Which sways a hair above a sea
Of Doubt---Despair-and Doom!

And now, if Mary bore no kin

To those poor youths, whose fate within
Hung on a fearful scale,

No marvel that a sister's keen
And piercing interest might be seen

Upon her cheek, and in her eye;--
No marvel that her nerve should fail,
For she was one whose heart run o'er
With love, and loving sympathy;

And, woman-like, she ever felt

A bond with those with whom she dwelt ;
But mostly Mary kindness bore

To them whose lot seemed desolate!
Far from their home---their natal skies---
Their household's first familiar ties;

There was in those Twin brothers' state---
Their marked and solitary fate--

Their life so fettered, and so sterile---
Their union past-their present peril—
Enough to touch a harder breast
Than she who loved all earth possest.

And Mary and her father kept

All night their watch beside the door,

Save when within the father crept,

And back to her some tidings bore.
The good extoll'd-the worse dissembled---
And ever at the good she wept;
And ever at the doubtful trembled.

And what within that chamber past?

What means, what mysteries did the skill

Of that most cunning leach devise?
The brothers' fate was on a cast!

But what the hazard of the dies?

Alas! that is a secret still!
Would, my fair public, that our verse---
That art's arcanum could rehearse;
But none might in that chamber venture
(Those doctors are such Turks!) to enter---
Save only Hodges; and they set
On him the muzzle of a vow;
And, tho' the thing is over---yet
The honest rascal keeps it now.

Whether by aught else than the knife,

The attempt was made their bond to sever; Or, to what point the thread of life

Was, trembling, strained at the endeavour ;--Or when they waked, or when they knew, Or how they bore, that operation,

I might invent, but mar the true

And homely course of this narration.

'Twas kept so close, you might have thought A king himself was undergoing it,

And that the puzzled doctors sought

To charm the prying world from knowing it.

As once, the date's not far behind, sir,
They play'd the game of Mum at Windsor;
And called disease's every harassment-
Politely flattering Death," Embarrassment !"
As if plain language might exasp-

Erate the fates, soft phrases wreathing;
And, when the patient scarce could gasp,
We heard of "Want of ease in breathing!"

Nor can I tell how long a space

Time ran of his untiring race

Before the deed was done :--

But this I've heard, that not one shriek,
Or cry, did from that chamber break,
No-not one stifled groan---

Save only once---when suddenly
There came a sharp and startling cry,
So wildly, strangely, forth it rang,
That you could scarcely deem

From any mortal breast it sprang,

But rather might it seem

As if the demon who had knit

That strange and preternatural tie, And did, unseen and brooding, sit O'er their enwoven destiny; Dislodged, and baffled in his spell, Had fled their doom in that wild yell.

Draw up the curtain!--a faint gloom
Broods quivering o'er the half-lit room,
(Like a bird's unsteady wing
To and fro when wavering,)

Save where the sun-light broadens o'er
One long track trembling on the floor.
There, with the smile of triumph stands

The leach, and whispers his assistants; While the good Hodges rubs his hands, And, whimpering, chuckles at a distance And all alone against the wall

Leant Chang-and joy---albeit a grave And thoughtful joy--was stamped on all His dusky lineaments, and gave A musing brightness to his gaze; Spell-bound where thro' the lattice fall, The living and the laughing rays. As if his heart was whispering-" Free "In future, like those roving beams,

""Tis thine to wander, and to see

"If life and love reflect thy dreams.

"Thou 'st joined thy race, and all before thee "Lie the untrodden paths of earth!

"Gone is the curse thy mother bore thee; "Thou wakest to a second birth !"

But on the couch lay Ching, and fixed
His gaze upon his brother's face;

And softness there with sorrow mixed,
And restless wonder you might trace.
As if his bosom felt a pain,

That bonds so long-so close-should cease, And felt, in freedom from the chain,

The strangeness-more than the release.

And once, when he beheld a smile

Break o'er Chang's lip, he bowed his head,

And tears came in his eyes, the while "Art thou so joyful then?" he said.

And the long bond was broken there!
Apart were those, who from their birth
Had grown together: doomed to bear,
As with one breast, the storms of earth.
Yet ever differing, and disjoined

By wilder storms within ;—and now
Re-born,--and with their common kind
Made as their fellows--shall they find---
Ah! shall they find below!

T