-THE Knight with starry shield,
Chas'd the gigantic spoiler from the field:
But soon each sorrow of his soul returns,
With jealous rage and fierce revenge he burns;
Spurs his fleet courser on in wild despair,
And calls aloud his violated fair.
Now midnight reign'd, and thro' the troublous skies
The sharp hail drives, and yelling blasts arise;
Yet brave Sir Roland with unslacken'd force,
O'er the lone heath pursues his eager course;
With curses rends the air, and dares to war
The potent Wizard of the shadowy car.
Far off he view'd a solitary light,
Whose paly lustre pierc'd the gloom of night;
Thither the love-lorn hero bends his speed,
While mountains answer to the neighing steed.
Soon as arriv'd, his wond'ring eyes behold
A pensive damsel, deck'd in robes of gold,
To excite horror by description has already succeeded in Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto, and in the Sir Bertrand of Mrs. Barbauld; the above is an attempt of the same kind in verse, though the author is very sensible that the jingle of rhime must in a great measure destroy the effect,
While mingling diamonds their effulgence shed,
With the pearl's modest white, and ruby's red.
Beneath an aged cypress she reclin'd,
A pendant lamp was waving in the wind,
That scatter'd far a melancholy gleam,
And ting'd the watry waste with feeble beam.
For near, an ocean roar'd and dash'd around
Its foamy billows, with terrific sound;
And ever and anon was heard the cry
Of shipwreck'd men in dying agony.
At his approach she starts, then lifts her veil,
And shews a sunken visage ghastly pale;
On the intrepid Knight her languid gaze
Intently fixes, and at length she says:
"The wish'd for hour is come, by Fate's decree,
"And thou shalt traverse yonder deep with me,
"The bark attends; and lo! the wanton gale
"Swells the soft bosom of the' impatient sail.
"Then linger not, but all-enraptur'd share
"The promis'd bliss, nor mourn thy ravish'd fair:
"I love thy manly form, thy youthful face,
"Admire thy valour, and adore thy grace."
The Knight observ'd her with astonish'd eye,
And much he wish'd, but more he scorn'd to fly;
For as the breeze assail'd her gorgeous vest,
The opening folds disclos'd a putrid breast.
Nearer he comes, and marks, depriv'd of skin,
Her haggard jaws display a direful grin:
Onward she goes; by incantation's laws
Th' amaz'd Sir Roland unresisting draws.
"Here leave thy steed, she cries, and never more
"Shalt thou behold him on this hated shore.
"But gentlest joys th' approaching hours await,
"And Beauty spreads for thee her couch of state."
Then beck'ning mounts the bark, the Knight obeys,
Nor quits her guiding lamp's unhallow'd rays.
Soon as the vessel cuts the foamy tide,
Around strange spectres and fell monsters glide:
One bathed in tears rose from the liquid bed,
With the soft semblance of a virgin's head;
Thrice wav'd her hand, and shook her sedgy hair,
And heav'd a piteous sigh, and cried-" Beware!"
Next came an aged seer, whose feeble breath
Could scarcely utter," Knight, beware of death!"
Then plunging downward in a serpent's form,
They curl'd the surges like an angry storm.
Now thousand other grisly shapes were seen,
Rolling their fiery eyes the waves between:
Here shrieking maidens felt the forc'd embrace,
There Murder laugh'd, and shew'd his guilty face.
A moment after all was hush'd, and o'er,
And such portentous phantoms threat no more.
But now the female at Sir Roland's side,
Who silent long the dauntless youth had ey'd
With foul grimaces, on a sudden press'd
The Knight abhorrent to her mangled breast:
Strove with the winning voice of love to speak,
And laid her bare skull on his lily cheek;
Imprints the bony kiss, and fain would win
The chaste Sir Roland to the deadly sin.
But when she finds not magic art inspires
The wild commotion of unholy fires,
Observes him shrink beneath her love's excess,
And turn in anguish from the loath'd caress,
Starting she left him, and in fury cried,
"O Knight accurs'd! thou soon shalt rue thy pride:" Then seiz'd her lamp, and scowling with disdain, Sought the calm bottom of the roaring main.
Dark was the night, and o'er the pathless way
With rapid force the ship appear'd to stray.
In vain the youth with eye attentive seeks
The first faint dawning of the eastern streaks:
But all was hopeless, and no glimm❜ring light
Gave the wish'd earnest of departing night.
Now to a shore the bark quick-striking came,
And as the shock sent forth a sudden flame,
The hero leaps upon th' uncertain strand,
And lifts his unsheath'd sword with desperate hand.
While slow he trod this desolated coast,
From the crack'd ground uprose a warning ghost,
Whose figure all-confus'd was dire to view,
And loose his mantle flow'd of shifting hue;
He shed a lustre round, and sadly press'd
What seem'd his hand, upon what seem'd his breast;
Then rais'd his doleful voice, like wolves that roar
In famish'd troops on Orcus' sleepy shore.
"Approach yon antiquated tower, he cried,
"There bold Rinaldo, fierce Mambrino died:
"Thou too, perchance, shalt tread the self-same road,
"Approach (so Fate commands) the dark abode."
The Knight advancing struck the fatal door,
And hollow chambers send a sullen roar.
As slow it opens, there appears a page,
With limbs of pliant youth and face of age:
"Welcome, he cried, from dangers thou hast shar'd, "The banquet's ready, and thy bed prepar'd." Thro' winding passages the Knight he leads, And often sighs, and often tells his beads; Stops at an entrance stain'd with blood, and said, "Accept, brave youth, the banquet and the bed." Then screaming loud he vanish'd from the sight, And the bell toll'd amid the silent night.
Sir Roland enters, where, throughout the room,
One taper shews the melancholy gloom;
And rudely hanging by her twisted hair,
A slaughter'd female's starting eye-balls glare;
While from the curtain'd bed such groans arose,
As spoke the anguish of severest woes,
And smote his heart
IMITATION,
FROM CORNELIUS GALLUS.
BY THE LATE C. LEFTLY, ESQ.
Erubuit vultus ipsa puella meos; &c.
WHEN Lesbia to her lover dear,
Though many a teizing trick expert in;
Heard my approaching footsteps near,
She slunk behind the window curtain.
Yet as she tripp'd along, she turn'd-
To watch if I perceiv'd her running;
Her cheeks with crimson blushes burn'd,
Her eyes glanc'd forth a smile of cunning.
She spread her fingers o'er her face,
And wish'd I might not wholly view her;
And yet she wish'd her hiding place
Should shew me where I might come to her.
VOL. III.
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