Fair blows the wind,.. the vessel drives along,
Her streamers fluttering at their length, her sails
All full,.. she drives along, and round her prow
Scatters the ocean spray. What feelings then
Fill'd every bosom, when the mariners,
After the peril of that weary way,
Beheld their own dear country! Here stands one,
Stretching his sight toward the distant shore,
And, as to well-known forms his busy joy
Shapes the dim outline, eagerly he points
The fancied headland and the cape and bay,
Till his eyes ache, o'erstraining. This man shakes
His comrade's hand, and bids him welcome home,
And blesses God, and then he weeps aloud:
Here stands another, who, in secret prayer,
Calls on the Virgin, and his patron Saint,
Renewing his old vows of gifts and alms
And pilgrimage, so he may find all well.
Silent, and thoughtful, and apart from all,
Stood Madoc; now his noble enterprize
Proudly remembering, now in dreams of hope,
Anon of bodings full, and doubt and fear.
Fair smil'd the evening, and the favouring gale
Sung in the shrouds, and swift the steady bark
Rush'd roaring through the waves.
Far off his light is on the naked crags
Of Penmanmawr, and Arvon's ancient hills;
And the last glory lingers yet awhile,
Crowning old Snowdon's venerable head,
That rose amid his mountains. Now the ship
Drew nigh where Mona, the dark island, stretch'd
Her shore along the ocean's lighter line.
There through the mist and twilight, many a fire
Up-flaming, stream'd upon the level sea
Red lines of lengthening light, which, far away
Rising and falling, flash'd athwart the waves.
Thereat did many a thought of ill disturb
Prince Madoc's mind; . . did some new conqueror seize
The throne of David? had the tyrant's guilt
Awaken'd vengeance to the deed of death?
Or blaz'd they for a brother's obsequies,
The sport and mirth of murder?.. Like the lights
Which there upon Aberfraw's royal walls
Are waving with the wind, the painful doubt
Fluctuates within him. .. Onward drives the gale,.
On flies the bark,.. and she hath reach'd at length
Her haven, safe from her unequall'd way!
And now in louder and yet louder joy,
Clamorous. the happy mariners all-hail
Their native shore, and now they leap to land.
There stood an old man on the beach, to wait
The comers from the ocean; and he ask d,
Is it the prince? And Madoc knew his voice,
And turn'd to him. and fell upon his neck;
For it was Urien, who had foster'd him,
Had lov'd him like a child; and Madoc lov'd,
Even as a father lov d he that old man.
My sister? quoth the prince. .. Oh, she and I
Have wept together, Madoc, for thy loss,..
That long and cruel absence!.. She and I,
Hour after hour, and day by day, have look'd
Toward the waters, and with aching eyes,
And aching heart, sate watching every sail.
And David, and our brethren? cried the prince,
As they mov'd on. .. But then old Urien's lips
Were slow at answer; and he spake, and paus'd
In the first breath of utterance, as to chuse
Fit words for uttering some unhappy tale.
More blood, quoth Madoc, yet! Hath David's fear
Forced him to still more cruelty? Alas ...
Woe for the house of Owen !
Replied the old man, ruled o'er thy brethren's birth.
From Dolwyddelan driven, his peaceful home,
Poor Yorwerth sought the church's sanctuary;
The murderer follow'd!.. Madoc, need I say
Who sent the sword? Llewlyn, his brave boy,
Where wanders he? in this his rightful realm,
Houseless and hunted! richly would the king
Gift the red hand that rid him of that fear!
Ririd, an outlaw'd fugitive, as yet
Eludes his brother's fury; Rodri lives,
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