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The leader of the band he had undone ;
Who,born perchance for better things, had set
His fife upon a cast which linger'd yet:
But now the die was to be thrown, and all
The chances were in favour of his fall:
And such a fall! But still he faced the shock,
Obdurate as a portion of the rock
Whereon he stood, and fix'd his levell'd gun,
Dark as a sullen cloud before the sun.

The boat drew nigh, well arm'd, and firm
the crew

To act whatever Duty bade them do;
Careless of danger, as the onward Wind
Is of the leaves it strews, nor looks behind :
And yet perhaps they rather wish'd to go
Against a nation's than a native foe,
And felt that this poor victim of self-will,
Briton no more,had once been Britain's still.
They hail'd him to surrender-no reply;
Their arms were poised, and glittered in
the sky.

They hail'd again no answer; yet once more
They offered quarter louder than before.
The echoes only, from the rock's rebound,
Took their last farewell of the dying sound.
Then flashed the flint, and blazed the vol-
leying flame,

And the smoke rose between them and their

But by a thread, like sharks who have
gorged the bait;

Yet to the very last they battled well,
And not a groan inform❜d their foes who fell.
Christian died last-twice wounded; and

once more

Mercy was offer'd when they saw his gore;
Too late for life, but not too late to die,
With though a hostile hand to close his eye.
A limb was broken, and he droop'd along
The crag, as doth a falcon reft of young.
The sound revived him, or appear'd to wake
Some passion which a weakly gesture spake;
He beckon❜d to the foremost who drew nigh,
But, as they near'd, he rear'd his weapon
high-

His last ball had been aim'd, but from his
breast

He tore the topmost button of his vest,
Down the tube dash'd it, levelled, fired,
and smiled

As his foe fell; then, like a serpent, coil'd
His wounded, weary form, to where the steep
Look'd desperate as himself along the deep;
Cast one glance back, and clench'd his

His last rage 'gainst

Then plunged: the

hand, and shook the earth which he forsook; rock below received like glass His body crush'd into one gory mass, While the rock rattled with the bullets' With scarce a shred to tell of human form, Or fragment for the sea-bird or the worm; A fair-hair'd scalp, besmear'd with blood and weeds,

aim,

knell,
Which peal'd in vain, and flatten'd as they
fell;

Then flew the only answer to be given
By those who had lost all hope in earth or

heaven.

After the first fierce peal, as they pull'd nigher,

They heard the voice of Christian shout,
"Now fire!"

And ere the word upon the echo died,
Two fell; the rest assail'd the rock's rough
side,
And, furious at the madness of their foes,
Disdain'd all further efforts, save to close.
But steep the crag, and all without a path,
Each step opposed a bastion to their wrath;
While, placed 'midst clefts the least acces-
sible,

Which Christian's eye was train'd to mark
full well,
The three maintain'd a strife which must
not yield,
In spots where eagles might have chosen
to build.
Their every shot told;while the assailant fell,
Dash'd on the shingles like the limpet shell;
But still enough survived, and mounted still,
Scattering their numbers here and there,
until

Surrounded and commanded, though not nigh
Enough for seizure, near enough to die,
The desperate trio held aloof their fate

Yet reek'd, the remnant of himself and deeds;
Some splinters of his weapons (to the last,
As long as hand could hold, he held them fast)
Yet glitter'd, but at distance-hurl'd away
To rust beneath the dew and dashing spray.
The rest was nothing-save a life mis-spent,
And soul- but who shall answer where it
went?

"Tis ours to bear, not judge the dead; and
they

Who doom to hell, themselves are on the way,
Unless these bullies of eternal pains
Are pardon'd their bad hearts for their
worse brains.

The deed was over! All were gone or ta'en, The fugitive, the captive, or the slain. Chain'd on the deck, where once, a gallant

crew,

They stood with honour, were the wretched
few

Survivors of the skirmish on the isle;
But the last rock left no surviving spoil.
Cold lay they where they fell, and welter-
ing,

While o'er them flapp'd the sea-birds' dewy
wing,

Now wheeling nearer from the neighbouring surge,

And screaming high their harsh and hungry | Swam round the rock, to where a shallow

dirge:

But calm and careless heaved the wave below,

Eternal with unsympathetic flow;
Far o'er its face the dolphins sported on,
And sprang the flying-fish against the sun,
Till its dried wing relapsed from its brief
height,

To gather moisture for another flight.

Twas morn; and Neuha, who by dawn

of day

cleft

Hid the canoe that Neuha there had left Drifting along the tide, without an oar, That eve the strangers chased them from the shore;

But when these vanish'd, she pursued her

prow, Regain'd, and urged to where they found it now:

Nor ever did more Love and Joy embark, Than now was wafted in that slender ark.

Swam smoothly forth to catch the rising ray, Again their own shore rises on the view, And watch if aught approach'd the amphi-No more polluted with a hostile hue; bious lair No sullen ship lay bristling o'er the foam, A floating dungeon: all was Hope and Home! A thousand proas darted o'er the bay, With sounding shells, and heralded their way;

Where lay her lover, saw a sail in air:
It flapp'd, it fill'd, and to the growing gale
Bent its broad arch: her breath began to fail
With fluttering fear, her heart beat thick
and high,

While yet a doubt sprung where its course might lie:

Bat no! it came not; fast and far away
The shadow lessen'd as it clear'd the bay.
She gazed, and flung the sea-foam from
her eyes,

To watch as for a rainbow in the skies.
On the horizon verged the distant deck,
Diminish'd, dwindled to a very speck-
Then vanish'd. All was ocean, all was joy!
Down plunged she through the cave to
rouse her boy;

Told all she had seen, and all she hoped, and all

That happy Love could augur or recal; Sprung forth again, with Torquil following

free

His bounding Nereid over the broad sea;

The Chiefs came down, around the people pour'd,

And welcomed Torquil as a son restored; The women throng'd, embracing and embraced

By Neuha, asking where they had been chased,

And how escaped? The tale was told; and then

One acclamation rent the sky again;
And from that hour a new tradition gave
Their sanctuary the name of "Neuha'sCave."
An hundred fires, far flickering from the
height,

Blazed o'er the general revel of the night,
The feast in honour of the guest, return'd
To Peace and Pleasure, perilously earn'd;
A night succeeded by such happy days
As only the yet infant world displays.

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Whom I have sought in darkness and in

light

Ye, who do compass earth about, and dwell In subtler essence-ye, to whom the tops Of mountains inaccessible are haunts, And earth's and ocean's caves familiar

things

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Who is undying,-Rise! appear!—Appear! [A pause.

If it be so.-Spirits of earth and air,
Ye shall not thus elude me: by a power,
Deeper than all yet urged, a tyrant-spell,
Which had its birth-place in a starcondemn'd,
The burning wreck of a demolish'd world,
A wandering hell in the eternal space;
By the strong curse which is upon my soul.
The thought which is within me and
around me,

I do compel ye to my will.-Appear!

[A star is seen at the darker end
of the gallery; it is stationary;
and a voice is heard singing)
First Spirit.

Mortal! to thy bidding bow'd,
From my mansion in the cloud,
Which the breath of twilight builds,
And the summer's sun-set gilds
With the azure and vermilion,

Which is mix'd for my pavilion:
Though thy quest may be forbidden,
On a star-beam I have ridden;
To thine adjuration bow'd,
Mortal-be thy wish avow'd!

Voice of the Second Spirit. Mont-Blanc is the monarch of mountains. They crowned him long ago

On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds,

With a diadem of snow.

Around his waist are forests braced,
The Avalanche in his hand;
Bat ere it fall, that thundering ball
Must pause for my command.
The Glacier's cold and restless mass
Moves onward day by day;
But I am he who bids it pass,
Or with its ice delay.
I am the Spirit of the place,

Could make the mountain bow
And quiver to his cavern'd base-
And what with me wouldst Thou?
Voice of the Third Spirit.
In the blue depth of the waters,
Where the wave hath no strife,
Where the wind is a stranger,
And the sea-snake hath life,
Where the Mermaid is decking
Her green hair with shells;
Like the storm on the surface
Came the sound of thy spells;
O'er my calm Hall of Coral
The deep echo roll'd-
To the Spirit of Ocean
Thy wishes unfold!

Fourth Spirit.

Where the slumbering earthquake
Lies pillow'd on fire,
And the lakes of bitumen
Rise boilingly higher;
Where the roots of the Andes
Strike deep in the earth,
As their summits to heaven
Shoot soaringly forth;
I have quitted my birth-place,
Thy bidding to bide-
Thy spell hath subdued me,
Thy will be my guide!
Fifth Spirit.

I'm the Rider of the wind,
The Stirrer of the storm;
The hurricane I left behind
Is yet with lightning warm;
To speed to thee, o'er shore and sea
I swept upon the blast:

The fleet I met sail'd well, and yet
Twill sink ere night be past.

Sixth Spirit.

My dwelling is the shadow of the night, Why doth thy magic torture me with light?

Seventh Spirit.

The star which rules thy destiny,
Was ruled, ere earth began, by me:
it was a world as fresh and fair
As e'er revolved round sun in air;
Its course was free and regular,

Space bosom'd not a lovelier star.
The hour arrived - and it became
A wandering mass of shapeless flame,
A pathless comet, and a curse,
The menace of the universe;
Still rolling on with innate force,
Without a sphere, without a course,
A bright deformity on high.
The monster of the upper sky!
And thou! beneath its influence born-
Thou worm! whom I obey and scorn-
Forced by a power (which is not thine,
And lent thee but to make thee mine)
For this brief moment to descend,
Where these weak spirits round thee bend
And parley with a thing like thee-
What would'st thou, Child of Clay! with me!
The Seven Spirits.

Earth, ocean, air, night, mountains, winds, thy star,

Are at thy beck and bidding, Child of Clay!

Before thee, at thy quest, their spirits areWhat would'st thou with us,son of mortals -say?

Manf. Forgetfulness

First Spirit. Of what_of whom and why? Manf. Of that which is within me; read it there

Ye know it, and I cannot utter it.

Spirit. We can but give thee that which

we possess:

Ask of us subjects, sovereignty, the power O'er earth, the whole, or portion, or a sign Which shall control the elements, whereof We are the dominators, each and all, These shall be thine.

Manf. Oblivion, self-oblivion → Can ye not wring from out the hidden realms Ye offer so profusely what I ask?

Spirit. It is not in our essence,in our skill; But-thou may'st die.

Manf. Will death bestow it on me? Spirit. We are immortal, and do not forget; We are eternal; and to us the past Is, as the future, present. Art thou answered? Manf. Ye mock me-but the power which brought ye here

Hath made you mine. Slaves, scoff not at my will!

The mind, the spirit, the Promethean spark, The lightning of my being, is as bright, Pervading, and far-darting as your own, And shall not yield to yours, though coop'd in clay!

Answer, or I will teach ye what I am. Spirit. We answer as we answer'd; our reply

Is even in thine own words.

Manf. Why say ye so?

Spirit. If, as thou say'st, thine essence be

as ours,

We have replied in telling thee, the thing Mortals call death hath nought to do with us.

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Of which we are the mind and principle: But choose a form in that we will appear. Manf. I have no choice; there is no form on earth

Hideous or beautiful to me. Let him, Who is most powerful of ye, take such aspect As unto him may seem most fitting - Come! Seventh Spirit. (Appearing in the shape of

a beautiful female figure.) Behold! Manf. Oh God! if it be thus, and thou Art not a madness and a mockery,

I yet might be most happy. I will clasp thee, And we again will be-[The figure vanishes. My heart is crush'd!

[Manfred falls senseless.

(A voice is heard in the Incantation which follows.)

When the moon is on the wave,
And the glow-worm in the grass,
And the meteor on the grave,
And the wisp on the morass;
When the falling stars are shooting,
And the answer'd owls are hooting,
And the silent leaves are still
'In the shadow of the hill,
Shall my soul be upon thine,
With a power and with a sign.

Though thy slumber may be deep,
Yet thy spirit shall not sleep;
There are shades which will not vanish,
There are thoughts thou canst not banish;
By a power to thee unknown,
Thou canst never be alone;
Thou art wrapt as with a shroud.
Thou art gather'd in a cloud;
And for ever shalt thou dwell
In the spirit of this spell

Though thou seest me not pass by, Thou shalt feel me with thine eye As a thing that, though unseen, Must be near thee, and hath been; And when in that secret dread Thou hast turn'd around thy head, Thou shalt marvel I am not As thy shadow on the spot, And the power which thou dost feel Shall be what thou must conceal.

And a magic voice and verse
Hath baptized thee with a curse;
And a spirit of the air

Hath begirt thee with a snare;
In the wind there is a voice
Shall forbid thee to rejoice;
And to thee shall Night deny
All the quiet of her sky;

And the day shall have a sun,
Which shall make thee wish it done.

From thy false tears I did distil An essence which hath strength to kill; From thy own heart I then did wring The black blood in its blackest spring; From thy own smile I snatch'd the snake, For there it coil'd as in a brake; From thy own lip I drew the charm Which gave all these their chiefest harm; In proving every poison known, I found the strongest was thine own.

By thy cold breast and serpent-smile.
By thy unfathom'd gulfs of guile,
By that most seeming virtuous eye,
By thy shut soul's hypocrisy ;
By the perfection of thine art,

Which pass'd for human thine own heart;
By thy delight in others' pain,
And by thy brotherhood of Cain,
I call upon thee! and compel
Thyself to be thy proper Hell!

And on thy head I pour the vial
Which doth devote thee to this trial;
Nor to slumber, nor to die,
Shall be in thy destiny;

Though thy death shall still seem near
To thy wish, but as a fear;

Lo! the spell now works around thee,
And the clankless chain hath bound thee;
O'er thy heart and brain together
Hath the word been pass'd-now wither!

SCENE II.-The Mountain of the Jungfrau. Time, Morning.

MANFRED alone upon the Cliffs.

Manf. The spirits I have raised abandon

me

The spells which I have studied baffle me The remedy I reck'd of tortured me;

lean no more on super-human aid, It hath no power upon the past, and for

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