Night came with stars :-across his soul A shadow dark and strange, Breathed from the thought, so swift to fall O'er triumph's hour-And is this all? No more than this!-what seem'd it now They call'd him back to many a glade, They call'd him, with their sounding waves, But darkly mingling with the thought The Arab's lance, the desert's gloom, Where was the glow of power and pride? The spirit born to roam? His weary heart within him died With yearnings for his home; He wept the stars of Afric's heaven Ev'n on that spot where fate had given -Oh happiness! how far we flee Thine own sweet paths in search of thee!* *The arrival of Bruce at what he considered to be the source of the Nile, was followed almost immediately by feelings thus suddenly fluctuating from triumph to despondence. See his Travels in Abyssinia. THE VAUDOIS VALLEYS. YES, thou hast met the sun's last smile, By many a bright Ægean isle, Thou hast seen the billows foam: From the silence of the Pyramid Thou hast watch'd the solemn flow Of the Nile, that with its waters hid The ancient realm below: Thy heart hath burn'd as shepherds sung Some wild and warlike strain, Where the Moorish horn once proudly rung Through the pealing hills of Spain: And o'er the lonely Grecian streams But go thou to the pastoral vales If thou wouldst hear immortal tales By the wind's deep whispers told! Go, if thou lov'st the soil to tread, Where man hath nobly striven, And life, like incense, hath been shed, An offering unto Heaven. For o'er the snows, and round the pines, A spirit, stronger than the sword, A memory clings to every steep And the sounding streams glad record keep Ask of the peasant where his sires And he will tell thee, all around, Far as the chamois' foot can bound, Go, when the sabbath bell is heard * Up through the wilds to float, When the dark old woods and caves are stirr'd When forth, along their thousand rills, The mountain people come, Join thou their worship on those hills And while the song of praise ascends, Rejoice, that human heart, through scorn, Witness of God so long! * See "Gilly's Researches amongst the Mountains of Piedmont," for an interesting description of a sabbath day in the upper regions of the Vaudois. The inhabitants of those Protestant valleys, who, like the Swiss, repair with their flocks and herds to the summits of the hills during the summer, are followed thither by their pastors, and at that season of the year, assemble on that sacred day, to worship in the open air. |