[Another version of The Triumph of Conscience immediately preceding.]
I
’TWAS dead of the night, when I sat in my dwelling;
One glimmering lamp was expiring and low;
Around, the dark tide of the tempest was swelling,
Along the wild mountains night-ravens were yelling,—
5 They bodingly presaged destruction and woe.
II
’Twas then that I started!—the wild storm was howling,
Nought was seen, save the lightning, which danced in the sky;
Above me, the crash of the thunder was rolling,
And low, chilling murmurs, the blast wafted by.
III
10 My heart sank within me—unheeded the war
Of the battling clouds, on the mountain-tops, broke;—
Unheeded the thunder-peal crashed in mine ear—
This heart, hard as iron, is stranger to fear;
But conscience in low, noiseless I whispering spoke.
IV
15 ’Twas then that her form on the whirlwind upholding,
The ghost of the murdered Victoria strode;
In her right hand, a shadowy shroud she was holding,
She swiftly advanced to my lonesome abode.
V
I wildly then called on the tempest to bear me—
· · · · ·
I
GHOSTS of the dead! have I not heard your yelling
Rise on the night-rolling breath of the blast,
When o’er the dark aether the tempest is swelling,
And on eddying whirlwind the thunder-peal passed?
II
5 For oft have I stood on the dark height of Jura,
Which frowns on the valley that opens beneath;
Oft have I braved the chill night-tempest’s fury,
Whilst around me, I thought, echoed murmurs of death.
III
And now, whilst the winds of the mountain are howling,
10 O father! thy voice seems to strike on mine ear;
In air whilst the tide of the night-storm is rolling,
It breaks on the pause of the elements’ jar.
On the wing of the whirlwind which roars o’er the mountain
Perhaps rides the ghost of my sire who is dead:
15 On the mist of the tempest which hangs o’er the fountain,
Whilst a wreath of dark vapour encircles his head.
I
5 Wraps the cowl round his brow,
As he sits in his lonely cell.
II
And the cold hand of death
Chills his shuddering breath,
As he lists to the fearful lay
10 Which the ghosts of the sky,
As they sweep wildly by,
Sing to departed day.
And they sing of the hour
When the stern fates had power
15 To resolve Rosa’s form to its clay.
III
But that hour is past;
And that hour was the last
Of peace to the dark Monk’s brain.
Bitter tears, from his eyes, gushed silent and fast;
20 And he strove to suppress them in vain.
IV
Then his fair cross of gold he dashed on the floor,
When the death-knell struck on his ear.—
‘Delight is in store
For her evermore;
25 But for me is fate, horror, and fear.’
V
Then his eyes wildly rolled,
When the death-bell tolled,
And he raged in terrific woe.
And he stamped on the ground,—
30 But when ceased the sound,
Tears again began to flow.
VI
And the ice of despair
Chilled the wild throb of care,
And he sate in mute agony still;
35 Till the night-stars shone through the cloudless air,
And the pale moonbeam slept on the hill.
VII
Then he knelt in his cell:—
And the horrors of hell
Were delights to his agonized pain,
40 And he prayed to God to dissolve the spell,
Which else must for ever remain.
VIII
And in fervent pray’r he knelt on the ground,
Till the abbey bell struck One:
His feverish blood ran chill at the sound:
45 A voice hollow and horrible murmured around—
‘The term of thy penance is done!’
IX
Grew dark the night;
The moonbeam bright
Waxed faint on the mountain high;
50 And, from the black hill,
Went a voice cold and still,—
‘Monk! thou art free to die.’
Then he rose on his feet,
And his heart loud did beat,
55 And his limbs they were palsied with dread;
Whilst the grave’s clammy dew
O’er his pale forehead grew;
And he shuddered to sleep with the dead.
XI
And the wild midnight storm
60 Raved around his tall form,
As he sought the chapel’s gloom:
And the sunk grass did sigh
To the wind, bleak and high,
As he searched for the new-made tomb.
XII
65 And forms, dark and high,
Seemed around him to fly,
And mingle their yells with the blast:
And on the dark wall
Half-seen shadows did fall,
70 As enhorrored he onward passed.
XIII
And the storm-fiends wild rave
O’er the new-made grave,
And dread shadows linger around.
The Monk called on God his soul to save,
75 And, in horror, sank on the ground.
XIV
Then despair nerved his arm
To dispel the charm,
And he burst Rosa’s coffin asunder.
And the fierce storm did swell
80 More terrific and fell,
And louder pealed the thunder.
XV
And laughed, in joy, the fiendish I throng,
Mixed with ghosts of the mouldering dead:
And their grisly wings, as they floated along,
85 Whistled in murmurs dread.
XVI
And her skeleton form the dead Nun reared
Which dripped with the chill dew of hell.
In her half-eaten eyeballs two pale flames appeared,
And triumphant their gleam on the dark Monk glared,
90 As he stood within the cell.
XVII
And her lank hand lay on his shuddering brain;
But each power was nerved by fear.—
‘I never henceforth, may breathe again;
Death now ends mine anguished pain.—
95 The grave yawns,—we meet there.’
XVIII
And her skeleton lungs did utter the sound,
So deadly, so lone, and so fell,
That in long vibrations shuddered the ground;
And as the stern notes floated around,
100 A deep groan was answered from hell.
I
How swiftly through Heaven’s wide expanse
Bright day’s resplendent colours fade!
How sweetly does the monbeam’s glance
With silver tint St. Irvyne’s glade!
II
5 No cloud along the spangled air,
Is borne upon the evening breeze;
How solemn is the scene! how fair
The moonbeams rest upon the trees!
III
Yon dark gray turret glimmers white,
Upon it sits the mournful owl;
Along the stillness of the night,
Her melancholy shriekings roll.
IV
But not alone on Irvyne’s tower,
The silver moonbeam pours her ray;
15 It gleams upon the ivied bower,
It dances in the cascade’s spray.
V
‘Ah! why do dark’ning shades conceal
The hour, when man must cease to be?
Why may not human minds unveil
20 The dim mists of futurity?
VI
‘The keenness of the world hath torn
The heart which opens to its blast;
Despised, neglected, and forlorn,
Sinks the wretch in death at last.’
I
How stern are the woes of the desolate mourner,
As he bends in still grief o’er the hallowèd bier,
As enanguished he turns from the laugh of the scorner,
And drops, to Perfection’s remembrance, a tear;
5 When floods of despair down his pale cheek are streaming,
When no blissful hope on his bosom is beaming,
Or, if lulled for awhile, soon he starts from his dreaming,
And finds torn the soft ties to affection so dear.
II
Ah! when shall day dawn on the night of the grave,
10 Or summer succeed to the winter of death?
Rest awhile, hapless victim, and Heaven will save
The spirit, that faded away with the breath.
Eternity points in its amaranth bower,
Where no clouds of fate o’er the sweet prospect lower,
15 Unspeakable pleasure, of goodness the dower,
When woe fades away like the mist of the heath.
I
AH! faint are her limbs, and her footstep is weary,
Yet far must the desolate wanderer roam;
Though the tempest is stern, and the mountain is dreary,
She must quit at deep midnight her pitiless home.
5 I see her swift foot dash the dew from the whortle,
As she rapidly hastes to the green grove of myrtle;
And I hear, as she wraps round her figure the kirtle,
‘Stay thy boat on the lake,—dearest Henry, I come.’
II
High swelled in her bosom the throb of affection,
10 As lightly her form bounded over the lea,
And arose in her mind every dear recollection;
‘I come, dearest Henry, and wait but for thee.’
How sad, when dear hope every sorrow is soothing,
When sympathy’s swell the soft bosom is moving,
15 And the mind the mild joys of affection is proving,
Is the stern voice of fate that bids happiness flee!
III
Oh! dark lowered the clouds on that horrible eve,
And the moon dimly gleamed through the tempested air;
Oh! how could fond visions such softness deceive?
20 Oh! how could false hope rend a bosom so fair?
Thy love’s pallid corse the wild surges are laving,
O’er his form the fierce swell of the tempest is raving;
But, fear not, parting spirit; thy goodness is saving,
In eternity’s bowers, a seat for thee there.