I thought of this, and I was glad,
For thought of them had made me mad;
But I was curious to ascend

To my barr'd windows, and to bend
Once more, upon the mountains high,
The quiet of a loving eye.

XIII.

I saw them-and they were the same,
They were not changed like me in fram;
I saw their thousand years of snow
On high-their wide long lake below,
And the blue Rhone in fullest flow;
I heard the torrents leap and gush
O'er channell'd rock and broken bush;
I saw the white-wall'd distant town,
And whiter sails go skimming down;
And then there was a little isle,
Which in my very face did smile,

The only one in view;

A small green isle, it seem'd no more,
Scarce broader than my dungeon floor,
But in it there were three tall trees,
And o'er it blew the mountain breeze,
And by it there were waters flowing,
And on it there were young flowers growing
Of gentle breath and hue.

The fish swam by the castle wall,
And they seem'd joyous each and all;
The eagle rode the rising blast,
Methought he never flew so fast
As then to me he seem'd to fly,
And then new tears came in my eye,
And I felt troubled-and would fain
I had not left my recent chain;
And when I did descend again,

The darkness of my dim abode
Fell on me as a heavy load;

It was as is a new-dug grave,
Closing o'er one we sought to save,
And yet my glance, too much opprest,
Had almost need of such a rest.

XIV.

It might be months, or years, or days,
I kept no count-I took no note,
I had no hope my eyes to raise,

And clear them of their dreary mote;
At last men came to set me free,

I ask'd not why, and reck'd not where,
It was at length the same to me,
Fetter'd or fetterless to be,

I learn'd to love despair.

And thus when they appear'd at last,
And all my bonds aside were cast,
These heavy walls to me had grown
A hermitage-and all my own!
And half I felt as they were come
To tear me from a second home:
With spiders I had friendship made,
And watch'd them in their sullen trade,
Had seen the mice by moonlight play,
And why should I feel less than they?
We were all inmates of one place,
And I, the monarch of each race,
Had power to kill-yet, strange to tell!
In quiet we had learn'd to dwell-
My very chains and I grew friends,
So much a long communion tends
To make us what we are:-even I
Regain'd my freedom with a sigh.

NOTES TO THE PRISONER OF CHILLON.

1.

rera encore la plus vive reconnaissance dans les by Bonnivard!—may none those marks efface! cœurs des Genevois qui aiment Genève. Bonnivard Page 183, line 13. en fut toujours un des plus fermes appuis: pour assurer la liberte de notre Republique, il ne craignit François de Bonnivard, fils de Louis de Bonni- pas de perdre souvent la sienne; il oublia son repos, vard, originaire de Seyssel et Seigneur de Lunes, il meprisa ses richesses; il ne negligea rien pour naquit en 1496; il fit ses etudes à Turin: en 1510 affermir le bonheur d'une patrie qu'il honora de son Jean Aime de Bonnivard, son oncle, lui resigna le choix: dès ce moment il la cherit comme le plus Prieure de St. Victor, qui aboutissoit aux murs de zelee, de ses citoyens; il la servit avec l'intrepidité Genève, et qui formoit un benefice considerable. d'un heros, et il écrivit son Histoire avec la naïvete Ce grand homme (Bonnivard merite ce titre par d'un philosophe et la chaleur d'un patriote. la force de son ame, la droiture de son cœur, la no- Il dit dans le commencement de son histoire de blesse de ses intentions, la sagesse de ses conseils, Genève, que, des qu'il eut commencé de lire l'histoire le courage de ses démarches, l'etendue de ses con- des nations, il se sentit entrain par son goût pour les naissances et la vivacite de son esprit,) ce grand Republiques, dont il épousa toujours les interets. homme, qui excitera l'admiration de tous ceux c'est ce gout pour la liberté que lui fit sans doute qu'une vertu heroique peut encore emouvoir, inspi-adopter Genève pour sa pa tie.

Ludovico Sforza, and others.-The same is as

Bonnivard, encore jeune, s'annonça hautement | comme le defenseur de Genève contre le Duc de serted of Marie Antoinette's, the wife of Louis XVI. Savoye et l'Evêque.

though not in quite so short a period. Grief is said to have the same effect: to such, and not to fear this change in hers was to be attributed.

3.

From Chillon's snow-white rattlement.

En 1519, Bonnivard devient le martyr de sa patrie. Le Duc de Savoye etant entre dans Genève avec cino cent hommes, Bonnivard craint le ressentiment du Duc; il voulut se retirer à Fribourg pour en eviter les suites; mais il fut trahi par deux hommes qui l'accompagnoient, et conduit par ordre du Prince à Grolee où il resta prisonnier pendant deux ans. Bonnivard etoit malheureux dans ses voyages: Page 184, line 43. comme ses malheurs n'avoient point ralenti son zèle The Chateau de Chillon is situated between pour Genève, il étoit toujours un ennemi redoutable Clarens and Villeneuve, which last is at one expour ceux qui la menaçoient, et par consequent il tremity of the Lake of Geneva. On its left are the devoit être exposé à leurs coups. Il fut rencontre entrances of the Rhone, and opposite are the heights en 1530 sur le Jura par des voleurs, qui le dépouil- of Meillerie and the range of Alps above Boveret l-rent, et qui le mirent encore entre les mains du and St. Gingo.

Duc de Savove: ce Prince le fit enfermer dans le Near it, on a hill behind, is a torrent; below it, Chateau de Chillon, où il resta sans être interroge washing its walls, the lake has been fathomed to jusques en 1536; il fut alors delivré par les Ber- the depth of eight hundred feet, (French measure;) nois, qui s'emparérent du Pays de Vaud. within it are a range of dungeons, in which the Bonnivard, en sortant de sa captivite, eut le plaisir early reformers, and subsequently prisoners of state, de trouver Geneve libre et réformee; la Republique were confined. Across one of the vaults is a beam s'empressa de lui temoigner sa reconnaissance et de black with age, on which we were informed that le dedommager des maux qu'il avoit soufferts; elle the condemned were formerly executed. In the le recut Bourgeois de la ville au mois de Juin 1536; cells are seven pillars, or rather, eight, one being elle lui donna la maison habitee autrefois par le half merged in the wali; in some of these are rings Vicaire-General, et elle lui assigna une pension de for the fetters and the fettered: in the pavement 200 ecus d'or tant qu'il séjourneroit à Genève. I the steps of Bonnivard have left their traces-he fut admis dans le Conseil de Deux-Cent en 1537. was confined here several years.

Bonnivard n'a pas fini d'etre utile: appres avoir It is by this castle that Rousseau has fixed the travaille à rendre Geneve libre, il réussit à la rendre catastrophe of his Heloise, in the rescue of one of tolerante. Bonnivard engagea le Conseil à accorder her children by Julie from the water; the shock of aux Ecclesiastiques et aux paysans un tems suffi- which, and the illness produced by the immersion sant pour examiner les propositions qu'on leur is the cause of her death.

faisoit il reussit par sa douceur: on prêche tou- The chateau is large, and seen along the lake for jours le Christianisme avec succès quand on le a great distance. The walls are white. prêche avec charité.

4.

Bonnivard fut savant; ses manuscrits, qui sont dans la Biblotheque publique, prouvent qu'il avoit bien lu les auteurs classiques latins, et qu'il avoit approfondi la theologie et l'histoire. Ce grand And then there was a little isle. homme aimoit les sciences, et il croyoit qu'elles Page 186, line 10 pouvoient faire la gloire de Geneve; aussi il ne Between the entrances of the Rhone and Ville negligea rien pour les fixer dans cette ville nais-neuve, not far from Chillon, is a very small island; sante, en 1551 il donna sa bibliotheque au public; the only one I could perceive, in my voyage round elle fut le commencement de notre bibliotheque pub- and over the lake, within its circumference. It lique; et ces livres sont en partie les rares et belles contains a few trees, (I think not above three,) and editions du quinzi me siècle qu'on voit dans notre from its singleness and diminutive size has a pecucollection. Enfin, pendant la même année, ce bon liar effect upon the view. patriote institua la Republique son heritière à con- When the foregoing poem was composed I was dition qu'elle employeroit ses biens à entretnir le not sufficiently aware of the history of Bonnivard, college dont on projettoit la fondation. or I should have endeavored to dignify the subject by an attempt to celebrate his courage and his vir tues. Some account of his life wil be found in ■ note appended to the "Sonnet on Chillon," with which I have been furnished by the kindness of a citizen of that Republic, which is still proud of the memory of a man worthy of the best age of ancient freedom."

Il paroit que Bonnivard mourut en 1570; mais on ne peut l'assurer, parce qu'il y a une lacune dans le Necrologe depuis le mois de Juillet 1570 jusques

en 1571.

2.

In a single night.

Page 83, line 17.

BEPPO;

A VENETIAN STORY.

Rosand. Farewell, Monsieur Traveller; Look you lisp, and wear strange suits: disable all the benefits of your own country; be out of love with your Nativity, and almost chide God for making you that countenance you are; or L will scarce think that you have swam in a Gondola.-As You Like It, Act IV. Sc. I.

Annotation of the Commentators.

That is, been at Venice, which was much visited by the young English gentlemen of those times, and was then what Paris is now-the seat of all dissoluteness.-S. A.