II.

The Chief of Lara is returned again: And why had Lara crossed the bounding main? Left by his Sire, too young such loss to know,[268] Lord of himself,--that heritage of woe, That fearful empire which the human breast But holds to rob the heart within of rest!-- With none to check, and few to point in time The thousand paths that slope the way to crime; Then, when he most required commandment, then Had Lara's daring boyhood governed men.[jc] 20 It skills not, boots not step by step to trace His youth through all the mazes of its race; Short was the course his restlessness had run,[jd] But long enough to leave him half undone.