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THE BRAVE ROLAND.*

THE brave Roland!-the brave Roland!

False tidings reach'd the Rhenish strand

That he had fall'n in fight;

And thy faithful bosom swoon'd with pain,
O loveliest maiden of Allémayne!

For the loss of thine own true knight.

* The tradition which forms the substance of these stanzas is still preserved in Germany. An ancient tower on a height, called the Rolandseck, a few miles above Bonn on the Rhine, is shewn as the habitation which Roland built in sight of a nunnery, into which his mistress had retired, on having heard an unfounded account of his death. Whatever may be thought of the credibility of the legend, its scenery must be recollected

But why so rash has she ta’en the veil,
yon Nonnenwerder's cloisters pale?

In

For her vow had scarce been sworn,

And the fatal mantle o'er her flung,

When the Drachenfells to a trumpet rung-
'Twas her own dear warrior's horn!

Woe! woe! each heart shall bleed-shall break!

She would have hung upon his neck,

Had he come but yester-even ;

And he had clasp'd those peerless charms

That shall never, never fill his arms,

Or meet him but in heaven.

with pleasure by every one who has ever visited the romantie landscape of the Drachenfells, the Rolandseck, and the beautiful adjacent islet of the Rhine, where a nunnery still stands.

Yet Roland the brave-Roland the true

He could not bid that spot adieu ;

It was dear still 'midst his woes;

For he loved to breathe the neighb'ring air,

And to think she blest him in her prayer,

When the Halleluiah rose.

There's yet one window of that pile,

isle ;

Which he built above the Nun's green

Thence sad and oft look'd he

(When the chant and organ sounded slow)

On the mansion of his love below,

For herself he might not see.

She died!—He sought the battle-plain ;

Her image fill'd his dying brain,

When he fell and wish'd to fall:

And her name was in his latest sigh,

When Roland, the flower of chivalry, Expired at Roncevall.

THE SPECTRE BOAT.

A BALLAD.

LIGHT rued false Ferdinand, to leave a lovely maid

forlorn,

Who broke her heart and died to hide her blushing

cheek from scorn.

One night he dreamt he woo'd her in their wonted

bower of love,

Where the flowers sprang thick around them, and the

birds sang sweet above.

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