Sometimes has he been known to gaze afar
Watching the coming of the evening-star,
And as it progress'd toward the middle sky,
Like the still twilight's lonely deity,
Would fancy that a spirit resided there,
A gentle spirit and young with golden hair,
And eyes as blue as the blue dome above,
And a voice as tender as the sound of love.

Some months thus pass'd among the wrecks
of Rome,

And seldom thought he of the fearful doom
On which he used to ponder: still he felt
That he alone amidst the many dwelt,
Lonely; but why, he cared not, or forgot,
The jibings cast upon his early lot.
One morning as he lay half listlessly
Within the shadow of a column, where
His forehead met such gusts of cooling air
As the bright Summer knows in Italy,
A gorgeous cavalcade went thundering by,
Dusty and worn with travel: as it pass'd
Some said the great Count had returned, at
last,

From his long absence upon foreign lands;
'Twas told that many countries he had seen,
(He and his lady daughter) and had been
A long time journeying on the Syrian sands,
And visited holy spots, and places where
The Christian roused the Pagan from his lair,
And taught him charity and creeds divine,
By spilling his bright blood in Palestine.

Vitelli and his child returned at last,
After some years of wandering. Julia
Had been betrothed and widow'd: she had
pass'd

Of thoughts unutter'd (a heart-eating care)
Pale as a statue. When he met her first
He gazed and gasped as tho' his heart would
burst.

Her figure came before him like a dream
Revealed at morning, and a sunny gleam
Broke in upon his soul and lit his eye
With something of a tender prophecy.
And was she then the shape he oft had seen,
By day and night,-she who had such strange
power

Over the terrors of his wildest hour?
And was it not a phantom that had been
Wandering about him? Oh with what deep
fear

He listened now, to mark if he could hear
The voice that lulled him, but she never
spoke!

For in her heart her own young love awoke
From its long slumber, and chained down
her tongue,

And she sat mute before him! he, the while,
Stood feasting on her melancholy smile,
Till o'er his eyes a dizzy vapour hung
And he rushed forth into the freshening air,
Which kissed and played about his temples
bare,

And he grew calm. Not unobserved he fled,
For she who mourned him once as lost and
dead,

Saw with a glance, as none but women see,
His secret passion, and home silently
She went rejoicing, 'till Vitelli asked
Wherefore her spirit fell, and then she
tasked

Her fancy for excuse wherewith to hide
Her thoughts and turn his curious gaze aside.

That fateful day passed by; and then there

came

Another and another, and the flame
Of love burnt brightly in Colonna's breast,
But while it filled it robbed his soul of rest;
At home, abroad, at morning, and at noon
In the hot sultry hours, and when the moon
Shone in the cool fresh sky, and shaped those
dim

From bondage into liberty, and they
Who knew the bitter husband she had wed,
Rejoiced to learn that he indeed was dead.
She had been sacrificed in youth, to one
She never loved; but he she loved was gone,
And so it matter'd not: 'tis true some tears
Stained her pale cheek at times in after-years,
And much unkindness from the man on whom
She had bestowed her beauty, drew a gloom
Around her face, and curtained up in shade | And shadowy figures once so dear to him,—
The eyes that once like sunny spirits played. Wheree'er he wandered she would come upon
But he was dead:-Sailing along the sea, His mind, a phantom-like companion;
His pleasure-barque was gliding pleasantly, Yet, with that idle dread with which the heart
When sudden winds arose, and mighty waves Stifles its pleasures, he would ever depart
Were put in motion, and deep yawning graves And loiter long amongst the streets of Rome,
Opened on every side with hideous roar: When she, he feared, might visit at his home.
He screamed and struggled, and was seen no A strange and sad perverseness; he did fear
To part with that pale hope which shone at
at last

more.

This was the tale.-Orsini's titles fell
Upon a student youth, scarce known before,
Who took the princely name and wore it well.

And Julia saw the youth she loved again: But he was now the great Colonna's heir, And she whom he had left so young and fair, A few short years ago, was grown, with pain

Glimmering upon his fortunes. Many a year
Burthen'd with evil o'er his head had pass'd,
And stamped upon his brow the marks of care,
And so he seemed as old before his time:
And many would pretend that in his air
There was a gloom that had its birth in crime.
'Tis thus the wretched are trod down.—
Despair

Doth strike as deep a furrow in the brain,
As mischief or remorse; and doubt will pain
And scar the heart like sin accomplished.
But slander ever hath hung upon the head
Of silent sorrow, and corroding shame
Preys on its heart, and its defenceless name
Is blotted by the bad, until it flies
From the base world a willing sacrifice.

PART II.

Where he might read his destiny. Her bright

Heaven's many constellations shone thr
night!

And from the distant river a gentle tune.
Such as is uttered in the month of June,
By brooks, whose scanty streams have a
guished long
For rain, was heard ;-a tender, lapsing se2T
Sent up in homage to the quiet moon.

He mused, 'till from a garden, near whee wall

He leant, a melancholy voice was heard

OH POWER of Love so fearful and so fair-Singing alone, like some poor widow-bird
Life of our life on earth, yet kin to care-
Oh! thou day-dreaming Spirit, who dost look
Upon the future, as the charmed book
Of Fate were open'd to thine eyes alone-
Thou who dost cull, from moments stolen
and gone

Into eternity, memorial things
To deck the days to come-thy revellings
Were glorious and beyond all others: Thou
Didst banquet upon beauty once; and now
The ambrosial feast is ended!-Let it be.
Enough to say, It was.-Oh! upon me
From thy o'ershadowing wings ethereal
Shake odorous airs, so may my senses all
Be spell-bound to thy service, beautiful

That casts unto the woods her desert call | It was the voice-the very voice that re Long in his brain that now so sweetly sung He passed the garden-bounds and lightly trød. Checking his breath, along the grassy sol (By buds and blooms half-hidden which the breeze

Had ravished from the clustering orange
trees)

Until he reached a low pavilion, where
He saw a lady pale, with radiant hair
Over her forehead, and in garments white:
A harp was by her, and her fingers light
Carelessly o'er the golden strings were flung:
Then, shaking back her locks, with upward
eye,

And lips that dumbly moved, she seemed to try
To catch an old disused melody-
A sad Italian air it was, which I
Remember in my boyhood to have heard.
And still -(tho' here and there perhaps a work
Be now forgot) I recollect the song.
Which might to any lovelorn tale belong

SONG.

Whither, ah! whither is my lost love stray-
ing-
Upon what pleasant land beyond the sea?
Oh! ye winds, now playing
Like airy spirits round my temples free,
Fly and tell him this from me:

Tell him, sweet winds, that in my woman's
bosom

My young love still retains its perfect power.
Or, like the summer-blossom,
That changes still from bud to the full-blow
flower,

Grows with every passing hour.

Say (and say gently) that, since we twe
parted,

How little joy-much sorrow I have knows
Only not broken-hearted
Because I muse upon bright moments gone.
And dream and think of him alone.

And bow before their own creations, slaves, They are immortal- holy--fix'd-- supreme! He uttered: Nay-(and as the daylight breaks | No more of this.-Now pass I to my theme.

Would stretch his length upon the evening-Weighed down (and for his sake) by sile
Shedding sweet tears to see the great sun
Away like a dream of boyhood. Darkness

Rose from my heart and made my eyesight
dim

And my brain turn, and palsied every limb,
And the world stood in stupor for a time.
Yet from my fiery cloud I heard of crime,
Of parent's-brother's hate, and of one lost
For want of kindness.—Then?—ay, then
there came

The rushing of innumerable wings
By me, and sweets, such as the summer
flings,

Fell on my fainting senses, and I crept
Into some night-dark place, and long I slept;
I slept, until a rude uneasy motion
Stirred me: what passed I knew not then,

and yet
Methought the air blew freshly, and the ocean
Danced with its bright blue waters: I forget
Where all this happened; but at last my
brain

Seemed struggling with itself, awhile in vain.
There was a load on it, like hopeless care
Upon the mind- -a dreary heavy load,
And, now and then, it seemed as shapes did
goad

My soul to recollection,-or despair.

"Clearer and clearer now from day to day
The figures floated on my sight, but when
I moved they vanished. Then, a grim array,
Like spectres from the graves of buried men,
Came by in silence: each upon his face
Wore a wild look, as tho' some sad disgrace
Had stamped his life (or thus I thought)
with sorrow.
They vanished too; but ever on the morrow
They came again, with greater sadness, 'till
I spoke; then one of them gave answer-
shrill

Asblasts that whistle thro' the dungeon's grate
On bleak December-nights, when in her state
Comes the white Winter.-Look! (I thus
translate

The sounds it utter'd)-Look, the phantom

said,

Upon thine ancestry departed-dead.
Each one thou seest hath left his gaping tomb
Empty and comes to warn thee of thy doom:
And each, whilst living, bore within his brain
A settled madness: start not-so dost thou:
Thou art our own, and on thy moody brow
There is the invisible word ne'er writ in vain.
Look on us all we died as thou shalt die,
The victims of our heart's insanity.
From sire to son the boiling rivers ran
Thro' every vein and 'twas alike with all:
It touched the child and trampled down the

man;

|

Once thou hast been a mockery unto man,
But thus, at least, it shall not be again.
Behold! where yon red rolling star doth shine
From out the darkness: that fierce star is
thine,

Thy Destiny, thy Spirit, and its power
Shall guard and rule thee to thy latest hour;
And never shall it quit thy side, but be
Invisible to all and dim to thee,
Save when the fever of the soul shall rise,
And then that light shall flash before thine
eyes,

And thou shalt then remember that thy fate
Is-murder. Thus upon the silence broke
The spectre's hollow words; but while it
spoke,

Its pale lip never moved, nor did its eye
Betray intelligence. With sweeping state,
Over the ground the train then glided by,
And vanish'd,-vanish'd. Then methought
I 'woke.

"It was no dream, for often since that hour The star has flashed, and I have felt its power,

('Twas in my moodier moments) and my soul
Seemed languishing for blood, and there did
roll

Rivers of blood beside me, and my hands,
As tho' I did obey my Fate's commands,
Were smeared and sanguine, and my throb-
bing brow
Grew hot and blistered with the fire within,
And my heart withered with a secret sin,
And my whole heart was tempested: it grew
Larger methought with passion-even now
I feel it swell within me, and a flood
Of fiery wishes such as man ne'er knew
Seem to consume me. Sometimes I have
stood

Looking at heaven-for Hope, with these
sad eyes,

In vain-for I was born a sacrifice:
What hope was there for me, a murderer?
What lovely? nothing-yes, I err, I err.
Yes,-mixed with these wild visionings, a
form

Descended, fragile as a summer-cloud,
And with her gentle voice she stilled the

storm:

I never saw her face and yet I bowed
Down to the dust, as savage men, they say,
Adore the sun in countries far away.
I felt the music of her words like balm
Raining upon my soul, and I grew calm
As the great forest-lion that lay down
At Una's feet, without a single moan,
| Vanquish❜d by love; or as the herds that hung
Their heads in silence when the Thracian
sung.

And every eye that, with its dead dull ball,
Seems as it stared upon thee now, was bright-I never saw her, never, but her voice
As thine is, with the true transmitted light.
Madness and pain of heart shall break thy

rest,
And she shall perish whom thou lovest the
best.

Was the whole world to me. It said: Rejoice!
For I am come to love thee, youth, at last,
To recompense thy pains and sorrow past.
No longer now, amongst the mountains high,
Shalt thou over thy single destiny