They chalnd us each to a column-stone, Its massy waters meet and flow; And we were three-yet, each alone; Thus much the fathom-line was sent We could not move a single pare,

From Chillon's snow-white battleinent, We could not see each other's face,

Which round about the wave enthralls: But with that pale and livid light A double dungeon wall and wave That made us strangers in our sight;

Have made-and like a living grave. And thus together-yet apart,

Below the surface of the lake Fetter'd in hand, but pined in heart; The dark vault lies wherein we lay, Twas still some solace in the dearth We heard it ripple night and day; Of the pure elements of earth,

Sounding o'er our heads it knockd; To hearken to each other's speech,

And I have felt the winter's spray And each turn comforter to each,

Wash through the bars when winds were hig With sojne new hope, or legend old, And wanton in the happy sky; Or song heroically bold;

And then the very rock hath rock'd, But even these at length grew cold. And I have felt it shake unshock'd, Our voices took a dreary tone

Because I could have smiled to see An echo of the dungeon-stone,

The death that would have set me free. A grating sound—not full and free As they of yore were wont to be: It might be fancy-but to me

I said my nearer brother pioed,
They never sounded like our own.

I said his mighty heart declined,
He loathed and put away his food;

It was not that 'twas coarse and rude, I was the eldest of the three,

For we were used to hunter's fare, And to uphold and cheer the rest

And for the like had little care : I ought to do and did my best

The milk drawn from the mountain-goa And each did well in his degree.

Was changed for water from the moat, The youngest, whom my father loved,

Our bread was such as captive's tears Because our mother's brow was given

Have moisten'd many a thousand years, To him, with eyes as blue as heaven,

Since man first pent his fellow-men For him my soul was sorely moved;

Like brutes within an iron den: And truly might it be distrest

But what were these to us or him? To see such bird in such a nest;

These wasted not his heart or limb; For he was beautiful as day

My brother's soul'was of that mold (When day was beautiful to me

Which in a palace had grown cold, As to young eagles, being free)

Had his free breathing been denied
A polar day, which will not see
A sunset till its summer's gone,

The range of the steep mountain's side :

But why delay the truth?-he died. Its sleepless summer of long light,

I saw, and could not hold his head, The snow-clad offspring of the sun :

Nor reach his dying hand--nor dead, And thus he was as pure and bright, And in his natural spirit gay,

Though hard lstrove, but strove in va With tears for nonght but others' ills,

To rend and gnash my bonds in twain.

He died-and they unlock'd his chain, And then they flow'd like mountain rills,

And scoop'd for him a shallow grave Unless he could assuage the woe

Even from the cold earth of our cave. Which he abhorr'd to view below.

I begg’d them, as a boon, to lay

His corse in dust whereon the day The other was as pure of mind,

Might shine-- it was a foolish thought, But form’d to combat with his kind; But then within my brain it wrought, Strong in his frame, and of a mood That even in death his freeborn breast Which 'gainst the world in war had stood, In such a dungeon could not rest. And perish'd in the foremost rank

might have spared iny idle prayerWith joy :- but not in chains to pine : They coldly laughid - and laid him the His spirit wither'd with their clank, The flat and thriless earth above I saw it silently decline

The being we so much did love;
And so perchance in sooth did mine; His empty chain above it leant,
But yet I forced it on to chcer

Such murder's
Those relics of a home so dear.
He was a huuter of the hills,
Had follow'd there the deer and wolf;

But he, the favourite and the flower, To him this dungeon was a gull,

Most cherish'd since his natal hour,
And fe:ter'd feet the worst of ills.

His mother's image in fair face,
The infant love of all his race,

His martyr'd father's dearest thought,
Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls : My latest care, for whom I sought
A thousand feet in depth below

To hoard my life, that his might be

monument!

Less wretched now, and one day free; And then of darkness too:
He, too, who yet had held untired I had no thought, no feeling-none -
A spirit natural or inspired-

Among the stones I stood a stone,
He too, was struck, and day by day And was, scarce conscious what I wist,
Was wither'd on the stalk away.

As shrubless crags within the mist;
Oh God! it is a fearful thing

For all was blank, and bleak, and gray, To see the human soul take wing

It was not night-it was not day,
In any shape, in any mood :-

It was not even the dungeon-light,
I've seen it rushing forth in blood, So hateful to my heavy sight,
I've seen it on the breaking ocean

But vacancy absorbing space,
Strive with a swoln convulsive motion, And fixedness—without a place;
I've seen the sick and ghastly bed

There were no stars -- no earth-no timo-01 Sin delirious with its dread:

No check-no change-no good-no crimeBut there were horrors- this was woe But silence, and a stirless breath Camird with such, but sure and slow: Which neither was of life nor death; He faded, and so calm and meek,

A sea of stagnant idleness, Se softly worn, 80 sweetly weak,

Blind, boundless, mute, and motionless! So tearless

, yet so tender kind,
And grieved for those he left behind;
With all the while a cheek whose bloom A light broke in upon my brain, --
Ha as a mockery of the tomb,

It was the carol of a bird ;
Those tints as gently sunk away

It ceased, and then it came again, ki a departing rainbow's ray

The sweetest song ear ever heard, An eye of most transparent light,

And mine was thankful till my eyes That almost made the dungeon bright,

Ran over with the glad surprise, bud mot a word of murmur-not

And they that moment could not see 1 groan o'er his untimely lot, –

I was the mate of misery ; lile talk of better days,

But then by dull degrees came back A little hope my own to raise,

My senses to their wonted track, lal vas sunk'in silence-lost

I saw the dungeon-walls and floor b his last loss, of all the most ;

Close slowly round me as before, And then the sighs he would suppress

I saw the glimmer of the sun
Of fainting nature's feebleness,

Creeping as it before had done,
Here slowly drawn, grew legs and less : But through the crevice where it came
I listen'd, but I could not hear -

That bird was perch’d, as fond and tame, I calld, for I was wild with fear;

And tamer than upon the tree;
I loer twas hopeless, but my dread A lovely bird, with azure wings,
Wald not be thus admonished ;

And song that said a thousand things,
Italld, and thought I heard a sound - And seem'd to say them all for me!
larst my chain with one strong bound; I never saw its like before,
del rashid to him:- I found him not,

I ne'er shall see its likeness nore: Jaly stirr'd in this black spot,

It seem'd like me to want a mate, Imly lived --I only drew

But was not half so desolate, The accursed breath of dungeon-dew;

And it was come to love me when The last – the sole-the dearest link None lived to love me so again, Breen me and the eternal brink, And cheering from my dungeon's brink, Which bound me to my failing race,

Had brought me back to feel and think. Ha broken in this fatal place.

I know not if it late were free,
Den the earth, and one beneath - Or broke its cage to perch on mine,
My brothers, both had ceased to breathe: But knowing well captivity,
I took that hand which lay so still,

Sweet bird! I could not wish for thine! Alas ! my own was full as chill;

Or if it were, in winged guise,
I had not strength to stir, or strive, A visitant from Paradise ;
But felt that I was still alive-

For-Heaven forgive that thought! the A frantic feeling, when we know

while Text what we love shall ne'er be so. Which made me both to weep and smile ;

I sometimes deem'd that it might be

My brother's soul come down to me; I had no earthly hope- but faith,

But then at last away it flew,
And that forbade a selfish death.

And then 'twas mortal-well I knew,
For he would never thus have flown,

And left me twice so doubly lone,-
What next befel me then and there Lone-as the corse within its shroud,
I kase not well-I never knew-

Lone- as a solitary cloud,
First came the loss of light, and air, A single cloud on a sunny day,

Iber not why laald not die;

While all the rest of heaven is clear, The only one in view;
A frown upon the atmosphere,

A small green isle, it seem'd no more, That hath no business to appear

Scarce broader than my dungeon-floor, When skies are blue, and earth is gay. But in it there were three tall trees,

And o'er it blew the mountain-breeze,

And by it there were waters flowing, A kind of change came in iny fate,

And on it there were young flowers growi My keepers grew compassionate,

Of gentle breath and hue. I know not what had made them so,

The fish swam by the castle-wall, They were inured to sights of woe;

And they seem'd joyous each and all; But so it was :- my broken chain

The eagle rode the rising blast, With links unfasten'd did remain,

Methought he never flew so fast And it was liberty to stride

As then to me he seem'd to fly, Along my cell from side to side,

And then new tears came in my eye, And up and down, and then athwart,

And I felt troubled- and would fain And tread it over every part ;

I had not left my recent chain; And round the pillars one by one,

And when I did descend again, Returning where my walk begun,

The darkness of my dim abode Avoiding only, as I trod,

Fell on me as a heavy load; My brothers' graves without a sod;

It was as is a new-dug grave, For if I thought with heedless tread

Closing o'er one we sought to save, My step profaned their lowly bed,

And yet my glance, too much opprest, My breath came gaspingly and thick,

Had almost need of such a rest. And my crush'd heart fell blind and sick.

I made a footing in the wall,

It might be months, or years, or day It was not therefrom to escape,

I kept no count-I took no note, For I had buried one and all,

I had no hope my eyes to raise, Who loved me in a human shape;

And clear them of their dreary mote; And the whole earth would henceforth be

At last men came to set me free, A wider prison unto me:

I ask'd not why, and reck'd not where, No child-no sire-no kin had I,

It was at length the same to me, No partner in my misery;

Fetter'd or fetterless to be, I thought of this, and I was glad,

I learn’d to love despair. For thought of them had made me mad;

And thus when they appear'd at last, But I was curious to ascend

And all my bonds aside were cast, To my barr'd windows, and to bend

These heavy walls to me had grown Once more, upon the mountains high,

A hermitage-and all my own!
The quiet of a loving eye.

And half I felt as they were come
To tear me from a second home:

With spiders I had friendship made,
I saw them, and they were the same, And watch'd them in their sullen tradı
They were not changed like me in frame; Had seen the mice by moonlight play,
I saw their thousand years of snow And why should I feel less than they
On high-their wide long lake below, We were all inmates of one place,
And the blue Rhone in fullest flow; And I, the monarch of each race,
I heard the torrents leap and gush Had power to kill--yet, strange to te
O'er channell'd rock and broken bush ; In quiet we had learn'd to dwell-
I saw the white-wallid distant town, My very chains and I grew friends,
And whiter sails go skimming down; So much a long communion tends
And then there was a little isle,

To make us what we are :-even I Which in my very face did smile, Regain'd my freedom with a sigh.

M A Z E P P A.

"Calat qui remplissait alors cette place, “Le roi fuyant et poursuivi ent son cheval tait un gentilhomme Polonais, nommé tué sous lui; le Colonel Gieta, blessé, et Mazeppa, né dans le palatinat de Podolie; perdant tout son sang, lui donna le sien. il avoit été élevé page de Jean Casimir, et Ainsi on remit deux fois à cheval, dans la avait pris à sa cour quelque teinture des fuite, ce conquérant qui n'avait pu y monbelles-lettres

. Une intrigue qu'il eut dans ter pendant la bataille.”sa jeunesse avec la femme d'un gentilhomme “Le roi alla par un autre chemin avec Polosais ayant été découverte, le mari le quelques cavaliers. Le carosse où il était fit lie tout au sur un cheval farouche, et le rompit dans la marche ; on le remit à cheval. laiss aller en cet état. Le cheval, qui était Pour comble de disgrace, il s'égara penda pays de l'Ukraine, y retourna, et y porta dant la nuit dans un bois; là, son courage Mzeppa

, demi-mort de fatigue et de faim. ne pouvant plus suppléer à ses forces épuiQuelques paysans le secoururent: il resta sées, les douleurs de sa blessure devenues bag-temps parmi eux, et se signala dans plus insupportables par la fatigue, son plesieurs courses contre les Tartares. La su-cheval étant tombé de lassitude, il se coupéniorité de ses lumières lui donna une grande cha quelques heures, au pied d'un arbre, tansidération parmi les Cosaques : sa répu- en danger d'être surpris à tout moment par tation s'augmentant de jour en jour obligea les vainqueurs qui le cherchaient de tous le Cear à le faire Prince de l'Ukraine." côtés.”_VOLTAIRE, Histoire de Charles XII.

.

Twas after dread Pultowa's day, In out-worn nature's agony;
The fortune left the royal Swede, His wounds were stiil -- his limbs were
Irvand a slanghter'd army lay,

starkhy were to combat and to bleed.

The heavy hour was chill and dark ; The power and glory of the war,

The fever in his blood forbade Faithless as their vain votaries, men, A transient slumber's fitful aid: Had passed to the triumphant Czar,

And thus it was; but yet through all, Moscow's walls were safe again,

King-like the monarch bore his fall, Katil a day more dark and drear,

And made, in this extreme of ill, led a more memorable year,

His pangs the vassals of his will;
Sald give to slaughter and to shame All silent and subdued were they,
I mightier host and haughtier name; As once the nations round him lay.
greater wreck, a deeper fall,
A shock to one-a thunderbolt to all.

A band of chiefs !- alas! how few,

Since but the fleeting of a day hich was the hazard of the die; Had thinn'd it; but this wreck was true De Founded Charles was taught to fly

And chivalrous; upon the clay By day and night through field and flood, Each sate him down, all sad and mute, saimid with his own and subjects' blood; Beside his monarch and his steed, Pas thousands fell that flight to aid : For danger levels man and brute, And not a voice was heard to upbraid And all are fellows in their need. dobition in his humbled hour,

Among the rest, Mazeppa made Ibra truth had nought to dread from power. His pillow in an old oak’s shadeis horse was slain, and Gieta gave Himself as rough, and scarce less old,

is an and died the Russians slave. The Ukraine's hetman, calm and bold; This too sinks after many a league But first, outspent with his long course, Of vell sustain'd, but vain fatigue;

The Cossack prince rubb'd down his horse, And in the depth of forests, darkling, And made for him a leafy bed, the watch-fires in the distance sparkling, And smooth'd his fetlocks and his mane, The beacons of surrounding foes— And slack'd his girth, and stripp'd his rein, A king must lay his limbs at length.

And joy'd to see how well he fed;
Are these the laurels and repose

For until now he had the dread
Par which the nations strain their strength? His wearied coarser might refuse
They laid him by a savage tree,

To browze beneath the midnight dews:

But he was hardy as his lord,

Ay, 'twas,- when Casimir was king And little cared for bed and board; John Casimir,-1 was his page But spirited and docile too,

Six summers in my earlier age; Whate'er was to be done, would do. A learned monarch, faith! was he, Shaggy and swift, and strong of limb, And most unlike your majesty: All Tartar-like he carried him;

He made no wars, and did not gain Obey'd his voice, and came to call, New realms to lose them back again ; And knew him in the midst of all :

And (save debates in Warsaw's diet) Though thousands were around, and Night, He reign'd in most unseemnly quiet; Without a star, pursued her flight,

Not that he had no cares to vex, That steed from sunset until dawn

He loved the muses and the sex; His chief would follow like a fawn. And sometimes these so froward are,

They made him wish himself at war; This done, Mazeppa spread his cloak,

But soon his wrath being v'er, he took

Another mistress, or new book:
And laid his lance beneath his oak,
Felt if his arms in order good

And then he gave prodigious fêtes

All Warsaw gather'd round his gates The long day's march had well withstoodIf still the powder fillid the pan,

To gaze upon his splendid court,

And dames, and chiefs, of princely por And flints unloosen'd kept their lock

He was the Polish Solomon,
His sabre's hilt and scabbard felt,

So sung his poets, all but one,
And whether they had chafed his belt-
And next the venerable man,

Who, being unpension'd, made a satiri

And boasted that he conld not fatter, From out his haversack and can,

It was a court of jousts and mimes, Prepared and spread his slender stock: And to the monarch and his men

Where every courtier tried at rhymes The whole or portion offer'd then

Even I for once produced some verses, With far less of inquietude

And sign’d my odes, Despairing Thirsi

There was a certain Palatine, Than courtiers at a banquet would.

A count of far and high descent,
And Charles of this his slender share

Rich as a salt-or silver-mine;
With smiles partook a moment there,
To force of cheer a greater show,

And he was proud, ye may divine,

As if from heaven he had been sent: And seem above both wounds and woe;

He had such wealth in blood and ore And then he said " Of all our band,

As few could match beneath the thron Though firm of heart and strong of hand, And he would gaze upon his store, In skirmish, march, or forage, none

And o'er his pedigree would pore, Can less have said, or more have done,

Until by some.confusion led, Than thee, Mazeppa! On the earth

Which almost look'd like want of head So fit a pair had never birth, Since Alexander's days till now,

He thought their merits were his own

His wife was not of his opinion-
As thy Bucephalus and thou:

His junior she by thirty years
All Scythia's fame to thine should yield
For pricking on o'er flood and field.”

Grew daily tired of his dominion ;

And after wishes, hopes, and fears, Mazeppa answer'd—“ III betide

To virtue a few farewell tears, The school wherein I learn'd to ride!” Quoth Charles—“Old hetman,wherefore so, At Warsaw's youth, some songs, and dan

A restless dream or two, some glances Since thou hast learn'd the art so well ? "

Awaited but the usual chances,
Mazeppa said -“ 'Twere long to tell ;
And we have many a league to go

Those happy accidents which render

The coldest dames so very tender, With every now and then a blow,

To deck her Count with titles given, And ten to one at least the foe, Before our steeds may graze at ease

Tis said, as passports into heaven; Beyond the swift Borysthenes:

But, strange to say, they rarely boast

Of these who have deserved them mog And, Sire, your limbs have need of rest, And I will be the sentinel Of this your troop."_" But I request,".

“I was a goodly stripling then; Said Sweden's monarch, “thou wilt tell This tale of thine, and I may reap

At seventy years I so may say,

That there were few, or boys or men, Perchance from this the boon of sleep, For at this moment from my eyes

Who, in my dawning time of day,

Of vassal or of knight's degree, The hope of present slumber flies."

Could vie in vanities with me;

For I had strength, youth, gaiety, “Well, Sire, with such a hope, I'll track A port not like to this ye see, My seventy years of memory back: But smooth, as all is rugged now; I think 'twas in my twentieth spring,- For time, and care, and war, have ploug