THE darkness that hung upon Willumberg's walls,
Had long been remember'd with awe and dismay;
For years not a sunbeam had play'd in its halls,
And it seem'd as shut out from the regions of day.

Though the valleys were brighten'd by many a
beam,

Yet none could the woods of that castle illume; And the lightning, which flash'd on the neighboring stream,

Flew back, as if fearing to enter the gloom!

"Oh! when shall this horrible darkness disperse!"
Said Willumberg's lord to the Seer of the Cave ;-
It can never dispel," said the wizard of verse,
"Till the bright star of chivalry sinks in the

wave!"

For Rose, who was bright as the spirit of dawn,

All, all but the soul of the maid was in light,

There sorrow and terror lay gloomy and blank :
Two days did she wander, and all the long night,
In quest of her love, on the wide river's bank.

Oft, oft did she pause for the toll of the bell,
And heard but the breathings of night in the air;
Long, long did she gaze on the watery swell,
And saw but the foam of the white billow there.

And often as midnight its veil would undraw,
As she look'd at the light of the moon in the
stream,

She thought 'twas his helmet of silver she saw,
As the curl of the surge glitter'd high in the
beam.

And now the third night was begemming the sky;
Poor Rose, on the cold dewy margent reclined,
There wept till the tear almost froze in her eye,
When-hark!-'twas the bell that came deep
in the wind!

When with wand dropping diamonds, and silvery She startled, and saw, through the glimmering

feet,

It walks o'er the flow'rs of the mountain and lawn.

shade,

A form o'er the waters in majesty glide;

!