So passed another day, and so the third:
Then did I try, in vain, the crowd's resort:
In deep despair, by frightful wishes stirr'd,
Near the sea-side I reach'd a ruined fort:
There, pains which nature could no more support
With blindness linked, did on my vitals fall;
Dizzy my brain, with interruption short
Of hideous sense, I sunk, nor step could crawl,
And thence was borne away to neighbouring
hospital.

Recovery came with food: but still, my brain
Was weak, nor of the past had 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 no part,
Of service done with careless cruelty,
Fretting the fever round the languid heart,
And groans, which, as they said, would make
a dead; man start!

These things just served to stir the torpid sense, Nor pain nor pity in my bosom raised! Memory, though slow, returned with strength; and thence

Dismissed, again in open day I gazed

At houses, ' men, and common light, amazed; The lanes I sought, and as the sun retired, Came, where, beneath the trees a faggot blazed;

The wild brood saw me weep, my fate enquired, And gave me food, and rest, more welcome, more desired.

My heart is touched to think that men like these, The rude earth's tenants, were my first relief. How kindly did they paint their vagrant ease! And their long holiday that feared not grief; For all belonged to all, and each was chief. No plough their sinews strained; on grating road

No wain they drove, and yet, the yellow sheaf In every vale for their delight was stowed; For them, in nature's meads, the milky udder flowed.

Semblance, with straw and pannier'd ass, they made

Of potters wandering on from door to door: But life of happier sort to me pourtrayed, And other joys, my fancy to allure;

The bag-pipe dinning on the midnight moor In barn uplighted, and companions boon, Well met from far, with revelry secure,

In depth of forest glade, when jocund June Rolled fast along the sky his warm and genial

moon.

But ill it suited me, in journey dark
O'er moor and mountain, midnight theft to
hatch;

To charm the surly house-dog's faithful bark,
Or hang on tiptoe at the lifted latch;
The gloomy lantern, and the dim blue match,
The black disguise, the warning whistle shrill,
And ear still busy on its nightly watch,
Were not for me, brought up in nothing ill;
Besides, on griefs so fresh my thoughts were
brooding still.

What could I do, unaided and unblest?
Poor Father! gone was every friend of thine:
And kindred of dead husband are at best
Small help, and, after marriage such as mine,
With little kindness would to me incline.
Ill was I then for toil or service fit:

With tears whose course no effort could confine,
By high-way side, forgetful, would I sit
Whole hours, my idle arms in moping sorrow
knit.

I lived upon the mercy of the fields,
And oft of cruelty the sky accused;
On hazard, or what general bounty yields,
Now coldly given, now utterly refused.
The fields I for my bed have often used:
But, what afflicts my peace with keenest ruth
Is, that I have my inner self abused,

Foregone the home delight of constant truth, And clear and open soul, so prized in fearless youth.

Three years a wanderer, often have I view'd, In tears, the sun towards that country tend Where my poor heart lost all its fortitude: And now across this moor my steps I bendOh! tell me whither-for no earthly friend Have I. She ceased, and weeping turn'd

away;

As if because her tale was at an end

She wept;-because she had no more to say Of that perpetual weight which on her spirits lay.