he valley's course was seen to trace;
Marked how its graceful azure crest
Against the sky's blue arch was pressed,
And how its long and rocky chain
Was parted suddenly in twain,
Where through a chasm, wide and deep,
Potomac's rapid waters sweep,
While rocks that press the mountain's brow,
Nod o'er his waves far, far below;(1)
Marked how those waves, in one broad blaze,
Threw back the sun's meridian rays,
And, flashing as they rolled along,
Seemed all alive with light and song;
Marked how green bower and garden showed
Where rose the husbandman's abode,
And how the village walls were seen
To glimmer with a silvery sheen,
Such as the Spaniard saw, of yore,
Hang over Tenuchtitlan's walls,
When maddened with the lust of gore,
He came to desecrate her halls;
To fire her temples, towers, and thrones,
And turn her songs of peace to groans.
They gazed, till from the hermit's eye
A tear stole slow and silently;
A tear, which Memory's hand had taken
From a deep fountain long congealed;
A tear, which showed how strongly shaken
The heart must be, which thus revealed,
Through time's dim shadows, gathering fast,
Its recollections of the past;
Then, as a sigh escaped his breast,
Thus spake the hermit to his guest.

V.

"Thou seest how fair a scene is here;
It seems as if 'twere planned above,
And fashioned from some happier sphere,
To be the home of peace and love.
Yet man, too fond of strife, to dwell
In meek contentment's calm repose,
Will turn an Eden to a hell,
And triumph in his brother's woes!
And passion's lewd and lawless host,
Delight to rave and revel most
Where generous Nature stamps and strews
Her fairest forms, and brightest hues:
And Discord here has lit her brand,
And Hatred nursed her savage brood,
And stern Revenge, with crimson hand,
Has written his foul deeds in blood.
But those who loved and suffered then,
Have given place to other men:
Of all who live, to me alone
The story, of their fate is known;
Give heed, and I will tell it thee,
Tho' mournful must the story be.

VI.

I mind as if 'twere yesterday,
The hour when first I stood beside
The margin of yon rushing tide,
An