Who chose thee for his shadow! Thou chief star!
Centre of many stars! which mak'st our earth
Endurable, and temperest the hues

And hearts of all who walk within thy rays!
Sire of the seasons! Monarch of the climes,
And those who dwell in them! for near or far,
Our inborn spirits have a tint of thee,
Even as our outward aspects;-thou dost rise,
And shine, and set in glory. Fare thee well!

I ne'er shall see thee more.

As my first glance

Of love and wonder was for thee, then take
My latest look: thou wilt not beam on one
To whom the gifts of life and warmth have been
Of a more fatal nature. He is gone:

I follow.

[Exit MANFRED.

SCENE III.

The Mountains-The Castle of Manfred at some distance-A Terrace before a Tower.-Time, Twilight.

HERMAN, MANUEL, and other Dependants of

MANFRED.

HER. 'Tis strange enough; night after night, for

years,

th pursued long vigils in this tower,
ut a witness. I have been within it,-
ve we all been oft-times; but from it,
contents, it were impossible

aw conclusions absolute, of aught
cudies tend to. To be sure, there is

chamber where none enter; I would give

ee of what I have to come these three years, ore upon its mysteries.

ANUEL.

atures or of form, but mind and habits:

t Sigismund was proud, but gay and free,

arrior and a reveller; he dwelt not

books and solitude, nor made the night Domy vigil, but a festal time,

ier than day; he did not walk the rocks

And forests like a wolf, nor turn aside

From men and their delights.

HER. Beshrew the hour,

But those were jocund times! I would that such
Would visit the old walls again; they look

As if they had forgotten them.

MANUEL.

These walls

Must change their chieftain first. Oh! I have seen

Some strange things in them, Herman.

HER. Come, be friendly;

Relate me some to while away our watch:

I've heard thee darkly speak of an event

Which happen'd hereabouts, by this same tower.
MANUEL. That was a night indeed; I do remember
'Twas twilight, as it may be now, and such
Another evening;-yon red cloud, which rests.
On Eigher's pinnacle, so rested then,-

So like that it might be the same; the wind
Was faint and gusty, and the mountain snows
Began to glitter with the climbing moon;
Count Manfred was, as now, within his tower,-
How occupied, we knew not, but with him
The sole companion of his wanderings
And watchings-her, whom of all earthly things
That lived, the only thing he seem'd to love,-
As he, indeed, by blood was bound to do,

ady Astarte, his

Enter the Аввот.

BOT. Where is your master?
R. Yonder, in the tower.

BOT. I must speak with him.

most private, and must not be thus ded on.

BOT. Upon myself I take

Forfeit of my fault, if fault there be-
I must see him.

3BоT. Then it seems I must be herald

SCENE IV.

Interior of the Tower.

MANFRED alone.

MAN. The stars are forth, the moon above the tops

Of the snow-shining mountains.-Beautiful!

I linger yet with Nature, for the night
Hath been to me a more familiar face

Than that of man; and in her starry shade
Of dim and solitary loveliness,

I learn'd the language of another world.
I do remember me, that in my youth,
When I was wandering,-upon such a night
I stood within the Coliseum's wall,
Midst the chief relics of almighty Rome;

The trees which grew along the broken arches
Waved dark in the blue midnight, and the stars
Shone through the rents of ruin; from afar
The watchdog bayed beyond the Tiber; and
More near from out the Cæsars' palace came
The owl's long cry, and, interruptedly,
Of distant sentinels the fitful song