the string.

When last I sang the cruel scorn
That crazed this bold and lovely knight,
And how he roam'd the mountain woods,
Nor rested day nor night;

I promised thee a sister tale

Of man's perfidious cruelty;

Come then and hear what cruel wrong

Befell the Dark Ladie.

END OF THE INTRODUCTION.

THE BALLAD OF THE DARK LADIE.

A FRAGMENT.

BENEATH yon birch with silver bark
And boughs so pendulous and fair,
The brook falls scatter'd down the rock :

And all is mossy there!

And there upon the moss she sits,
The Dark Ladie in silent pain;
The heavy tear is in her eye,

And drops and swells again.

Three times she sends her little page
Up the castled mountain's breast,
If he might find the Knight that wears
The Griffin for his crest.

The sun was sloping down the sky,
And she had linger'd there all day,
Counting moments, dreaming fears-
O wherefore can he stay?

She hears a rustling o'er the brook,
She sees far off a swinging bough!
""Tis He! 'Tis my betrothed Knight!
Lord Falkland, it is Thou!"

She springs, she clasps him round the neck,
She sobs a thousand hopes and fears,

Her kisses glowing on his cheeks
She quenches with her tears.

*

"My friends with rude ungentle words
They scoff and bid me fly to thee!
O give me shelter in thy breast!
O shield and shelter me!

"My Henry, I have given thee much, gave what I can ne'er recall,

I

I gave my heart, I gave my peace,

O Heaven! I gave thee all."

The Knight made answer to the Maid,
While to his heart he held her hand,
"Nine castles hath my noble sire,
None statelier in the land.

"The fairest one shall be my love's,
The fairest castle of the nine!
Wait only till the stars peep out,
The fairest shall be thine:

"Wait only till the hand of eve
Hath wholly closed yon western bars,
And through the dark we two will steal
Beneath the twinkling stars!"-

"The dark? the dark? No! not the dark? The twinkling stars? How, Henry? How? O God! 'twas in the eye of noon

He pledged his sacred vow!

"And in the eye of noon my love

Shall lead me from my mother's door,
Sweet boys and girls all clothed in white
Strewing flowers before :

"But first the nodding minstrels go With music meet for lordly bowers,

The children next in snow-white vests,
Strewing buds and flowers!

"And then my love and I shall pace,
My jet black hair in pearly braids,
Between our comely bachelors
And blushing bridal maids."

*

LEWTI,

OR THE CIRCASSIAN'S LOVE-CHANT.

AT midnight by the stream I roved,
To forget the form I loved.

Image of Lewti! from my mind

The Moon was high, the moonlight gleam And the shadow of a star

Heaved upon Tamaha's stream;

But the rock shone brighter far, The rock half shelter'd from my view By pendent boughs of tressy yew.So shines my Lewti's forehead fair, Gleaming through her sable hair. Image of Lewti! from my mind Depart; for Lewti is not kind.

* Morning Post, April 13, 1798.

*

[I saw the white waves, o'er and o'er,
Break against the distant shore.
All at once upon the sight,

All at once they broke in light :
I heard no murmur of their roar,
Nor ever I beheld them flowing,
Neither coming, neither going;
But only saw them, o'er and o'er,
Break against the curved shore;
Now disappearing from the sight,
Now twinkling regular and white;
And Lewti's smiling mouth can show
As white and regular a row.

Nay, treacherous image! from my mind
Depart; for Lewti is not kind.]

I saw a cloud of palest hue,
Onward to the moon it pass'd;

Still brighter and more bright it grew,
With floating colours not a few,

Till it reach'd the moon at last :
Then the cloud was wholly bright
With a rich and amber light!
And so with many a hope I seek

And with such joy I find my Lewti; And even so my pale wan cheek

Drinks in as deep a flush of beauty! Nay, treacherous image! leave my mind, If Lewti never will be kind.

The little cloud-it floats away,

Away it goes; away so soon?