And gay retainers gather round the hearth, 9 With tongues all loudness, and with eyes all mirth. II. The chief of Lara is returned again: And why had Lara crossed the bounding main? Left by his sire, too young such loss to know, That fearful empire which the human breast His youth through all the mazes of its race; 20 Short was the course his restlessness had run, But long enough to leave him half undone. III. And Lara left in youth his father-land; But from the hour he waved his parting hand Each trace waxed fainter of his course, till all Had nearly ceased his memory to recall. His sire was dust, his vassals could declare, 'Twas all they knew, that Lara was not there; 30 Nor sent, nor came he, till conjecture grew Cold in the many, anxious in the few. His hall scarce echoes with his wonted name, Another chief consoled his destined bride The young forgot him, and the old had died; "Yet doth he live!" exclaims the impatient heir, And sighs for sables which he must not wear. But one is absent from the mouldering file, 40 IV. He comes at last in sudden loneliness, And whence they know not, why they need not guess; Not that he came, but came not long before: Of foreign aspect, and of tender age. Years had rolled on, and fast they speed away To those that wander as to those that stay; 50 But lack of tidings from another clime He lives, nor yet is past his manhood's prime, Though seared by toil, and something touched by time; His faults, whate'er they were, if scarce forgot, Nor good nor ill of late were known, his name His soul in youth was haughty, but his sins 60 And they indeed were changed-'tis quickly seen Whate'er he be, 'twas not what he had been: Their thoughts from others by a single look; The stinging of a heart the world hath stung, 70 And makes those feel that will not own the wound; All these seemed his, and something more beneath, Than glance could well reveal, or accent breathe. Ambition, glory, love, the common aim, That some can conquer, and that all would claim, 80 |