The word, by others dreaded, he can hear
Composed and silent, without visible sign
Of even the least emotion. Noting this,
When the impatient object of his love
Upbraided him with slackness, he returned
No answer, only took the mother's hand
And kissed it; seemingly devoid of pain,
Or care, that what so tenderly he pressed
Was a dependant on 1 the obdurate heart
Of one who came to disunite their lives
For ever-sad alternative! preferred,
By the unbending Parents of the Maid,
To secret 'spousals meanly disavowed.
-So be it!

In the city he remained

A season after Julia had withdrawn
To those religious walls. He, too, departs-
Who with him?-even the senseless Little-one.
With that sole charge he passed the city-gates,
For the last time, attendant by the side
Of a close chair, a litter, or sedan,

230

235

240

245

250

In which the Babe was carried. To a hill,
That rose a brief league distant from the town,
The dwellers in that house where he had lodged
Accompanied his steps, by anxious love
Impelled; they parted from him there, and stood
Watching below till he had disappeared
On the hill top. His eyes he scarcely took,
Throughout that journey, from the vehicle
(Slow-moving ark of all his hopes!) that veiled
The tender infant and at every inn,
And under every hospitable tree

At which the bearers halted or reposed,
Laid him with timid care upon his knees,

255

And looked, as mothers ne'er were known to look,
Upon the nursling which his arms embraced.

This was the manner in which Vaudracour
Departed with his infant; and thus reached
His father's house, where to the innocent child
Admittance was denied. The young man spake
No word1 of indignation or reproof,

But of his father begged, a last request,
That a retreat might be assigned to him
Where in forgotten quiet he might dwell,
With such allowance as his wants required;
For wishes he had none. To a lodge that stood
Deep in a forest, with leave given, at the age
Of four-and-twenty summers he withdrew;

And thither took with him his motherless Babe,2
And one domestic for their common needs,
An aged woman. It consoled him here
To attend upon the orphan, and perform
Obsequious service to the precious child,
Which, after a short time, by some mistake
Or indiscretion of the Father, died.—
The Tale I follow to its last recess

261

Of suffering or of peace, I know not which:
Theirs be the blame who caused the woe, not mine!

266

270

275

280

From this time forth he never shared a smile With mortal creature. An Inhabitant

285

Of that same town, in which the pair had left
So lively a remembrance of their griefs,
By chance of business, coming within reach
Of his retirement, to the forest lodge

Repaired, but only found the matron there,1

Who told him that his pains were thrown away,
For that her Master never uttered word
To living thing-not even to her.-Behold!
While they were speaking, Vaudracour approached;
But, seeing some one near, as on the latch

Of the garden-gate his hand was laid, he shrunk—2
And, like a shadow, glided out of view.
Shocked at his savage aspect, from the place
The visitor retired.

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295

Thus lived the Youth

Cut off from all intelligence with man,

And shunning even the light of common day;

300

Nor could the voice of Freedom, which through France Full speedily resounded, public hope,

Or personal memory of his own deep wrongs,

Rouse him
His days he wasted, an imbecile mind!

but in those solitary shades

305

In the preface to his volume, "Poems of Wordsworth chosen and edited by Matthew Arnold," that distinguished poet and critic has said (p. xxv.), "I can read with pleasure and edification everything of Wordsworth, I think, except Vaudracour and Julia."-Ed.

1 1827.

to the spot repaired

With an intent to visit him. He reached
The house, and only found the Matron there,

1820.

2 1836.

But, seeing some one near, even as his hand
Was stretched towards the garden gate, he shrunk-

1820.

1805

DURING 1805, the autobiographical poem, which was afterwards named by Mrs. Wordsworth The Prelude, was finished. In that year also Wordsworth wrote the Ode to Duty, To a Sky-Lark, Fidelity, the fourth poem To the Daisy, the Elegiac Stanzas suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm, the Elegiac Verses in memory of his brother John, The Waggoner, and a few other poems.—ED.

FRENCH REVOLUTION,

AS IT APPEARED TO ENTHUSIASTS AT ITS
COMMENCEMENT

REPRINTED FROM THE FRIEND

Composed 1805.-Published 1809

[An extract from the long poem on my own poetical education. It was first published by Coleridge in his Friend, which is the reason of its having had a place in every edition of my poems since.-I. F.]

These lines appeared first in The Friend, No. 11, October 26, 1809, p. 163. They afterwards found a place amongst the "Poems of the Imagination,” in all the collective editions from 1815 onwards. They are part of the eleventh book of The Prelude, entitled "France-(concluded)," l. 105-144. Wordsworth gives the date 1805, but these lines possibly belong to the year 1804.-ED.

OH! pleasant exercise of hope and joy!

For mighty were 1 the auxiliars which then stood

1 "were" omitted from the 1820 edition only.

Upon our side, we1 who were strong in love!
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,

But to be young was very heaven!-Oh! times,
In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways

Of custom, law, and statute, took at once
The attraction of a country in romance!

When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights,
When most intent on making of herself
A prime Enchantress 2—to assist the work,
Which then was going forward in her name!
Not favoured spots alone, but the whole earth,
The beauty wore of promise, that which sets
(As at some moment might not be unfelt 3
Among the bowers of paradise itself)
The budding rose above the rose full blown.
What temper at the prospect did not wake
To happiness unthought of? The inert
Were roused, and lively natures rapt away!
They who had fed their childhood upon dreams,
The playfellows of fancy, who had made
All powers of swiftness, subtilty, and strength
Their ministers, who in lordly wise had stirred 4
Among the grandest objects of the sense,
And dealt 5 with whatsoever they found there
As if they had within some lurking right
To wield it; they, too, who, of gentle mood,
Had watched all gentle motions, and to these