V.

"Yet in the light of day to win and wed, To boast a bride, yet not to own a shed; To doom the famine, yet proclaim the bliss, And seal the ruin in the nuptial kiss;-- Love shunn'd such madness for the loved one's sake; What course could Prudence sanction Love to take? Lenient I knew my kinsman to a vice; But, oh, to folly Cato less precise! And all my future, in my kinsman bound, Shadow'd his humours--smiled in him or frown'd; But uncles still, however high in state, } Are mortal men--and Youth has hope to wait, } And Love a conqueror's confidence in Fate.-- } A secret Hymen reconciled in one Caution and bliss--if Mary could be won? Hard task!--I said it was my lot to win Sway o'er a life for grief;--this was not sin. To her I told my name, rank, doubts, and fears, And urged the prayer too long denied with tears-- 'Reject'st thou still,' I cried, 'well, then to me The pride to offer all life holds to thee; I go to tell my love, proclaim my choice-- Clasp want, mar fate, meet ruin, and rejoice, So that, at least, when next we meet, thy sigh Shall own this truth--"He better loved than I."'

"With that, her hand upon my own she laid, Look'd in my eyes--the sacrifice was made; Alas, she had no mother!--Nature moved That heart to this--she trusted, for she loved!

"I had a friend of lowlier birth than mine, The sunnier spot allured the trailing vine. My rising fortunes had the southern air, And fruit might bless the plant that clamber'd there. My smooth Clanalbin!--shrewd, if smooth, was he, His soul was prudent, though his life was free; Scapin to serve, and Machiavel to plot, Red-hair'd, thin-lipp'd, sly, supple,--and a Scot! To him the double project I confide, To cloak the rite, and yet to clasp the bride; Long he resisted--solemnly he warn'd, And urged the perils love had seen and scorn'd. At length subdued, he groan'd a slow consent, And pledged a genius practised to invent. A priest was found--a license was procured, Due witness hired, and secrecy assured; All this his task:--'tis o'er;--and Mary's life Bound up in one who dares not call her wife!

"Alas--alas, why on the fatal brink Of the abyss--doth not the instinct shrink? The meaner tribe the coming storm foresees-- In the still calm the bird divines the breeze-- The ox that grazes shuns the poison-weed-- The unseen tiger frights afar the steed-- To man alone no kind foreboding shows The latent horror or the ambush'd foes; O'er each blind moment hangs the funeral pall, Heaven shines, earth smiles--and night descends on all!

"But I!--fond reader of imagined skies, Foretold my future in those stars--her eyes! O heavenly Moon, circling with magic hues And mystic beauty all thy beams suffuse, Is not in love thine own fair secret seen? Love smooths the rugged--love exalts the mean: Love in each ray inspires the hush'd alarm, Love silvers every shadow into charm.