Let us to work! there is no time to lose!

But who descends MONT VELAN? 'Tis La Croix.

Away, away! if not, alas, too late.

Homeward he drags an old man and a boy,

Faltering and falling, and but half awakened,

Asking to sleep again." Such their discourse.

Oft has a venerable roof received me;

ST. BRUNO'S once *-where, when the winds were

So great the stillness of that place; none seen,

Save when from rock to rock a hermit crossed

By some rude bridge-or one at midnight tolled

*The Grande Chartreuse.

To matins, and white habits, issuing forth,

Glided along those aisles interminable,

All, all observant of the sacred law

Of Silence. Nor is that sequestered spot,

Once called 'Sweet Waters,' now 'The Shady Vale,”

To me unknown; that house so rich of old,'

So courteous, and by two, that passed that way,†

Amply requited with immortal verse,

The Poet's payment.

But, among them all,

None can with this compare, the dangerous seat

Of generous, active Virtue. What tho' Frost

Reign everlastingly, and ice and snow

Thaw not, but gather-there is that within,

* Vallombrosa, formerly called Acqua Bella.

† Ariosto and Milton.

Which, where it comes, makes Summer; and, in

thought,

Oft am I sitting on the bench beneath

Their garden-plot, where all that vegetates,
Is but some scanty lettuce, to observe

Those from the South ascending, every step
As tho' it were their last-and instantly

Restored, renewed, advancing as with songs,
Soon as they see, turning a lofty crag,

That plain, that modest structure, promising

Bread to the hungry, to the weary rest.

III.

My mule refreshed—and, let the truth be told,

He was not of that vile, that scurvy race,

From sire to son lovers of controversy,

But patient, diligent, and sure of foot,

Shunning the loose stone on the precipice,

Snorting suspicion while with sight, smell, touch,

Examining the wet and spungy moss,

And on his haunches sitting to slide down

The steep, the smooth-my mule refreshed, his bells

Gingled once more, the signal to depart,

And we set out in the grey light of dawn,

Descending rapidly-by waterfalls

Fast-frozen, and among huge blocks of ice

That in their long career had stopt mid-way.

At length, unchecked, unbidden, he stood still;

And all his bells were muffled. Then my Guide, Lowering his voice, addressed me: "Thro' this Chasm

On and say nothing for a word, a breath,

Stirring the air, may loosen and bring down

A winter's snow-enough to overwhelm

The horse and foot that, night and day, defiled
Along this path to conquer at MARENGO,

Well I remember how I met them here,

As the light died away, and how NAPOLEON,
Wrapt in his cloak-I could not be deceived-

C