ave heard
The boisterous carman, in the miry road,
Check his loud whip and hail us with mild voice,
And speak with milder voice to his poor beasts.

MARMADUKE And whither were you going?

HERBERT Learn, young Man,--
To fear the virtuous, and reverence misery,
Whether too much for patience, or, like mine,
Softened till it becomes a gift of mercy.

MARMADUKE Now, this is as it should be!

HERBERT I am weak!--
My Daughter does not know how weak I am;
And, as thou see'st, under the arch of heaven
Here do I stand, alone, to helplessness,
By the good God, our common Father, doomed!--
But I had once a spirit and an arm--

MARMADUKE Now, for a word about your Barony:
I fancy when you left the Holy Land,
And came to--what's your title--eh? your claims
Were undisputed!

HERBERT Like a mendicant,
Whom no one comes to meet, I stood alone;--
I murmured--but, remembering Him who feeds
The pelican and ostrich of the desert,
From my own threshold I looked up to Heaven
And did not want glimmerings of quiet hope.
So, from the court I passed, and down the brook,
Led by its murmur, to the ancient oak
I came; and when I felt its cooling shade,
I sate me down, and cannot but believe--
While in my lap I held my little Babe
And clasped her to my heart, my heart that ached
More with delight than grief--I heard a voice
Such as by Cherith on Elijah called;
It said, "I will be with thee." A little boy,
A shepherd-lad, ere yet my trance was gone,
Hailed us as if he had been sent from heaven,
And said, with tears, that he would be our guide:
I had a better guide--that innocent Babe--
Her, who hath saved me, to this hour, from harm,
From cold, from hunger, penury, and death;
To whom I owe the best of all the good
I have, or wish for, upon earth--and more
And higher far than lies within earth's bounds:
Th