The tale is doubtless worthy the relater. But is it of my father to hear further?

[To SIEGENDORF. Sieg. (takes his son by the hand.) My son! I know my own innocence, and doubt not

Of yours-but I have promised this man patience; Let him continue.

Gab.

I will not detain you
By speaking of myself much: I began
Life early-and am what the world has made me.
At Frankfort on the Oder, where I pass'd
A winter in obscurity, it was

My chance at several places of resort
(Which I frequented sometimes, but not often)
To hear related a strange circumstance
In February last. A martial force,

Sent by the state, had, after strong resistance,
Secured a band of desperate men, supposed
Marauders from the hostile camp. They proved,
However, not to be so-but banditti,
Whom either accident or enterprise

Had carried from their usual haunt-the forests
Which skirt Bohemia-even into Lusatia.
Many amongst them were reported of
High rank-and martial law slept for a time.
At last they were escorted o'er the frontiers,
And placed beneath the civil jurisdiction
Of the free town of Frankfort. Of their fate,
I know no more.

Gab. Amongst them there was said to be one man
Of wonderful endowments:-birth and fortune,
Youth, strength, and beauty, almost superhuman,
And courage as unrivall'd, were proclaim'd
His by the public rumor; and his sway,
Not only over his associates, but
His judges, was attributed to witchcraft.

Such was his influence:-I have no great faith
In any magic save that of the mine-

I therefore deem'd him wealthy.-But my soul
Was roused with various feelings to seek out
This prodigy, if only to behold him.
Sieg. And did you so?

Chance favor'd me:

A popular affray in the public square
Drew crowds together-it was one of those
Occasions where men's souls look out of them,
And show them as they are-even in their faces:
The moment my eye met his, I exclaim'd,
"This is the man!" though he was then, as since,
With the nobles of the city. I felt sure

I had not err d, and watch'd him long and nearly;
I noted down his form-his gesture-features,
Stature, and bearing-and amidst them all,
Midst every natural and acquired distinction,
I could discern, methought, the assassin's eye
And gladiator's heart.

Ulr. (smiling.)

The tale sounds well.

Gab. And may sound better.-He appear'd to me One of those beings to whom Fortune bends As she doth to the daring-and ou whom The fates of others oft depend; besides,

An indescribable sensation drew me

Together, and together we arrived

In the poor town where Werner was conceal'd,
And Stralenheim was succor'd-Now we are on
The verge-dare you hear further?
Sieg.
I must do so-

Or I have heard too much.
Gab.

I saw in you

A man above his station-and if not
So high, as now I find you, in my then
Conceptions, 'twas that I had rarely seen
Men such as you appear'd in height of mind
In the most high of worldly rank; you were
Poor, even to all save rags: I would have shared
My purse, though slender, with you-you refused
Sieg. Doth my refusal make a debt to you,
That thus you urge it?

Gab.
Still you owe me somethia
Though not for that; and I owed you my safety,
At least my seeming safety, when the slaves
Of Stralenheim pursued me on the grounds
That I had robb'd him.

Sieg. I conceal'd you-I, Whom and whose house you arraign, reviving viper. Gab. I accuse no man-save in my defence. You, count, have made yourself accuser-judge: Your hall 's my court, your heart is my tribunal. Be just, and I'll be merciful!

Sieg.

You! Base calumniator!

You merciful!

Gab. I. "Twill rest With me at last to be so. You conceal'd meIn secret passages known to yourself, You said, and to none else. At dead of night, Weary with watching in the dark, and dubious Of tracing back my way, I saw a glimmer, Through distant crannies, of a twinkling light: I follow'd it, and reach'd a door--a secret Portal-which open'd to the chamber, where, With cautious hand and slow, having first undone As much as made a crevice of the fastening, I look'd through and beheld a purple bed, And on it Stralenheim !

Sieg. (to ULRIC.) Then, my boy! thou art g less still

Thou bad'st me say I was so once-Oh! now
Do thou as much!

Gab.
Be patient! I can not
Recede now, though it shake the very walls
Which frown above us. You remember,—or
If not, your son does, -that the locks were changed
Beneath his chief inspection on the morn
Which led to this same night: how he had enter'd
He best knows-but within an antechamber,
The door of which was half ajar, I saw

A man who wash'd his bloody hands, and oft With stern and anxious glance gazed back upon The bleeding body-but it moved no more. Sieg. Oh! God of fathers!

Gab, interrupting him. Nay-but hear me to the Vee you must do so.-I conceived myself Betray'd by you and him for now I saw There was some tie between you) into this retended den of refuge, to become

The victim of your guilt; and my first thought

Vas vengeance: but though arm'd with a short poniard

Having left my sword without I was no match
or him at any time, as had been proved
That morning-either in address or force.

turn'd, and fled-i' the dark: chance rather than
dmade me gain the secret door of the hall,
And thence the chamber where you slept: if I
Had found you waking, Heaven alone can tell
That vengeance and suspicion might have prompted;
But ne'er slept guilt as Werner slept that night.
Sig. And yet I had horrid dreams! and such
brief sleep,

The stars had not gone down when I awoke.
Why didst thou spare me? I dreamt of my father-
ad now my dream is out!
Gab.

"Tis not my fault.

I have read it.-Well! I fled and hid meChance led me here after so many moonsad show'd me Werner in Count Siegendorf! Verner, whom I had sought in huts in vain, nhabited the palace of a sovereign!

Teu sought me and have found me-now you know ly secret, and may weigh its worth. Sieg, after a pause.)

Indeed!

Gab. Is it revenge or justice which inspires our meditation?

Sieg.

Neither-I was weighing

he value of your secret.

Gab.

You shall know it

1 once:-When you were poor, and I, though poor,

ich enough to relieve such poverty

smight have envied mine, I offer'd you

ly purse-you would not share it :-I'll be franker

ith you: you are wealthy, noble, trusted by

he imperial powers-you understand me?

Sieg,

Yes. Gab. Not quite. You think me venal, and scarce

true:

Gab. I know not that even now-but will approve The second. I have still a further shield.I did not enter Prague alone; and should I Be put to rest with Stralenheim, there are Some tongues without will wag in my behalf. Be brief in your decision!' Sieg.

Gab. (casts his eyes on ULRIC, who is leaning

I will be so.-

My word is sacred and irrevocable
Within these walls, but it extends no further.

against a pillar.) If I should do so? Sieg. I pledge my life for yours. Withdraw into [Opens a turret door. Gab. (hesitatingly.) This is the second safe asylum

is tower.

u have offer'd me.

Sieg.

And was not the first so?

Gab. I have yet an additional security-I did not enter gue a solitary individual; and there are tongues without will speak for me, although I should even share the fate

Gab. I'll take it for so much.

Sieg. points to ULRIC's sabre still upon the ground.)
Take also that-

I saw you eye it eagerly, and him
Distrustfully.

Gab. (takes up the sabre.) I will; and so provide To sell my life-not cheaply.

[GABOR goes into the turret, which SIEGENDORF closes.

Sieg. (adrances to ULRIC.) Now, Count Ulric! For son I dare not call thee-What say'st thou? Ulr. His tale is true.

For trifling or dissembling. I have said
His story's true; and he too must be silenced.
Sieg. How so?
Ulr.

As Stralenheim is. Are you so dull
As never to have hit on this before?
When we met in the garden, what except
Discovery in the act could make me know

His death? Or had the prince's household been
Then summon'd, would the cry for the police
Been left to such a stranger? Or should I
Have loiter'd on the way? Or could you, Werner,
The object of the baron's hate and fears,

Have fled, unless by many an hour before
Suspicion woke? I sought and fathom'd you,
Doubting if you were false or feeble: I
Perceived you were the latter; and yet so
Confiding have I found you, that I doubted
At times your weakness.

Than common stabber! What deed of my life,
Or thought of mine, could make you deem me fit
For your accomplice?
Ulr.

Father, do not raise
The devil you cannot lay between us. This
Is time for union and for action, not
For family disputes. While you were tortured,
Could I be calm? Think you that I have heard
This fellow's tale without some feeling?-You
Have taught me feeling for you and myself;
For whom or what else did you ever teach it?

Sieg. Oh! my dead father's curse! 'tis working

now.

Ulr. Let it work on the grave will keep it down! Ashes are feeble foes: it is more easy

To baffle such, than countermine a mole,
Which winds its blind but living path beneath you.

of Stralenheim. Let your deliberation be short."-" Sieg. My promise is soleinn, sacred, irrevocable: it extends not however, beyond these walls."-LEE.]

Yet hear me still!-If you condemn me, yet
Remember who hath taught me once too often
To listen to him! Who proclaim'd to me

That there were crimes made venial by the occasion?
That passion was our nature? that the goods
Of Heaven waited on the goods of fortune?
Who show'd me his humanity secured

By his nerves only? Who deprived me of
All power to vindicate myself and race
In open day? By his disgrace which stamp'd
(It might be) bastardy on me, and on
Himself a felon's brand! The man who is
At once both warm and weak invites to deeds
He longs to do, but dare not. Is it strange

That I should act what you could think? We have done

With right and wrong; and now must only ponder
Upon effects, not causes. Stralenheim,
Whose life I saved from impulse, as, unknown,
I would have saved a peasant's or a dog's, I slew
Known as our foe-but not from vengeance. He
Was a rock in our way which I cut through,
As doth the bolt, because it stood between us
And our true destination-but not idly.
As stranger I preserved him, and he owed me
His life when due, I but resumed the debt.
He, you, and I stood o'er a gulf wherein

I have plunged our enemy. You kindled first
The torch-you show'd the path; now trace me that
Of safety or let me !

Sieg.

I have done with life!

Ulr. Let us have done with that which cankers life

Familiar feuds and vain recriminations

Of things which cannot be undone. We have
No more to learn or hide: I know no fear,

And have within these very walls men who
(Although you know them not) dare venture all
things.

You stand high with the state; what passes here
Will not excite her too great curiosity:
Keep your own secret, keep a steady eye,
Stir not, and speak not;-leave the rest to me;
We must have no third babblers thrust between us.
[Exit ULRIC.
Sieg. (solus.) Am I awake? are these my father's

halls?

And yon-my son? My son! mine! who have ever
Abhorr'd both mystery and blood, and yet
Am plunged into the deepest hell of both!
I must be speedy, or more will be shed-
The Hungariau's!-Ulric-he hath partisans,
It seems: I might have guess'd as much. Oh fool!
Wolves prowl in company. He hath the key
(As I too) of the opposite door which leads
Into the turret. Now then! or once more
To be the father of fresh crimes, no less
Than of the criminal! Ho! Gabor! Gabor!

Let it not be more fatal still!-Begone! Gab. By the same path I enter'd? Sieg.

And

Yes; that's safe still:

But loiter not in Prague ;-you do not know
With whom you have to deal.

Gab.
I know too well-
And know it ere yourself, unhappy sire!
Farewell.

[Exit GABOR. Sieg. (solus and listening.) He hath clear'd the staircase. Ah! I hear

The door sound loud behind him! He is safe!
Safe!-Oh, my father's spirit!-I am faint-

[He leans down upon a stone seat, near the wall
of the tower, in a drooping posture.

Enter ULRIC, with others armed, and with weapons drawn.

Ulr. Dispatch!--he's there!
Lud.

The count, my lord!
Ulr. (recognising SIEGENDORF.) You here, sir!
Sieg. Yes if you want another victim, strike!
Ulr. (seeing him stripped of his jewels.) Where is
the ruffian who hath plunder'd you?
Vassals, dispatch in search of him! You see
"Twas as I said the wretch hath stripp'd my father
Of jewels which might form a prince's heirloom!
Away! I'll follow you forthwith.

[Exeunt all but SIEGENDORF and ULRIC. What's this?

PREFACE.

Is submitting to the public eye the following collection, I have not only to combat the difficulties that writers of verse generally encounter, but may incur the charge of presumption for obtruding myself on the world, when, without doubt, I might be, at my age, more usefully employed.

These productions are the fruits of the lighter hours of a young man who has lately completed his nineteenth year. As they bear the internal evidence of a boyish mind, this is, perhaps, unnecessary information. Some few were written during the disadvantages of

1 (First published in 1807 1

[Isabella, the daughter of William, fourth Lord Byron, (great-great uncle of the Poet,) became, in 1742, the wife of Henry, fourth Earl of Carlisle, and was the mother of the fifth Earl, to whom this dedication was addressed. This

illness and depression of spirits: under the former influence, CHILDISH RECOLLECTIONS," in particular, were composed. This consideration, though it cannot excite the voice of praise, may at least arrest the arm of censure. A considerable portion of these poems has been privately printed, at the request and for the perusal of my friends. I am sensible that the partial and frequently injudicious admiration of a social circle is not the criterion by which poetical genius is to be estimated, yet," to do greatly," we must "dare greatly;" and I have hazarded my reputation and feelings in publishing this volume. "I have passed the Rubicon," and must stand or fall by the "cast of the

lady was a poetess in her way. The Fairy's Answer to Mrs. Greville's "Prayer of Indifference," in Pearch's Collection, is usually ascribed to her.]

3 [This Preface was omitted in the second edition.]