Yet still a tender crimson glow Its cheek's pure marble dyed 'Twas but the light's faint streaming flow Thro' roses heap'd beside. I stoop'd-the smooth round arm was chill, The soft lip's breath was fled, And the bright ringlets hung so still The lovely child was dead! "Alas!" I cried, "fair faded thing! Thou hast wrung bitter tears, And thou hast left a wo, to cling Round yearning hearts for years!" But then a voice came sweet and low— A woman with a mourner's brow, Pale, yet not desolate. And in her still, clear, matron face, All solemnly serene, A shadow'd image I could trace Of that young slumberer's mien. "Stranger! thou pitiest me," she said, With lips that faintly smiled, "As here I watch beside my dead, My fair and precious child. "But know, the time-worn heart may be By pangs in this world riven, Keener than theirs who yield, like me, An angel thus to Heaven !" THE CAPTIVE KNIGHT. The prisoned thrush may brook the cage, The captive eagle dies for rage. Lady of the Lake. 'Twas a trumpet's pealing sound! And the knight look'd down from the Paynim's tower, And a Christian host, in its pride and power, Thro' the pass beneath him wound. Cease awhile, clarion! Clarion, wild and shrill, Cease! let them hear the captive's voice-be still! "I knew 'twas a trumpet's note! And I see my brethren's lances gleam, And their pennons wave by the mountain stream, And their plumes to the glad wind float! Cease awhile, clarion! Clarion, wild and shrill, Cease! let them hear the captive's voice-be still! "I am here, with my heavy chain! And I look on a torrent sweeping by, And an eagle rushing to the sky, And a host, to its battle-plain! Cease awhile, clarion! Clarion, wild and shrill, Cease! let them hear the captive's voice-be still! "Must I pine in my fetters here? With the wild wave's foam, and the free bird's flight, And the tall spears glancing on my sight, And the trumpet in mine ear? Cease awhile, clarion! Clarion, wild and shrill, Cease! let them hear the captive's voice-be still! "They are gone! they have all pass'd by! They in whose wars I had borne my part, They that I lov'd with a brother's heart, They have left me here to die! Sound again, clarion! Clarion pour thy blast! Sound! for the captive's dream of hope is past." THE KAISER'S FEAST. Louis, Emperor of Germany, having put his brother, the Palsgrave Rodolphus, under the ban of the empire, (in the 12th century,) that unfortunate Prince fled to England, where he died in neglect and poverty. "After his decease, his mother, Matilda, privately invited his children to return to Germany; and by her mediation, during a season of festivity, when Louis kept wassail in the Castle of Heidelberg, the family of his brother presented themselves before him in the garb of suppliants, imploring pity and forgiveness. To this appeal the victor softened.Miss BENGER's Memoirs of the Queen of Bohemia." |