University of Virginia Library

‘Glowing with health, in early beauty's prime.
‘Link'd with the youth she loved and trusted most,
‘Nor meditating she nor fearing crime,
‘Bellina treads the solitary coast.
‘O'er the broad surface of th' unruffled deep
‘The midnight moon her silver radiance throws;
‘In stillest calm old Ocean's billows sleep,
‘Great Nature's self is lull'd into repose.

99

‘Ah! little reeks Bellina, in that breast
‘She deems love's throne, what horrid passions wake!
‘Too soon by deeds the demon stands confest,
‘Her limbs too soon with force, with terror shake.
‘But heaven which oft, it's secret mercies such,
‘Inflicts in kindness the mysterious blow,
‘Withdrew her from the coarse polluter's touch,
‘And bade her leave her unstain'd corse below.
‘Where traces the spring-flood it's utmost bound—
‘Why should the muse the foul detail relate?
‘There even in death unfaded, was she found;
‘And many an eye still weeps Bellina's fate.’