Then lightly rose that loyal son, and bounded on his steed, And urged, as if with lance in rest, the charger's foamy

speed.

And lo! from far, as on they pressed, there came a glittering band,

With one that 'midst them stately rode, as a leader in the land:

"Now haste, Bernardo, haste! for there, in very truth, is he, The father whom thy faithful heart hath yearned so long to

see."

His dark eye flashed, his proud breast heaved, his cheek's hue came and went;

He reached the gray-haired chieftain's side, and there, dismounting, bent;

A lowly knee to earth he bent, his father's hand he tookWhat was there in its touch that all his fiery spirit shook?

That hand was cold,-a frozen thing, it dropped from his like lead!

He looked up to the face above, the face was of the dead! A plume waved o'er the noble brow,-the brow was fixed and white:

He met, at last, his father's eyes,—but in them was no sight!

Up from the ground he sprang and gazed ;-but who could paint that gaze?

They hushed their very hearts, that saw its horror and

amaze:

They might have chained him, as before that stony form he stood;

For the power was stricken from his arm, and from his lip the blood.

"Father!" at length he murmured low, and wept like childhood then:

Talk not of grief till thou hast seen the tears of warlike men! He thought on all his glorious, hopes, and all his young re

nown,

He flung his falchion from his side, and in the dust sat down.

Then covering with his steel-gloved hands his darkly mourn

ful brow,

"No more, there is no more," he said, "to lift the sword for,

now;

My king is false,―my hope betrayed! My father-Oh! the

worth,

The glory, and the loveliness, are passed away from earth!

"I thought to stand where banners waved, my sire, beside thee, yet!

I would that there our kindred blood on Spain's free soil had met!

Thou wouldst have known my spirit, then ;-for thee my fields were won;

And thou hast perished in thy chains, as though thou hadst no son !"

Then, starting from the ground once more, he seized the monarch's rein,

Amidst the pale and wildered looks of all the courtier train; And, with a fierce, o'ermastering grasp, the rearing war-horse

led,

And sternly set them face to face,—the king before the dead:

"Came I not forth, upon thy pledge, my father's hand to kiss? -Be still, and gaze thou on, false king! and tell me, what is this?

The voice, the glance, the heart I sought,-give answer, where are they?

-If thou wouldst clear thy perjured soul, send life through this cold clay!

"Into these glassy eyes put light ;-be still! keep down thine ire!

Bid these white lips a blessing speak,-this earth is not my

sire:

Give me back him for whom I strove, for whom my blood was shed!

Thou canst not?—and a king !—his dust be mountains on thy head!"

He loosed the steed, his slack hand fell;-upon the silent

face

He cast one long, deep, troubled look, then turned from that

sad place:

His hope was crushed, his after fate untold in martial strain His banner led the spears no more amidst the hills of Spain.

Ex. CXXXI.-THE VISION OF LIBERTY.

THE evening heavens were calm and bright;
No dimness rested on the glittering light,

H. WARE, JR..

That sparkled from the wilderness of worlds on high.
Those distant suns burned on with quiet ray;

The placid planets held their modest way;

And silence reigned profound o'er earth, and sea, and sky.

Oh! what an hour for lofty thought!
My spirit burned within; I caught
A holy inspiration from the hour.-
Around me man and nature slept;
Alone my solemn watch I kept,

Till morning dawned, and sleep resumed her power.

A vision passed upon my soul.
I still was gazing up to heaven,
As in the early hours of even;
I still beheld the planets roll,
And all those countless suns of light

Flame from the broad blue arch, and guide the moonless night.

When, lo! upon the plain,

Just where it skirts the swelling main,

A massive castle, far and high,

In towering grandeur broke upon my eye.

Proud in its strength and years, the ponderous pile

Flung up its time-defying towers;

Its lofty gates seemed scornfully to smile
At vain assault of human powers,
And threats and arms deride.

Its gorgeous carvings of heraldic pride
In giant masses graced the walls above,
And dungeons yawned below.

Yet ivy there and moss their garlands wove,
Grave, silent chroniclers of time's protracted flow.

Bursting on my steadfast gaze,
See, within, a sudden blaze!

So small at first, the zephyr's slightest swell,
That scarcely stirs the pine-tree top,

Nor makes the withered leaf to drop,
The feeble fluttering of that flame would quell.

But soon it spread

Waving, rushing, fierce, and red,
From wall to wall, from tower to tower,
Raging with resistless power;

Till every fervent pillar glowed,
And every stone seemed burning coal,
Instinct with living heat, that flowed
Like streaming radiance from the kindled pole

Beautiful, fearful, grand,

Silent as death, I saw the fabric stand.
At length a crackling sound began ;
From side to side, throughout the pile it ran;
And louder yet, and louder grew,—

Till now in rattling thunder peals it flew,
Huge, shivered fragments from the pillars broke,
Like fiery sparkles from the anvil's stroke:
The shattered walls were rent and riven,
And piecemeal driven

Like blazing comets through the troubled sky.-
'Tis done; what centuries had reared,
In quick explosion disappeared,

Nor even its ruins met my wondering eye.

But in their place,

Bright with more than human

grace,

Robed in more than mortal seeming,

Radiant glory in her face,

And eyes with heaven's own brightness beaming Rose a fair, majestic form,

As the mild rainbow from the storm.

I marked her smile, I knew her eye;
And when, with gesture of command,
She waved aloft the cap-crowned wand,
My slumbers fled mid shouts of "LIBERTY!”

Read ye the dream? and know ye not
How truly it unlocked the word of fate?
Went not the flame from the illustrious spot,
And spreads it not, and burns in every state?
And when their old and cumbrous walls,
Filled with this spirit, glow intense,
Vainly they rear their impotent defense,—
The fabric falls!

That fervent energy must spread, Till despotism's towers be overthrown ; And in their stead,

Liberty stands alone!

Hasten the day, just Heaven!
Accomplish thy design;

And let the blessings thou hast freely given,
Freely on all men shine;

Till equal rights be equally enjoyed,

And human power for human good employed,
Till law, not man, the sovereign rule sustain,
And peace and virtue undisputed reign.

Ex. CXXXII.—THE SEA SERPENT

FROM what abysses of the unfathomed sea
Turnest thou up, Great Serpent, now and then,
If we may venture to believe in thee,

And affidavits of sea-faring men?

What whirlpool gulf to thee affords a home!

PUNCH.

Amid the unknown depths where dost thou dwell?

If like the mermaid, with her glass and comb-
Thou art not what the vulgar call a Sell.

Art thou, indeed, a serpent and no sham?
Or, if no serpent, a prodigious eel,

An entity, though modified by flam,

A basking shark, or monstrous kind of seal?

Sea-Serpent, art thou venomous or not?

What sort of snake may be thy class and style? That of Mud-Python, by APOLLO shot,

And mentioned-rather often-by CARLYLE?

Or, art thou but a serpent of the mind?

Doubts, though subdued, will oft recur again— A serpent of the visionary kind,

Proceeding from the grog-oppressed brain?

Art thou a giant adder, or huge asp,

And hast thou got a rattle at thy tail?