* * *

High on the rock, the God, with furious look,
From side to side his burning thunder shook:
Now here, now there, the scattering lightnings broke,
And the wide vallies flamed, and glowed with sulphurous smoke:
Contagious terror roll'd from plain to plain;
Cold Anio trembled in his watery reign;
And dazzled by the withering flames, o'eraw'd,
The chief shrunk back, and own'd the present God.

FRAGMENT, IN IMITATION OF WALTER SCOTT.

1.

Where are the kings of ancient sway?
Where are the terrors of their day,
The chiefs that with glory bled?
Soon, soon their little sun was o'er;
And, hurried to oblivion's shore,
Their very names are fled!
Yet can the Muse from fate redeem
Her favourites here below;
Can check Time's all-devouring stream
In its eternal flow;
Can catch the quickly-passing beam,
And bid it for ever glow!

2.

The darkly-gathering clouds of night
Had quench'd the red remains of light;
O'er the hill and o'er the plain
She held her dim and shadowy reign,
And the distant billows of the main
In boundless darkness roll'd.
O'er land and sea, it was silence all,
No breezes waved the pine-wood tall,
Or swept the lonely wold:
The murmurs of the lake had died,
The reeds upon its plashy side
No rustling motion felt;
But o'er the world, as life were fled,
As Nature thro' her world were dead,
Portentous stillness dwelt.

3.

On a rock of the sea young Carthon stood,
And his lamp shone faint on the ocean-flood,
As with both his hands he toiled to raise
The seaward beacon's ruddy blaze:
And aye the warrior, far and near,
Explored the dark profound,
And aye the warrior's cautious ear
Was watching every sound;
But the air of night was mirk and dread,
And all was silent around his head.

4.

At length, uncertain murmurs rose
Athwart the billows grey,
Breaking the night-air's still repose,
And deepening on their way:
He beard the dashing of the oar,
And the long surge whitening to the shore;
And now the broad-sailed bark appear'd,
And now to the silvery beach it steer'd,
And anchored in the bay.

5.

"What news, what news of Lochlin's king?"
The Chief of Lo