ページの画像
PDF
ePub

And vineyards in the greenest hue of spring,
And streams now hidden on their winding way,

Now issuing forth in light.

The Maiden gazed

Till all grew dim upon

her dizzy eye,

"O what a blessed world were this!" she cried,

"But that the great and honourable men
"Have seized the earth, and of the heritage
"Which God, the Sire of all, to all had given,
"Disherited their brethren! happy those

"Who in the after days shall live when Time
"Hath spoken, and the multitude of years
"Taught wisdom to mankind! unhappy France!
"Fiercer than evening wolves thy bitter foes
"Rush o'er the land and desolate and kill;
"Long has the widow's and the orphan's groan
"Accused Heaven's justice;- but the hour is come;
"GOD hath inclined his ear, hath heard the voice
"Of mourning, and his anger is gone forth."

Then said the Son of Orleans, " Holy Maid! "Fain would I know, if blameless I may seek "Such knowledge, how the heavenly call was heard "First in thy waken'd soul; nor deem in me

[ocr errors]

Aught idly curious, if of thy past days

"I ask the detail. In the hour of age,

"If haply I survive to see this realm

By thee deliver'd, dear will be the thought "That I have seen the delegated Maid,

"And heard from her the wonderous ways of Heaven."

"A simple tale," the mission'd Maid replied,
"Yet may it well employ the journeying hour,
"And pleasant is the memory of the past.

"Seest thou, Sir Chief, where yonder forest skirts
"The Meuse, that in its winding mazes shows
"As on the farther bank the distant towers
"Of Vaucouleur? there in the hamlet Arc
"My father's dwelling stands; a lowly hut,

"Yet nought of needful comfort did it lack,
"For in Lorraine there lived no kinder Lord
"Than old Sir Robert, and my father Jaques
"In flocks and herds was rich. A toiling man
"Intent on worldly gains, one in whose heart
"Affection had no root. I never knew

"A parent's love; for harsh my mother was,
"And deem'd the cares which infancy demands
"Irksome, and ill-repaid. Severe they were,
"And would have made me fear them, but my
"Possess'd the germ of steady fortitude,
"And stubbornly I bore unkind rebuke

"And wrathful chastisement.

soul

Yet was the voice

"That spake in tones of tenderness most sweet

"To my young heart; how have I felt it leap "With transport, when mine Uncle Claude approach'd! "For he would place me on his knee, and tell

"The wonderous tales that childhood loves to hear, "Listening with eager eyes and open lips

"Devoutly in attention. Good old man!

"Oh if I ever pour'd a prayer to Heaven
"Unhallow'd by the grateful thought of him,
"Methinks the righteous winds would scatter it!
"He was a parent to me, and his home

"Was mine, when in advancing years I found
"No peace, no comfort in my father's house.
"With him I pass'd the pleasant evening hours,
"By day I drove my father's flock afield

"And this was happiness.

"Amid these wilds

"Often to summer pasture have I driven

"The flock; and well I know these mountain wilds, "And every bosom'd vale, and valley stream "Is dear to memory. I have laid me down "Beside yon valley stream, that up the ascent "Scarce sends the sound of waters now, and watch'd "The beck roll glittering to the noon-tide sun, "And listen'd to its ceaseless murmuring, "Till all was hush'd and tranquil in my soul,

"Fill'd with a strange and undefined delight

"That pass'd across the mind like summer clouds "Over the lake at eve, their fleeting hues

"The traveller cannot trace with memory's eye,

"Yet he remembers well how fair they were, "How lovely.

"Here in solitude and peace

My soul was nurst, amid the loveliest scenes "Of unpolluted nature. Sweet it was "As the white mists of morning roll'd away "To see the mountain's wooded heights appear "Dark in the early dawn, and mark its slope "With gorse-flowers glowing, as the rising sun “On the golden ripeness pour'd a deepening light. "Pleasant at noon beside the vocal brook

"To lie me down, and watch the floating clouds, "And shape to Fancy's wild similitudes "Their ever-varying forms; and oh how sweet! "To drive my flock at evening to the fold, "And hasten to our little hut, and hear

"The voice of kindness bid me welcome home.

« 前へ次へ »