"God hears my prayer-we meet, we meet

again."

20

He spake, reclined him on death's bloody bed, And with a parting groan his spirit fled.

Oppressors of mankind to you we owe

The baleful streams from whence these miseries flow;

For you how many a mother weeps her son, Snatched from life's course ere half his race

For

was run!

you how many a widow drops a tear, In silent anguish, on her husband's bier!

"Is it then thine, Almighty Power," she cries, "Whence tears of endless sorrow dim these eyes?

30

"Is this the system which thy powerful sway, "Which else in shapeless chaos sleeping lay, Formed and approved?-it cannot be-but

oh !

"Forgive me Heaven, my brain is warped by woe."

'Tis not he never bade the war-note swell, He never triumphed in the work of hellMonarchs of earth! thine is the baleful deed, Thine are the crimes for which thy subjects bleed.

Ah! when will come the sacred fated time, When man unsullied by his leaders' crime, 40 Despising wealth, ambition, pomp, and pride, Will stretch him fearless by his foemen's side? Ah! when will come the time, when o'er the plain

No more shall death and desolation reign? When will the sun smile on the bloodless field, And the stern warrior's arm the sickle wield? Not whilst some King, in cold ambition's dreams,

Plans for the field of death his plodding schemes;

Not whilst for private pique the public fall, And one frail mortal's mandate governs all. 50 Swelled with command and mad with dizzying

sway,

Who sees unmoved his myriads fade away, Careless who lives or dies-so that he gains Some trivial point for which he took the pains. What then are Kings?--I see the trembling crowd,

59

I hear their fulsome clamours echoed loud;
Their stern oppressor pleased appears awhile;
But April's sunshine is a Monarch's smile:
Kings are but dust-the last eventful day
Will level all and make them lose their sway,
Will dash the sceptre from the Monarch's hand,
And from the warrior's grasp wrest the en-
sanguined brand.

Oh! Peace, soft peace, art thou for ever gone,-
Is thy fair form indeed for ever flown?
And love and concord hast thou swept away,
As if incongruous with thy parted sway?
Alas I fear thou hast, for none appear.

Now o'er the palsied earth stalks giant Fear,
With War, and Woe, and Terror, in his train;
List'ning he pauses on the embattled plain, 70
Then, speeding swiftly o'er the ensanguined
heath,

Has left the frightful work to hell and death.
See! gory Ruin yokes his blood-stained car,
He scents the battle's carnage from afar;
Hell and destruction mark his mad career,
He tracks the rapid step of hurrying Fear;
Whilst ruined towns and smoking cities tell
That thy work, Monarch, is the work of hell.
It is thy work! I hear a voice repeat,

Shakes the broad basis of thy blood-stained seat;

80

And at the orphan's sigh, the widow's moan,
Totters the fabric of thy guilt-stained throne-
"It is thy work, O Monarch;" now the sound
Fainter and fainter yet is borne around,
Yet to enthusiast ears the murmurs tell
That heaven, indignant at the work of hell,
Will soon the cause, the hated cause remove,
Which tears from earth peace, innocence, and
love.

FRAGMENT.

SUPPOSED TO BE AN EPITHALAMIUM OF FRANCIS RAVAILLAC AND CHARLOTTE CORDAY.

"Tis midnight now-athwart the murky air, Dank lurid meteors shoot a livid gleam; From the dark storm-clouds flashes a fearful glare,

It shows the bending oak, the roaring stream. I pondered on the woes of lost mankind, I pondered on the ceaseless rage of Kings; My rapt soul dwelt upon the ties that bind The mazy volume of commingling things, When fell and wild misrule to man stern sorrow brings.

I heard a yell-it was not the knell,

When the blasts on the wild lake sleep, That floats on the pause of the summer gale's swell.

O'er the breast of the waveless deep.

I thought it had been death's accents cold
That bade me recline on the shore;

I laid mine hot head on the surge-beaten mould,
And thought to breathe no more.

But a heavenly sleep
That did suddenly steep

In balm my bosom's pain,
Pervaded my soul;

And, free from control,

Did mine intellect range again.

20

Methought enthroned upon a silvery cloud,
Which floated 'mid a strange and brilliant
light,

My form upborne by viewless æther rode,
And spurned the lessening realms of earthly
night.

What heavenly notes burst on my ravished ears,
What beauteous spirits met my dazzled eye!
Hark! louder swells the music of the spheres,
More clear the forms of speechless bliss float

by,
And heavenly gestures suit ætherial melody.

But fairer than the spirits of the air,

31

More graceful than the Sylph of symmetry,
Than the enthusiast's fancied love more fair,
Were the bright forms that swept the azure
sky.

Enthroned in roseate light, a heavenly band
Strewed flowers of bliss that never fade away;
They welcome virtue to its native land,

And songs of triumph greet the joyous day 40
When endless bliss the woes of fleeting life

repay.

Congenial minds will seek their kindred soul, E'en though the tide of time has rolled between ;

They mock weak matter's impotent control,
And seek of endless life the eternal scene.
At death's vain summons this will never die,
In nature's chaos this will not decay-
These are the bands which closely, warmly, tie
Thy soul, O Charlotte, 'yond this chain of
clay,

To him who thine must be till time shall fade

away.

50

Yes Francis! thine was the dear knife that tore A tyrant's heart-strings from his guilty breast;

Thine was the daring at a tyrant's gore,

To smile in triumph, to contemn the rest; And thine, loved glory of thy sex! to tear From its base shrine a despot's haughty soul, To laugh at sorrow in secure despair,

To mock, with smiles, life's lingering control, And triumph 'mid the griefs that round thy fate did roll.

Yes! the fierce spirits of the avenging deep 60 With endless tortures goad their guilty shades.

I see the lank and ghastly spectres sweep Along the burning length of yon arcades; And I see Satan stalk athwart the plain;

He hastes along the burning soil of hell. "Welcome thou despots to my dark domain, With maddening joy mine anguished senses swell

To welcome to their home the friends I love so well."