A lowly knee to earth he bent, his father's hand he took,- That hand was cold-a frozen thing-it dropp'd from his like lead,He look'd up to the face above-the face was of the dead! A plume waved o'er the noble brow-the brow was fix'd and white ; He met at last his father's eyes-but in them was no sight! Up from the ground he sprang, and gazed, but who could paint that gaze? They hush'd their very hearts, that saw its horror and amaze; "Father!" at length he murmur'd low-and wept like childhood then, Talk not of grief till thou hast seen the tears of warlike men!— He thought on all his glorious hopes, and all his young renown,He flung the falchion from his side, and in the dust sat down. Then covering with his steel-gloved hands his darkly mournful brow, "No more, there is no more," he said, "to lift the sword for now. My king is false, my hope betray'd, my father, oh! the worth, I thought to stand where banners waved, my sire! beside thee yet, I would that there our kindred blood on Spain's free soil had met, Thou wouldst have known my spirit then,—for thee my fields were won, And thou hast perish'd in thy chains, as though thou hadst no son !" Then, starting from the ground once more, he seized the monarch's rein, Amidst the pale and wilder'd looks of all the courtier train; "Came I not forth upon thy pledge, my father's hand to kiss?— Be still, and gaze thou on, false king! and tell me what is this! The voice, the glance, the heart I sought-give answer, where are they?— If thou wouldst clear thy perjured soul, send life through this cold clay ! "Into these glassy eyes put light,-be still! keep down thine ire, Bid these white lips a blessing speak-this earth is not my sire! Give me back him for whom I strove, for whom my blood was shed, Thou canst not—and a king! His dust be mountains on thy head!" He loosed the steed; his slack hand fell,-upon the silent face His hope was crush'd, his after-fate untold in martial strain,— THE TOMB OF MADAME LANGHANS.* "To a mysteriously consorted pair This place is consecrate; to death and life, WORDSWORTH. How many hopes were borne upon thy bier, Of mingled prayer they told; of Sabbath hours; At Hindelbank, near Berne, she is represented as bursting from the sepulchre, with her infant in her arms, at the sound of the last trumpet. An inscription on the tomb concludes thus:-" Here am I, O God! with the chil whom Thou hast given me.' How many hopes have sprung in radiance hence! Their trace yet lights the dust where thou art sleeping! A solemn joy comes o'er me, and a sense Of triumph, blent with nature's gush of weeping, As, kindling up the silent stone, I see The glorious vision, caught by faith, of thee. Slumberer! love calls thee, for the night is past; THE EXILE'S DIRGE. "FEAR no more the heat o' the sun, Cymbeline. "I attended a funeral where there were a number of the German settlers present. After I had performed such service as is usual on similar occasions, a most venerable-looking old nan came forward, and asked me if I were willing that they should perform some of their peculiar rites. He opened a very ancient version of Luther's Hymns, and they all began to sing, in German, so loud that the woods echoed the strain. There was something affecting in the singing of these ancient people, carrying one of their brethren to his last home, and using the language and rites which they had brought with them over the sea from the Vaterland, a word which often occurred in this hymn. It was a long, slow, and mournful air, which they sang as they bore the body along; the words 'mein Gott,' 'mein Bruder, and Vaterland,' died away in distant echoes amongst the woods. I shall long remember that funeral hymn."-FLINTS Recollections of the Valley of the Mississippi. THERE went a dirge through the forest's gloom.— "Brother !" (so the chant was sung Music from thine own blue streams, So swell'd the chant! and the deep wind's moan "Brother! by the rolling Rhine, "The Fatherland!"—with that sweet word A burst of tears 'midst the strain was heard. "Brother! were we there with thee And the requiem died in the forest's gloom ;- THE DREAMING CHILD. "ALAS! what kind of grief should thy years know? BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. AND is there sadness in thy dreams, my boy? All day hath ranged through sunshine, clear, yet mild : And now thou tremblest !—wherefore?-in thy soul From thee no love hath gone; thy mind's young eye A weary searcher for a viewless home : Nor hath thy sense been quicken'd unto pain, Yet now, on billows of strange passion toss'd, Awake! they sadden me-those early tears, Awful to watch, e'en rolling through a dream, Forcing wild spray-drops but from childhood's eyes! Wake, wake! as yet thy life's transparent stream Should wear the tinge of none but summer skies. |