That we are fighting," I with him be-So
lieved

That a benignant spirit was abroad
Which might not be withstood, that

Abject as this would in a little time Be found no more, that we should see the On a strong river earth

How, between heart and heart, oppres- He fled, to shun the haunts of humas

and more;

Her mandates, severing whom true love There dwelt, weakened in spirit mor had joined, Harassing both; until he sank and Nor could the voice of Freedom, which pressed

The couch his fate had made for him; supine,

575 Save when the stings of viperous remorse, Trying their strength, enforced him to start up,

through France

Full speedily resounded, public hope.
Or personal memory of his own wort

wrongs,

Rouse him; but, hidden in those gloomy shades,

Aghast and prayerless. Into a deep wood His days he wasted,-an imbecile mind.

Upon his rich domains, vineyard and In terror. Disappointment and dismay

Remained for all whose fancies had ra

wild

With evil expectations; confidence

And perfect triumph for the better cause

The State, as if to stamp the final seal

Bound to the fierce Metropolis. From On her security, and to the world

his throne

The King had fallen, and that invading

host

Show what she was, à high and fearl soul,

Exulting in defiance, or heart-stung

Presumptuous cloud, on whose black By sharp resentment, or belike to taunt With spiteful gratitude the bad

front was written

The tender mercies of the dismal wind
That bore it-on the plains of Liberty 15
Had burst innocuous. Say in bolder
words,

They-who had come elate as eastern
hunters

Banded beneath the Great Mogul, when
he

Erewhile went forth from Agra or Lahore,
Rajahs and Omrahs in his train, intent 20
To drive their prey enclosed within a ring

League,

That had stirred up her slackening fact

ties

To a new transition, when the King w crushed,

Spared not the empty throne, and 1

proud haste

Assumed the body and venerable name
Of a Republic. Lamentable crimes,
'Tis true, had gone before this hour, dire
work

Of massacre, in which the senseless sword The horse is taught his manage, and no Was prayed to as a judge; but these were

Star

past, He hopes shedding of wildest course but treads back his own

Earth free from them for ever, as was

thought,--

steps;

45 For the spent hurricane the air provides

Ephemeral monsters, to be seen but once! Things that could only show themselves and die.

ि

Cheered with this hope, to Paris I returned,

And ranged, with ardour heretofore unfelt,

The spacious city, and in progress passed The prison where the unhappy Monarch lay, 51

80

Fled with the voice to which it had given

Associate with his children and his wife
In bondage; and the palace, latelyho
stormed

With roar of cannon by a furious host. 54
I crossed the square (an empty area then!)
Of the Carrousel, where so late had lain
The dead, upon the dying heaped, and
gazed

On this and other spots, as doth a man 58
Upon a volume whose contents he knows
Are memorable, but from him locked up,
Being written in a tongue he cannot read,
So that he questions the mute leaves with
pain,

But vainly comments of a calmer mind
Promised soft peace and sweet forgetful-

ness.

مو

The place, all hushed and silent as it was,
Appeared unfit for the repose of night,
Defenceless as a wood where tigers roam.
;་ ༣

With early morning towards the Palace-
walk

95

Of Orleans eagerly I turned; as yet
The streets were still; not so those long
Arcades;

And half upbraids their silence. But There, 'mid a peal of ill-matched sounds

Yet did I grieve, nor only grieved, bu thought

In silence of all present, from his seat 110 Louvet walked single through the avenue, And took his station in the Tribune, say- Of opposition and of remedies: ing, An insignificant stranger and obscure, "I, Robespierre, accuse thee!" Well is And one, moreover, little graced with known The inglorious issue of that charge, and Of eloquence even in my native speech, how

He, who had launched the startling thunderbolt,

115 The one bold man, whose voice the attack had sounded,

Was left without a follower to discharge
His perilous duty, and retire lamenting
That Heaven's best aid is wasted upon

power

And all unfit for tumult or intrigue, 1 Yet would I at this time with willing heart

Have undertaken for a cause so great
Service however dangerous. I revolved.
How much the destiny of Man had
still

Hung upon single persons; that there