"To deck her Count with titles given, "Of these who have deserved them most. V. "I was a goodly stripling then; "A port, not like to this ye see, "But smooth, as all is rugged now; 66 "For time, and care, and war, have plough'd My very soul from out my brow; "And thus I should be disavow'd "By all my kind and kin, could they Compare my day and yesterday; "This change was wrought, too, long ere age "Had ta'en my features for his page: With years, ye know, have not declined "My strength, my courage, or my mind, "Or at this hour I should not be 66 Telling old tales beneath a tree, "With starless skies my canopy. "But let me on; Theresa's form- "She had the Asiatic eye, "Such as our Turkish neighbourhood "Dark as above us is the sky; "But through it stole a tender light, "Like the first moonrise at midnight; σε Large, dark, and swimming in the stream, "Which seem'd to melt to its own beam; "All love, half languor, and half fire, "Like saints that at the stake expire, "And lift their raptured looks on high, "As though it were a joy to die. "A brow like a midsummer lake, Transparent with the sun therein, "When waves no murmur dare to make, "And heaven beholds her face within. "A cheek and lip-but why proceed? "I loved her then-I love her still; "And such as I am, love indeed "In fierce extremes-in good and ill. "But still we love even in our rage, "And haunted to our very age "With the vain shadow of the past, "As is Mazeppa to the last. VI. "We met-we gazed-I saw, and sigh'd, "We hear and see, but none defines 66 Involuntary sparks of thought, "Which strike from out the heart o'erwrought, "And form a strange intelligence, "Alike mysterious and intense, "Which link the burning chain that binds, "Without their will, young hearts and minds; "Conveying, as the electric wire, "We know not how, the absorbing fire.— "I saw, and sigh'd-in silence wept, "And still reluctant distance kept, "Until I was made known to her, "I long'd, and was resolved to speak; "But on my lips they died again, "The accents tremulous and weak, "Until one hour.-There is a game, "A frivolous and foolish play, "Wherewith we while away the day; "It is-I have forgot the name— "And we to this, it seems, were set, "By some strange chance, which I forget: ".I reck'd not if I won or lost, "It was enough for me to be "So near to hear, and oh! to see "The being whom I loved the most.— "I watch'd her as a sentinel, 66 (May ours this dark night watch as well!) "Until I saw, and thus it was, "That she was pensive, nor perceived "Her occupation, nor was grieved "Nor glad to lose or gain; but still 66 Play'd on for hours, as if her will "Yet bound her to the place, though not "That hers might be the winning lot. “Then through my brain the thought did pass "Even as a flash of lightning there, "That there was something in her air "And on the thought my words broke forth, "And one refusal no rebuff. VII. "I loved, and was beloved again 66 They tell me, Sire, you never knew " To you 'twould seem absurd as vain; "Or o'er their passions, or as you "Thus o'er themselves and nations too. "I am or rather was—a prince, "A chief of thousands, and could lead "Them on where each would foremost bleed; "But could not o'er myself evince VOL. IV. C |