Recalled the victims from despair's embrace,
And rent the vestal veil from beauty's face,
Why did the lingering train with anxious view
Hang o'er the walls, and weep and wave adieu ?
Why ask with suppliant tears the warlike brave
To grant a cloister's life, a cloister's grave ?

Ah! then remembrance with convulsive start

Renewed those scenes, erewhile which soothed the heart,

When kind religion, as the vespers closed,

Each wish attempered, and each care composed.

So chained by tyrant power in cursed BASTILE,
Whose weeping walls uncounted wrongs reveal,
Fate's hopeless victim, prey of cankerous care,
On torture feeds, and surfeits on despair.

But hark! the portal on its hinges jars,
And freedom's arm unbolts the ponderous bars,
Enwrapt in flames she melts his chains away,
And leads the astonished captive forth to day :

C

Yet lo, what sadness wastes his shrivelled cheek, (11)

What strangled utterance mocks the wish to speak!

His muttered sighs implore from generous fate

The flinty pillow, and the dayless grate.

Alas! with light reflection woke her reign,

And turned at memory's touch the whole to pain:
No glance of welcome meets his searching eye,

No pitying children echo sigh for sigh ;

In vain he asks a home from door to door,

The place, which knew him once, knows now no more; E'en the few friends, whom heaven had taught his woes, The narrow house had lodged in long repose :

Nought, nought, remained to sooth the stranger's care, Save the lone walls, his prison, and his prayer!

But where to mark SECLUSION's happiest art, Shall reason search the chambers of the heart? Since all the passions own her moral sway,

By turns support her, and by turns obey:

Love, hope, and joy, thro all her shades disport,
Her dreams enliven, and her presence court;

While grief and anguish every pang dismiss,
Or hail in fancy images of bliss.

When the fond mother o'er the cradle bends

To trace each joy familiar fancy lends,

Tho from her heart perturbed emotions rise,
While mutely earnest turn her aching eyes,
Since every smile, that lights her cherub's face,
And every look, that marks the father's grace,
Tells her lone heart in agonies of care

Of joys departed, and of days that were :'

Yet think not hence, existence darkly teems

With shapes more dreadful, than the murderer's dreams; Think not, that grief usurps with strong control,

Resistless empire o'er the widowed soul;

Still, where affection's softening influence wakes,

Thro the deep shades a milder lustre breaks,

Hope spans the years, that dimly float between,

And lights with opening bliss the distant scene.

Nor pause we here, but mark hope's silent sway Pervade the soul to chase its cares away,

When love unblest the morn of life consumes

In deep regrets and visionary glooms.

Oft will she rise, and o'er the night diffuse

Ideal charms in fancy's golden hues,

And, while SECLUSION's moral comforts bless,

By sweetly tempering, what defies redress,

Round memory's eye her freshened twilight plays With the calm images of former days.

So hapless ELOISE, whose passioned lines (12) Breathe the pure sense, that softens and refines, At every vein when injured virtue bled,

And anguish froze the tears by passion shed,

While yet young beauty's rich, transparent dye

Blushed in her cheek, and mantled in her eye,

Sought the dim cell, where changeless rigor reigns,

And wan repentance clanks her wasting chains,

Where the cold walls of PARACLETE aspire,

And bigot horrors feed religion's fire.

E'en there love shed a soft enchantment round,

When midnight dews enwrapt the charnel ground;

From the full choir, as pealing anthems rose,

Or dying requiems hymned divine repose,
The mingling strain with warm devotion stole
To breathe a holy languor o'er the soul :
Or thro the shades by fancy's guiding light
ST. GILDAS opened on her wishful sight;
Again she seemed that voice of love to hear,
Whose early music won her credent ear;

Again sweet converse cheered the classic bower,

Where science lingered many a social hour;