THE SQUIRE'S LOVE-STORY*

YES,
my
dear Richard, thou shalt hear me own
Follies and frailties thou hast never known;
Thine was a frailty,-folly, if you please,-
But mine a flight, a madness, a disease.

Turn with me to my twentieth year, for then
The lover's frenzy ruled the poet's pen;
I built me castles wondrous rich and rare,
Few castle-builders could with me compare;
The hall, the palace, rose at my command,
And these I fill'd with objects great and grand.
Virtues sublime, that nowhere else would live,
Glory and pomp, that I alone could give;
Trophies and thrones by matchless valour gain'd,
Faith unreproved, and chastity unstain'd;

With all that soothes the sense and charms the soul,
Came at my call, and were in my control.

"Give me," I cried, "a beauty; none on earth

"Of higher rank or nobler in her birth;
"Pride of her race, her father's hope and care,
"Yet meek as children of the cottage are ;

* In return for Richard's account of his life, George, the elder brother, tells this tale of his own.

"Nursed in the court, and there by love pursued, "But fond of peace, and blest in solitude;

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By rivals honour'd, and by beauties praised, "Yet all unconscious of the envy raised."

This was my dream.-In some auspicious hour,
In some sweet solitude, in some green bower,
Whither fate should lead me, there, unseen,
my
I should behold my fancy's gracious queen,
Singing sweet song! that I should hear awhile,
Then catch the transient glory of a smile;
Then at her feet with trembling hope should
kneel,

Such as rapt saints and raptured lovers feel;
To watch the chaste unfoldings of her heart,
In joy to meet, in agony to part,

And then in tender song to soothe my grief,
And hail, in glorious rhyme, my Lady of the Leaf.

To dream these dreams I chose a woody scene,
My guardian shade, the world and me between ;
A green enclosure, where beside its bound
A thorny fence beset its beauties round,

Save where some creature's force had made a way
For me to pass, and in my kingdom stray :
Here then I stray'd, then sat me down to call,

Just as I will'd, my shadowy subjects all!
Fruits of all minds conceived on every coast,

Fay, witch, enchanter, devil, demon, ghost;

And thus with knights and nymphs, in halls and

bowers,

In war and love, I pass'd unnumber'd hours.

Yet in this world there was a single scene,
That I allow'd with mine to intervene ;
This house, where never yet my feet had stray'd,
I with respect and timid awe survey'd ;
With pleasing wonder I have ofttimes stood,
To view these turrets rising o'er the wood;
When Fancy to the halls and chambers flew,
Large, solemn, silent, that I must not view;
The moat was then, and then o'er all the ground
Tall elms and ancient oaks stretch'd far around;
And where the soil forbade the nobler race,

Dwarf trees and humbler shrubs had found their place,

Forbidding man in their close hold to go,

Haw, gatter, holm, the service and the sloe;
With tangling weeds that at the bottom grew,

And climbers all above their feathery branches

threw.

Nor path of man or beast was there espied,

But there the birds of darkness loved to hide,

The loathed toad to lodge, and speckled snake to glide.

With all these flights and fancies, then so dear,
I reach'd the birthday of my twentieth year;
And in the evening of a day in June

Was singing as I sang-some heavenly tune;
My native tone, indeed, was harsh and hoarse,
But he who feels such powers can sing of course.

So was I singing, when I saw descend, From this old seat a lady and her friend;

I saw them ere they came, myself unseen,

My lofty fence and thorny bound between-
And one alone, one matchless face I saw,

And, though at distance, felt delight and awe :
Fancy and truth adorn'd her; fancy gave

Much, but not all; truth help'd to make their slave;

For she was lovely,—all was not the vain

Or sickly homage of a fever'd brain;

No! she had beauty, such as they admire
Whose hope is earthly, and whose love desire.

Their dress was such as well became the place, But One superior; hers the air, the grace,

The condescending looks, that spoke the nobler

race.

Slender she was and tall: her fairy feet

Bore her right onward to my shady seat;
And Oh! I sigh'd that she would nobly dare
To come, nor let her friend the adventure share.

And I was musing-How shall I begin? How make approach my unknown way to win, And to that heart, as yet untouch'd, make known The wound, the wish, the weakness of my own? Such is my part, but- Mercy! what alarm ? Dare aught on earth that sovereign beauty harm ?

It soon appear'd, that while this nymph divine
Moved on, there met her rude uncivil kine.
As feeling prompted, to the place I ran,
Resolved to save the maids and show the man :

My sovereign beauty with amazement saw-
So she declared the horrid things in awe;
Well pleased, she witness'd what respect was paid
By such brute natures-Every cow afraid,
And kept at distance by the powers of one,
Who had to her a dangerous service done.

So thought the maid, who now, beyond the stile,

Received her champion with a gracious smile;

It spoke, as plainly as a smile can speak,

"Seek whom you love, love freely whom you seek."

Thus, when the lovely witch had wrought her charm,

She took th' attendant maiden by the arm,
And left me fondly gazing, till no more
I could the shade of that dear form explore;
Then to my, secret haunt I turn'd again,
Fire in my heart, and fever in my brain;
That face of her for ever in my view,
Whom I was henceforth fated to pursue,

To hope I knew not what, small hope in what I knew.

O! my dear Richard, what a waste of time Gave I not thus to lunacy sublime;

What days, months, years, (to useful purpose lost) Has not this dire infatuation cost?

Yet let me own that as my soul it drew

From Reason's path, it shunn'd Dishonour's too;
It made my taste refined, my feelings nice,

And placed an angel in the way of vice.