With treach'rous gleam he lures the fated wight,
"And leads him flound'ring on, and quite aftray,"
What though far off, from fome dark dell efpied

His glimm'ring mazes cheer th' excurfive fight,
Yet turn, ye wand'rers, turn your steps afide,
Nur truft the guidance of that faithlefs light s
For watchful, lurking 'mid th' unrultling reed,
At thofe mirk* hours the wily monster lies,
And liftens oft to hear the paffing fteed,

And frequent round him rolls his fullen eyes,
If chance his lavage wrath may fome weak wretch furprife.
VII.

Ah, lucklefs Twain, o'er all unbleft indeed!

Whom late bewilder'd in the dank, dark fen,
Far from his flocks and smoking hamlet then!
To that fad fpot "his wayward fate fhall lead † ;”
On him enrag'd, the fiend, in angry mood,
Shall never look with pity's kind concern,
But inftant, furious, raife the whelming flood
O'er its drown'd bank, forbidding all return
Or, if he meditate his wifh'd efcape

To fome dim hill that feems uprising near,
To his faint eye the grim and grifly shape,
In all its terrors clad, fhall wild appear.
Meantime, the wat'ry furge fhall round him rife,
Pour'd fudden forth from ev'ry swelling fource.
What now remains but tears and hopeless fighs?

His fear-fhcok limbs have loft their youthly force,
And down the waves he floats, a pale and breathless corse,
VIII.

For him, in vain, his anxious wife fhall wait,
Or wander forth to meet him on his way;
For him, in vain, at to-fall of the day,

His babes fhall finger at th' unclofing gate t
Ah! ne'er fhall he return! Alone, if night
Her travell❜d limbs in broken flumbers fteep,
With dropping willows dreft, his mournful sprite
Shall vifit fad, perchance, her filent fleep:
Then he, perhaps, with moift and watʼry hand,
Shall fondly feem to prefs her fhudd'ring cheek §,
And with his blue fwoln face before her ftand,
And, fhiv'ring cold, thefe piteous accents speak
Pursue, dear wife, thy daily toils pursue
At dawn or dusk, industrious as before;
Nor e'er of me one hapless thought renew,

* Firft written, fad.

A blank in the manufcript. The line filled up by Dr Carlyle.

Firft written, cottage.

Firft written, Shall seem to prefs her cold and shuddʼring cheek.

While

First written, proceed.

While I lie welt'ring on the ozier'd shore,

Drown'd by the Kacipie's * wrath, nor e'er fhall aid thee mose!
IX.

Unbounded is thy range; with varied stile

Thy mufe may, like thofe feath'ry tribes which fpring
From their rude rocks, extend her skirting wing
Round the moist marge of each cold Hebrid ifle,
To that hoar pile which still its ruin shows † :
In whofe fmall vaults a pigmy-folk is found,
Whofe bones the delver with his fpade upthrows,
And culls them, wond'ring, from the hallow'd ground f
Or thither where beneath the show'ry West

The mighty kings of three fair realms are laid ‡:
Once foes, perhaps, together now they reft.

No flaves revere them, and no wars invade :
Yet frequent now, at midnight's folemn hour,
The rifted mounds their yawning cells unfold,
And forth the monarchs ftalk with fov'reign pow'r
In pageant robes, and wreath'd with fheeny gold,
And on their twilight tombs aerial council hold.

X.

But, O! o'er all, forget not Kilda's race ||,

On whofe bleak rocks, which brave the walling tides,
Fair Nature's daughter, Virtue, yet abides.

Go, juft, as they, their blameless manners trace!
Then to my ear tranfmit fome gentle fong

Of those whofe lives are yet fincere and plain,
Their bounded walks the rugged cliffs along,
And all their profpects but the wintry main.
With fparing temp'rance, at the needful time,.
They drain the fainted fpring, or, hunger-preft,
Along th' Atlantic rock undreading climb,
And of its eggs defpoil the Solan's neft.
Thus bleft in primal innocence they live,
Suffic'd and happy with that frugal fate
Which tafteful toil and hourly danger give.

* A name given in Scotland to a supposed spirit of the waters.

Hard

On the largest of the Flannan islands (ifles of the Hebrides) are the ruins of a chapel dedicated to St Flannan. This is reckoned by the inhabitants of the Wefle ern Ifies a place of uncommon fanctity. One of the Flannan islands is termed the fle of Pigmies; and Martin fays, there have been many fmall bones dug up here, refembling in miniature thofe of the human body.

The island of Iona or Icolmkill. See Martin's Defcription of the Western Islands of Scotland. That author informs us, that forty-eight kings of Scotland, four kings of Ireland, and five of Norway, were interred in the Church of St Ouran in that ifland. There were two churches and two monafteries founded there by St Columbus about A. D. 565. Bed. Hift. Eccl. 1, 3. Collins has taken all his information refpecting the Weftern Ifles from Martin; from whom he may Likewife have derived his knowledge of the popular fuperftitions of the Highlanders with which this ode fhows fo perfect an acquaintance.

The character of the inhabitants of St Kilda, as here defcribed, agrees perfectly with the accounts given by Martin and by Macaulay, of the people of that ifland It is the most wefterly of all the Hebrides and is above 130 miles diftait from the main land of Scotland.

Hard is their shallow foil, and bleak and bare;
Nor ever vernal bee was heard to murmur there!

XI.

Nor need'st thou blush, that such falfe themes engage
Thy gentle mind, of fairer ftores poffeft;
For not alone they touch the village breast,
But fill'd in elder time th' hiftoric page.
There Shakespeare's felf, with ev'ry garland crown'd *,
In mufing hour, his wayward fifters found,
And with their terrors dreft the magic scene.
From them he fung, when mid his bold defign,
Before the Scot afflicted and aghaft,

The fhadowy kings of Banquo's fated line,

Through the dark cave in gleamy pageant paft.
Proceed, nor quit the tales which, fimply told,
Could once fo well my anfw'ring bofom pierce
Proceed, in forceful founds and colours bold

The native legends of thy land rehearse ;
To fuch adapt thy lyre, and fuit thy powerful verfe.-

XII.

In scenes like thefe, which, daring to depart
From fober truth, are still to nature true,
And call forth fresh delight to fancy's view,
Th' heroic muse employed her Taffo's art!
How have I trembled, when at Tancred's ftroke,
Its gufhing blood the gaping cyprefs pour'd ;
When each live plant with mortal accents spoke,
And the wild blast upheav'd the vanish'd sword † !
How have I fat, when pip'd the penfive wind,
To hear his harp, by British Fairfax ftrung.
Prevailing poet, whofe undoubting mind

Believ'd the magic wonders which he fung!

Hence at each found imagination glows;

Hence his warm lay with fofteft fweetness flows;

Melting it flows, pure, num'rous, ftrong and clear,

And fills the impaffion'd heart, and wins th' harmonious ear ‡.

XIII.

This ftanza is more incorrect in its ftructure than any of the foregoing. There is apparently a line wanting between this and the fubfequent one, In mufing kour, &c. The deficient line ought to have rhymed with scene.

Thefe four lines were originally written thus:

"How have I trembled, when, at Tancred's fide,
"Like him I flalk'd, and all his paffions felt;
"When charm'd by Ifmen, through the foreft wide,
"Bark'd in each plant a talking fpirit dwelt !"

Thefe lines were originally written thus ;

"Hence, fure to charm, his early numbers flow,

"Though ftrong, yet fweet

"Though faithful, fweet; though ftrong, of fimple kind.

"Hence, with each theme, he bids the bofom glow,

"While his warm lays an eafy paffage find,

"Pour'd thro' each inmoft nerve, and lull th* harmonious car.”

Dd 2

XIII.

All hail, ye fcenes that o'er my foul prevail,
Ye "fpacious" friths and lakes which, far away
Are by fmooth Annan fill'd, or paft'ral Tay,

Or Don's romantic fprings, at distance, hail!
The time fhall come when I, perhaps, may tread
Your lowly glens, o'erhung with spreading broom,
Or o'er your stretching .eaths by fancy led:

Then will I drefs once more the faded bow'r,
Where Johnfon fat in Drummond's + "focial t" fhade,
Or crop from Tiviot's dale each claffic flower,"
And mourn on Yarrow's banks "the widow'd maid §.”
Meantime, ye Pow'rs, that on the plains which bore
The cordial youth, on Lothian's plains attend,
Where'er he dwell, on hill, or lowly muir,

To him lofe, your kind protection lend,

And, touch'd with love like mine, preferve my abfent friend

Hiftorical and Biographical Anecdotes |

Account of the Funeral of William the

TH

Conqueror.

HOUGH the Conqueror had no grave or monument in England, the circumstances that attended his death are remarkable. He had no fooner breathed his laft at the Abbey. of St Gervafe, on a hill out of Rouen to the West, than all his domeftics not only forfook him, but plundered his apartments fo completely, that bis corpfe was left naked, and he would have wanted a grave, had it not been for the more grateful clergy and the Archbishop of Rouen, who ordered the body to be conveyed to Caen, and one Herliun, a gentleman of the place, (pagenfis eques) from pure goodness of heart (naturali bonitate) took upon himself the care of the funeral, pro

vided the proper perfons (pollinfores

vefpiliones) and hired a carriage to convey it to the river, and thence quite to Caen. There the abbot and con vent, attended by crouds of clergy and laity, came out to meet it. But as they were proceeding to pay the proper ho nours, they were alarmed by a fudden fire which broke out in a house, and deftroyed great part of the city. The diftracted people went to give the neceffary afliftance, and left the monks, with a few bifhops and abbots, to go on with the fervice; which being fis nifhed, and the farcophagus laid in the ground, the body till lying on the bier, Gilbert, bishop of Evreux, pronounced a long panegyric on the deceafed; and, in conclufion, called on the audience to pray for his foul. On

a fud.

A blank in the manufcript. The word fpacious fupplied by Dr Carlyle. Ben Johnfon undertook a journey to Scotland a-foot in 1619, to vifit the poet Drummond, at his feat of Hawthornden, near Edinburgh. Drummond has preferved, in his works, fome very curious heads of their converfation.

A blank in the manufcript Social fupplied by Dr Carlyle.

Both thefe, lines left imperfect; fupplied by Dr Carlyle. This laft ftanza bears more marks of haftiness of compofition than any of the reft. Befides the blanks which are fupplied by Dr Carlyle, there is apparently an entire line wanting after the feventh line of the ftanza. The deficient line ought to have rhymed with broom. Mr Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, &c, lately published.

peared. But in 1562, the Hugonots not content with destroying this paints ing, demolished the tombs of the Cons queror and his wife, with their effigies in relief to the life, and broke in pie ces with their daggers the Conqueror's biere, made of pierrede volderit, and fupported on three little white pilafters. They expected to have met with some treafure, but found only his bones, ftill joined together, and covered with red taffety. Thofe of the arms and legs were thought longer than thofe of the talleft men of the prefent age. One of thefe facrilegious wretches named Francis de Gray de Bourg

a fudden ftarts up from the croud tion. The abbot caufed a painting to Afcelin Fitz-Arthar, and demands a be taken of it in wood jult as it ap compenfation for the ground; hetfood on, which he faid William had forcibly taken from his father to found his abbey on it; and in God's name for bids the burying him on his property, or covering him with his turf. The bishops and nobles having fatisfied them felves about the truth of his demand, were obliged to pay him immediately fixty fhillings for the grave, and promife an equivalent for the reft of the ground, which they afterwards gave him. They then proceeded to the interment: but, in laying the body in the farcophagus, it was found to have been made fo fmall, by the ignorance of the mafon, that they were forced to prefs the corpfe with fuch violence, that the fat belly burft, and diffused an intolerable ftench, which all the fmoak of the cenfers and other fpices could not overcome. The priests were glad to hurry over the fervice, and make the best of their way home in no fmall fright.

Abbe, gave them to Dom Michael de Comalle, religious and bailiff of the abbey, who kept them in his chamber, till Admiral Coligny and his reiftres ruined and deftroyed every thing there

Anecdotes of Edward III.

THIS great Prince, who wiped out the stain of his premature acceshion tỏ the crown of England by the unnatus ral intrigues of his mother, with equal glory fupported the king of Scots in his throne, on which his grandfather had placed him, and his own claim to the crown of France, and after he had in two bloody battles exhaufted the blood of its beft fubjects, difmembered that kingdom of fome of its beft pro vinces. The first forty years of his reign were truly glorious. The des cline of his life was diftreffed by the lofs of his confort and his gallant fo Edward Prince of Wales, and the am bition of his fourth fon John of Gaunty and finking into dotage, his affectionn life of fixty-four years, and à reign of fixt on unworthy objects, he clófed i fifty-fix (the longeft of any of our fos vereigns fince Henry III.) at Shené, June 21. 1377. His body was brought by four of his fons and others of the nobility, through the city of London, with his face uncovered, and buried by his wife in Westminster abbey

"Dum