But through severe mischance, and cruel wrong,
My father's substance fell into decay;
We toiled and struggled, hoping for a day
When fortune should put on a kinder look:
But vain were wishes, efforts vain as they;
He from his old hereditary nook

Must part; the summons came,—our final leave we took.

It was indeed a miserable hour

When, from the last hill-top, my sire surveyed,
Peering above the trees, the steeple tower,
That on his marriage-day sweet music made!
Till then he hoped his bones might there be laid,
Close by my mother, in their native bowers:
Bidding me trust in God, he stood and prayed;
I could not pray through tears that fell in
showers,

Glimmered our dear loved home, alas ! no longer ours!

There was a youth whom I had loved so long,
That when I loved him not I cannot say :
Mid the green mountains many a thoughtless

song

We two had sung, like gladsome birds in May : When we began to tire of childish play,

We seemed still more and more to prize each other;

We talked of marriage, and our marriage-day,

And I in truth did love him like a brother, For never could I hope to meet with such another.

Two years were passed since to a distant town
He had repaired to ply a gainful trade,

What tears of bitter grief, till then unknown,
What tender vows our last sad kiss delayed!
To him we turned :-we had no other aid:
Like one revived, upon his neck I wept;
And her whom he had loved in joy, he said,
He well could love in grief: his faith he kept,
And in a quiet home once more my father slept.

We lived in peace and comfort: and were blest With daily bread, by constant toil supplied. Three lovely babes had lain upon my breast; And often, viewing their sweet smiles, I sighed And knew not why. My happy father died, When sad distress reduced the children's meal : Thrice happy! that for him the grave could hide The empty loom, cold hearth, and silent wheel, And tears that flowed for ills which patience might not heal.

The pains and plagues that on our heads came down,

Disease and famine, agony and fear,

In wood or wilderness, in camp or town,

It would thy brain unsettle even to hear.
All perished-all, in one remorseless year;
Husband and children! one by one, by sword
And ravenous plague, all perished: every tear
Dried up, despairing, desolate, on board

A British ship I waked, as from a trance restored.

Peaceful as some immeasurable plain,

By the first beams of dawning light imprest,
In the calm sunshine slept the glittering main.
The very ocean hath its hour of rest:
I too forgot the heavings of my breast.
Oh me, how quiet sky and ocean were!
As quiet all within me. I was blest!
And looked, and looked along the silent air,
Until it seemed to bring a joy to my despair.

Ah! how unlike those late terrific sleeps,
And groans, that rage of racking famine spoke !
The unburied dead that lay in festering heaps!
The breathing pestilence that rose like smoke!
The shriek that from the distant battle broke!
The mine's dire earthquake, and the pallid host
Driven by the bomb's incessant thunder-stroke
To loathsome vaults, where heart-sick, anguish-
tossed,

Hope died, and fear itself in agony was lost!

Some mighty gulf of separation past,
I seemed transported to another world:

A thought resigned with pain, when from the

mast

The impatient mariner the sail unfurled,

And, whistling, called the wind that hardly curled

The silent sea. From the sweets thoughts of home

And from all hope I was for ever hurled.

For me-farthest from earthly port to roam, Was best, could I but shun the spot where man could come.

And oft I thought (my fancy was so strong) That I, at last, a resting-place had found. "Here will I dwell," said I, "my whole life long,

Roaming the illimitable waters round:

Here will I live, of every friend disowned,
And end my days upon the ocean flood."

To break my dream the vessel reached its bound:

And homeless near a thousand homes I stood, And near a thousand tables pined and wanted food.

By grief enfeebled was I turned adrift,
Helpless as sailor cast on some bare rock :
Nor morsel to my mouth that day did lift,
Nor dared my hand at any door to knock.

I lay where, with his drowsy mates, the cock
From the cross-timber of an out-house hung :
Dismally tolled that night the city-clock !
At morn my sick heart hunger scarcely stung,
Nor to a beggar's language could I fit my tongue.

So passed a second day, and when the third Was come, I tried in vain the crowd's resort. -In deep despair, by frightful wishes stirred, Near the sea-side I reached a ruined fort:

There, pains which nature could no more support,

With blindness linked, did on my vitals fall,
And after many interruptions short

Of hideous sense, I sank, nor step could crawl:
Unsought for was the help that did my life

recal.

Borne to an hospital, I lay with brain
Drowsy and weak, and shattered memory :
I heard my neighbours, in their beds, complain
Of many things which never troubled me:
Of feet still bustling round with busy glee :
Of looks where common kindness had

part :

Of service done with careless cruelty,

no

Fretting the fever round the languid heart; And groans, which, as they said, might make a dead man start.