And scarce their foam the pebbles shook,
But murmur'd meekly as the brook.
The winds were pillowed on the waves,
The banners drooped along their staves,
And, as they fell around them furling,
Above them shone the crescent curling;
And that deep silence was unbroke,
Save where the watch his signal spoke,
Save where the steed neighed oft and shrill,
And echo answer'd from the hill,

And the wide hum of that wild host
Rustled like leaves from coast to coast,
As rose the Muezzin's voice in air
In midnight call to wonted prayer;
It rose, that chanted mournful strain,
Like some lone spirit's o'er the plain :
'Twas musical, but sadly sweet,

Such as when winds and harp-strings meet,
And take a long unmeasured tone,
To mortal minstrelsy unknown.
It seem'd to those within the wall
A cry prophetic of their fall:
It struck even the besiegers' ear
With something ominous and drear,
An undefined and sudden thrill,
Which makes the heart a moment still,
Then beat with quicker pulse, ashamed
Of that strange sense its silence framed ;
Such as a sudden passing-bell

Wakes, though but for a stranger's knell.

NORMAN ABBEY.

To Norman Abbey whirl'd the noble pair,-
An old, old monastery once, and now

Still older mansion, of a rich and rare
Mixed Gothic, such as artists all allow
Few specimens yet left us can compare
Withal: it lies perhaps a little low,
Because the monks preferred a hill behind,
To shelter their devotion from the wind.

It stood embosomed in a happy valley,

Crown'd by high woodlands, where the Druid oak Stood, like Caractacus in act to rally

His host, with broad arms 'gainst the thunder-stroke;
And from beneath his boughs were seen to sally
The dappled foresters-as day awoke

The branching stag swept down with all his herd,
To quaff a brook which murmur'd like a bird.

Before the mansion lay a lucid lake,

Broad as transparent, deep, and freshly fed By a river, which its soften'd way did take

In currents through the calmer water spread Around the wild fowl nestled in the brake

And sedges, brooding in their liquid bed: The woods sloped downwards to its brink, and stood With their green faces fix'd upon the flood.

Its outlet dash'd into a deep cascade

Sparkling with foam, until again subsiding Its shriller echoes-like an infant made

Quiet sank into softer ripples, gliding Into a rivulet, and thus allay'd,

Pursued its course, now gleaming, and now hiding Its windings through the woods; now clear, now blue, According as the skies their shadows threw.

A glorious remnant of the Gothic pile,

[apart

(While yet the church was Rome's) stood half

In a grand arch, which once screen'd many an aisle.
These last had disappeared-a loss to Art:

The first yet frown'd superbly o'er the soil,
And kindled feelings in the roughest heart,
Which mourn'd the power of time's or tempest's
In gazing on that venerable arch.

Within a niche, nigh to its pinnacle,

[march,

Twelve saints had once stood sanctified in stone; And these had fallen, not when the friars fell,

But in the war which struck Charles-from his When each house was a fortalice as tell

The annals of full many a line undone,— The gallant Cavaliers, who fought in vain For those who knew not to resign or reign.

But in a higher niche, alone, but crown'd,

[throne,

The Virgin Mother of the God-born child,
With her son in her blessed arms, look'd round,
Spared by some chance when all beside was spoil'd;
She made the earth below seem holy ground.
This may be superstition, weak or wild,

But even the faintest relics of a shrine
Of any worship, wake some thoughts divine.
A mighty window, hollow in the centre ;

Shorn of its glass of thousand colourings,
Through which the deepen'd glories once could enter,
Streaming from off the sun like seraph's wings,
Now yawns all desolate: now loud, now fainter,
The gale sweeps through its fretwork, and oft sings
The owl his anthem, where the silenced quire
Lie with their hallelujahs quench'd like fire.

But in the noontide of the moon, and when

The wind is winged from one point of heaven,

There moans a strange unearthly sound, which then
Is musical-a dying accent driven

Through the huge arch, which soars and sinks again.
Some deem it but the distant echo given
Back to the night wind by the waterfall,
And harmonised by the old choral wall;

Others, that some original shape, or form

Shaped by decay perchance, hath given the power (Though less than that of Memnon's statue, warm In Egypt's rays, to harp at a fixed hour) To this grey ruin, with a voice to charm.

Sad, but serene, it sweeps o'er tree or tower: The cause I know not, nor can solve; but such The fact:-I've heard it,-once perhaps too much. Amidst the court a Gothic fountain play'd, Symmetrical, but deck'd with carvings quaintStrange faces, like to men in masquerade,

And here perhaps a monster, there a saint:
The spring gush'd through grim mouths, of granite
And sparkled into basins, where it spent

Its little torrent in a thousand bubbles,
Like man's vain glory, and his vainer troubles.

The mansion's self was vast and venerable,

[made,

With more of the monastic than has been Elsewhere preserved: the cloisters still were stable, The cells too and refectory, I ween: An exquisite small chapel had been able,

Still unimpair'd, to decorate the scene;

The rest had been reformed, replaced, or sunk,
And spoke more of the baron than the monk.

Huge halls, long galleries, spacious chambers, join'd
By no quite lawful marriage of the Arts,

Might shock a connoisseur; but when combined
Form'd a whole which, irregular in parts,
Yet left a grand impression on the mind,

At least of those whose eyes are in their hearts.
We gaze upon a giant for his stature,
Nor judge at first if all be true to Nature.

Steel Barons, molten the next generation

To silken rows of gay and garter'd Earls,
Glanced from the walls in goodly preservation;
And Lady Marys blooming into girls
With fair long locks had also kept their station :
And Countesses mature in robes and pearls:
Also some beauties of Sir Peter Lely,

Whose drapery hints we may admire them freely.
Judges in very formidable ermine

Were there, with brows that did not much invite The accused to think their Lordships would determine His cause by leaning much from might to right; Bishops who had not left a single sermon ;

Attornies-General, awful to the sight,

As hinting more (unless our judgments warp us)
Of the "Star Chamber" than of "Habeas Corpus."
Generals, some all in armour, of the old

And iron time ere Lead had ta'en the lead;
Others in wigs of Marlborough's martial fold,
Huger than twelve of our degenerate breed;
Lordlings, with staves of white or keys of gold;

Nimrods, whose canvas scarce contain❜d the steed; And here and there some stern high patriot stool, Who could not get the place for which he sued. But ever and anon, to soothe your vision, Fatigued with these hereditary glories,

H