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"All sense of self annihilate, I seem'd

"Diffus'd into the scene.

"At length a light

"Approach'd the spring; I saw my Uncle Claude :

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His gray locks dripping with the midnight storm, "He came, and caught me in his arms, and cried,

My God! my child is safe!"

"I felt his words

"Pierce in my heart; my soul was overcharged;

"I fell upon his neck and told him all;

"GOD was within me, as I felt, I spake,

"And he believed.

"Aye, Chieftain, and the world

"Shall soon believe my mission; for the Lord "Will raise up indignation, and pour out

"His wrath, and they shall perish who oppress."

JOAN OF ARC.

THE SECOND BOOK.

AND now beneath the horizon westering slow
Had sunk the orb of day: o'er all the vale
A purple softness spread, save where the tree
Its giant shadow stretch'd, or winding stream
Mirror'd the light of Heaven, still traced distinct
When twilight dimly shrouded all beside.

A grateful coolness freshen'd the calm air,
And the hoarse grasshoppers their evening song
Sung shrill and ceaseless, as the dews of night
Descended. On their way the travellers wend,
Cheering the road with converse, till at length
They mark a cottage lamp, whose steady light
Shone thro' the lattice: thitherward they turn.
There came an old man forth :: his thin gray locks

Waved on the night breeze, and on his shrunk face
The characters of age were written deep.
Them, louting low with rustic courtesy,

He welcomed in; on the white-ember'd hearth
Heapt up fresh fuel, then with friendly care
Spread out the homely board, and fill'd the bowl
With the red produce of the vine that arch'd
His evening seat; they of the plain repast
Partook, and quaff'd the pure and pleasant draught.

"Strangers, your fare is homely," said their Host, "But such it is as we poor countrymen "Earn with hard toil: in faith ye are welcome to it! "I too have borne a lance in younger days; "And would that I were young again to meet "These haughty English in the field of fight; "Such as I was when on the fatal plain

"Of Agincourt I met them."

"Wert thou, then,

"A sharer in that dreadful day's defeat ?"

Exclaim'd the Bastard: "Didst thou know the Lord

"Of Orleans?"

"Know him!" cried the veteran,

"I saw him ere the bloody fight began

Riding from rank to rank, his beaver up,

"The long lance quivering in his mighty grasp. "His eye was wrathful to an enemy,

"But for his countrymen it had a smile

"Would win all hearts. Looking at thee, Sir Knight, "Methinks I see him now; such was his eye, "Gentle in peace, and such his manly brow."

"No tongue but speaketh honour of that name!"
Exclaimed Dunois. "Strangers and countrymen
"Alike revered the good and gallant Chief.
"His vassals like a father loved their Lord;
"His gates stood open to the traveller;

"The pilgrim when he saw his towers rejoiced,
"For he had heard in other lands the fame
“Of Orleans...And he lives a prisoner still!

"Losing all hope because my arm so long "Hath fail'd to win his liberty!"

He turn'd

His head away to hide the burning shame...

Which flush'd his face." But he shall live, Dunois,"
Exclaim'd the mission'd Maid; "but he shall live
"To hear good tidings; hear of liberty,

"Of his own liberty, by his brother's arm
"Atchieved in hard-fought battle. He shall live
"Happy: the memory of his prison'd years
"Shall heighten all his joys, and his gray hairs
"Go to the grave in peace."

"I would fain live

"To see that day," replied their aged host:
"How would my heart leap to behold again
"The gallant generous chieftain! I fought by him
"When all the hopes of victory were lost,

"And down his batter'd arms the blood stream'd fast
"From many a wound. Like wolves they hemm'd us in,
"Fierce in unhoped-for conquest: all around

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