No words suffice the secret soul to show, So feeble now-his mother's softness crept To those wild eyes, which like an infant's wept : 1825 It was the very weakness of his brain, 1830 1835 XXIII. His heart was form'd for softness-warp'd to wrong ; Betray'd too early, and beguiled too long; Each feeling pure-as falls the dropping dew Within the grot; like that had harden'd too; 1840 Less clear, perchance, its earthly trials pass'd, But sunk, and chill'd, and petrified at last. Yet tempests wear, and lightning cleaves the rock; 1845 If such his heart, so shatter'd it the shock. 1850 There grew one flower beneath its rugged brow, XXIV. "Tis morn-to venture on his lonely hour Few dare; though now Anselmo sought his tower. They find on shore a sea-boat's broken chain: Their hope revives-they follow o'er the main. 1855 1860 ས "Tis idle all- -moons roll on moons away, And Conrad comes not-came not since that day: 1865 Nor trace, nor tidings of his doom declare Where lives his grief, or perish'd his despair! Long mourn'd his band whom none could mourn beside; And fair the monument they gave his bride: 1870 His death yet dubious, deeds too widely known; Link'd with one virtue, and a thousand crimes. (17) NOTES TO THE CORSAIR. The time in this poem may seem too short for the occurrences, but the whole of the Ægean isles are within a few hours sail of the continent, and the reader must be kind enough to take the wind as I have often found it. Note 1, page 30, last line. Offair Olympia loved and left of old. Orlando, Canto 10. Note 2, page 36, line 19. Around the waves' phosphoric brightness broke. By night, particularly in a warm latitude, every stroke of the oar, every motion of the boat or ship, is followed by a slight flash like sheet lightning from the water. Coffee. Pipe. Note 3, page 40, line 20. Though to the rest the sober berry's juice. Note 4, page 40, line 22. The long Chibouque's dissolving cloud supply. Note 5, page 40, last line. While dance the Almas to wild minstrelsy. Dancing-girls. H Note to Canto II. page 41, line 13. It has been objected that Conrad's entering disguised as a spy is out of nature.-Perhaps so. I find something not unlike it in history. "Anxious to explore with his own eyes the state of the Vandals, Majorian ventured, after disguising the colour of his hair, to visit Carthage in the character of his own ambassador; and Genseric was afterwards mortified by the discovery, that he had entertained and dismissed the Emperor of the Romans. Such an anecdote may be rejected as an improbable fiction; but it is a fiction which would not have been imagined unless in the life of a hero." Gibbon, D. and F. Vol. VI. p. 180. That Conrad is a character not altogether out of nature I shall attempt to prove by some historical coincidences which I have met with since writing " The Corsair.” "Eccelin prisonnier" dit Rolandini, "s'enfermoit dans un silence menaçant, il fixoit sur la terre son visage feroce, et ne donnoit point d'essor à sa profonde indignation.-De toutes partes cependant les soldats & les peuples accouroient; ils vouloient voir cet homme, jadis si puissant, et la joie universelle eclatoit de toutes parts. * * * * * "Eccelin etoit d'une petite taille; mais tout l'aspect de sa personne, tous ses mouvemens indiquoient un soldat.-Son langage etoit amer, son deportment superbe-et par son seul egard, il faisoit trembler les plus hardis." Sismondi, tome III. page 219, 220. "Gizericus (Genseric, king of the Vandals, the conqueror of both Carthage and Rome,) statura mediocris, et equi casu claudicans, animo profundus, sermone rarus, luxuriæ con |