The rigorous law had grasped him and condemned To fetters and to darkness. To the great gods he breathed a prayer, then strove To calm himself and lose in sleep a while The captive's lot His body burned with feverish heat; his He felt in all its bitterness; the walls Grew hot at length and thick, but in his Burst forth the lightnings glanced; the air straw The boy was sleeping, and the father hoped The earthquake might pass by, nor would he wake From his sound rest the unfearing child, nor tell A moment as in sunshine, then was dark; The dangers of their state. On his low Dying away upon the dazzled eye The soldier's frame was filled, and many a | The deep-driven staple, yells and shrieks thought with rage. Of strange foreboding hurried through his But see! the ground is opening; a blue light Mounts, gently waving, noiseless. Thin and mind Where, wretched father, is thy boy? Thou And all his fury fled; a dead calm fell Came bursting from his ears and from his The ground lifts like a sea: he knows it not; Once he has touched his garment; how his | All's for the best! Be man but confiding, Providence tenderly governs the rest, eye Lightens with love and hope and anxious And the frail bark of his creature is guiding fear! Wisely and warily, all for the best. My father, when they laid thee down, All's for the best! Set this in your stan- I know not why-I could not weep: dard, Soldier of sadness or pilgrim of love Who to the shores of despair may have wan dered, The soothing drops refused to roll ; And oh, that grief is wild and deep Which settles tearless on the soul. A way-wearied swallow or heart-stricken But when I saw thy vacant chair, dove. Thine idle hat upon the wall, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. EDMUND WALLER. DMUND WALLER was born March 3, 1605, at Coleshill, Hertfordshire. His father was His father was Robert Waller, Esq., of Amersham, Bucks; his mother, Anne, daughter of Griffith Hampden, Esq., of Hampden, Bucks, and aunt of the celebrated John Hampden, who was first cousin of Edmund Waller and also of Oliver Cromwell. Waller was educated at Eton, from whence he proceeded to King's College, Cambridge. It is said that he was returned at the age of sixteen for the borough of Amersham. If so, he must have sat as a silent member until he was of age. His father having died during his childhood, Waller, being the eldest son, succeeded to an estate of three thousand five hundred pounds a year. He married, early in life, Ann, the daughter of Edward Banks, a wealthy citizen of London, by which alliance he greatly augmented his property. At the age of five and twenty Waller was left a widower with a son and a daughter. Within a short period he began to offer his admiration to Lady Dorothea Sydney (eldest daughter of the earl of Leicester and cousin to the celebrated Sir Philip Sydney), who is celebrated in his poetry under the name of "Sacharissa." Lady Dorothea scornfully rejected his advances and allied herself with Henry, Lord Spencer, who was created earl of Sunderland, and was killed at the battle of Newbury, September, 1643. An anecdote is told of the scornful countess in later life meeting Waller and asking him when he would again write her such complimentary verses as he once did, to which he replied, "When you are as young, madam, and as handsome, as you were then." The next object of Waller's admiration was the Lady Sophia Murray, whose charms are rehearsed in Waller's verses under the title of "Amoret." Amoret does not appear to have smiled upon the rich and amorous poet. Before long he married a Miss Mary Breaux (or Bresse), who appears to have been a woman with great domestic virtues and a large family. The poet by this marriage had to encounter the prosaic fact of being the father to thirteen children. court. Waller occupied a seat in the House of Commons as the representative of various boroughs for a considerable portion of his life. He sat in Parliaments of James I., Charles I., the Commonwealth, Charles II. and James II. In 1640, after an interruption of twelve years, when the Parliament was reassembled, Waller joined the party in opposition to the He was supposed to be greatly influenced by his connection with the Hampden family. It was not long before he retreated from his political position, and, on the king setting up his standard at Nottingham, Waller contributed a thousand broad pieces to the royal chest. In the House of Commons he spoke openly on the king's side. After the battle of Edgehill, in 1643, Waller was one of the commissioners sent by Parliament to confer with the king at Oxford. |