Charged with the commerce, hither also came
A gallant youth, Palemon was his name:
A father's stern resentment doom'd to prove,
He came the victim of unhappy love!
His heart for Albert's beauteous daughter bled,
For her a sacred flame his bosom fed:
Nor let the wretched slaves of folly scorn
This genuine passion, Nature's eldest born!
'Twas his with lasting anguish to complain,
While blooming Anna mourn'd the cause in vain.
Graceful of form, by nature taught to please,
Of power to melt the female breast with ease;
To her Palemon told his tender tale,

Soft as the voice of summer's evening gale;
His soul, where moral truth spontaneous grew,
No guilty wish, no cruel passion knew:
Though tremblingly alive to Nature's laws,
Yet ever firm to Honour's sacred cause;
O'erjoy'd he saw her lovely eyes relent,

The blushing maiden smiled with sweet consent. Oft in the mazes of a neighbouring grove Unheard they breathed alternate vows of love: By fond society their passion grew

Like the young blossom fed with vernal dew;

While their chaste souls possess'd the pleasing pains
That truth improves, and virtue ne'er restrains.
In evil hour the' officious tongue of fame
Betray'd the secret of their mutual flame.
With grief and anger struggling in his breast,
Palemon's father heard the tale confess'd;
Long had he listen'd with Suspicion's ear,
And learn'd, sagacious, this event to fear.
Too well, fair youth! thy liberal heart he knew,
A heart to Nature's warm impressions true:
Full oft his wisdom strove with fruitless toil
With avarice to pollute that generous soil;
That soil impregnated with nobler seed
Refused the culture of so rank a weed.
Elate with wealth in active Commerce won,
And basking in the smile of Fortune's sun
(For many freighted ships from shore to shore
Their wealthy charge by his appointment bore);
With scorn the parent eyed the lowly shade
That veil'd the beauties of this charming maid.
He, by the lust of riches only moved,
Such mean connexions haughtily reproved;
Indignant he rebuked the' enamour'd boy,
The flattering promise of his future joy;

He sooth'd and menaced, anxious to reclaim
This hopeless passion, or divert its aim;
Oft led the youth where circling joys delight
The ravish'd sense, or beauty charms the sight.
With all her powers enchanting Music fail'd,
And Pleasure's siren voice no more prevail'd;
Long, with unequal art, in vain he strove
To quench the' etherial flame of ardent love.
The merchant, kindling then with proud disdain,
In look, and voice, assumed a harsher strain.
In absence now his only hope remain'd;
And such the stern decree his will ordain'd:
Deep anguish, while Palemon heard his doom,
Drew o'er his lovely face a saddening gloom;
High beat his heart, fast flow'd the' unbidden tear,
His bosom heaved with agony severe;

In vain with bitter sorrow he repined,

No tender pity touch'd that sordid mind--
To thee, brave Albert! was the charge consign'd.
The stately ship, forsaking England's shore,
To regions far remote Palemon bore.
Incapable of change, the' unhappy youth
Still loved fair Anna with eternal truth;
Still Anna's image swims before his sight
In fleeting vision through the restless night;

From clime to clime an exile doom'd to roam,
His heart still panted for its secret home.

The moon had circled twice her wayward zone,
To him since young Arion first was known;
Who, wandering here through many a scene renown'd,
In Alexandria's port the vessel found;

Where, anxious to review his native shore,
He on the roaring wave embark'd once more.
Oft by pale Cynthia's melancholy light

With him Palemon kept the watch of night,
In whose sad bosom many a sigh suppress'd
Some painful secret of the soul confess'd:
Perhaps Arion soon the cause divined,

Though shunning still to probe a wounded mind;
He felt the chastity of silent woe,
Though glad the balm of comfort to bestow.
He with Palemon oft recounted o'er

The tales of hapless love in ancient lore,
Recall'd to memory by the' adjacent shore:
The scene thus present, and its story known,
The lover sigh'd for sorrows not his own.
Thus, though a recent date their friendship bore,
Soon the ripe metal own'd the quickening ore;
For in one tide their passions seem'd to roll,
By kindred age and sympathy of soul.

These o'er the' inferior naval train preside,
The course determine, or the commerce guide:
O'er all the rest, an undistinguish'd crew,
Her wing of deepest shade Oblivion drew.

III. A sullen languor still the skies oppress'd,
And held the' unwilling ship in strong arrest:
High in his chariot glow'd the lamp of day,
O'er Ida flaming with meridian ray;

Relax'd from toil, the sailors range the shore
Where famine, war, and storm are felt no more;
The hour to social pleasure they resign,

And black remembrance drown in generous wine.
On deck, beneath the shading canvass spread,
Rodmond a rueful tale of wonders read,

Of dragons roaring on the' enchanted coast;
The hideous goblin and the yelling ghost:
But with Arion, from the sultry heat

་

Of noon, Palemon sought a cool retreat.

And lo! the shore with mournful prospects crown'd,
The rampart torn with many a fatal wound,
The ruin'd bulwark tottering o'er the strand,
Bewail the stroke of war's tremendous hand:
What scenes of woe this hapless isle o'erspread!
Where late thrice fifty thousand warriors bled.