The bridal of Vaumond :: :: University of Virginia Library

“Spirits rouse! another task
Our king commands,
A boon the Destin'd hath to ask,
He claims it at our hands.
Weave the charm and light the flame
For him who doth our covenant claim!
He hath giv'n the whole
To mountain powers,
Body and soul
He is ours!

II.

“Light the flame, pronounce the charm;
Blood of widow'd dove yet warm,
Lonely blood of widow'd dove,
This around the HEART shall move.

“Light the flame, pronounce the charm;

To excite love, anciently, the Thessalian charms or filtres were composed of the hippomanes, junx, insects bred from putrefaction, the fish remora, the lizard, brains of a calf, hairs on the tip of a wolf's tail, DOVE'S BLOOD, snake's bones, screech-owl's feathers, WOOLLEN CORD IN WHICH A PERSON HAD HANGED HIMSELF, THE MARROW OF A BOY FAMISHED IN THE MIDST OF PLENTY, herbs growing out of putrid substances, &c. &c. &c.

Rope from strangled murderer warm,

Torn off in his dying pain,
This shall madden in the BRAIN.

“Works the charm, the flame burns wild;
Marrow drain'd from starving child,
Starving mid surrounding food,
This shall riot in the BLOOD!

III.

“See, she melts! behold her eye
Languish on the DESTIN'D ONE!
Works the charm, the flame burns high,
See, she yields, she is undone!
Weave the charm, and light the flame,
For him who doth our covenant claim;
He hath giv'n the whole
To the mountain powers,
Body and soul
He is ours!”

IV.

Thus while they sung, th' accurst of God,
An armed knight the cavern trod;
Of fair and goodly port was he
Who met that fearful companie:
And, as his sentence loud they sung,
And as the awful chorus rung,
He started—and his cheek wax'd pale,
As parent nature's tortur'd breast,
When tyrant winter's icy gale
Hath all her genial streams opprest.
That horrid vault hoarse laughter shook,
As thus they peal'd their stern rebuke.

V.

“Fearest thou, Sir Knight, thy doom,
Seal'd and written with thy blood?
Fearest thou this cavern's gloom?
Know'st thou not our trysting room?
Hither hast thou never trod?
Thou hast giv'n the whole
To mountain powers,
Body and soul
Thou art ours!”

VI.

“Ye juggling imps why speak ye still
Your taunting threats of future ill?
My hour is not yet come—
Why from the compact did ye blot
That all the past should be forgot,
All foretaste of my doom?
Unequal gift ye found me low
In the black list of human wo—
Poor—and repining at my fate—
Of all, in high or mean estate,
The scorn and mockery:—
For nature stampt me, at my birth,
The foulest blot on this proud earth,
A base deformity!
On woman's eye I might not cast
One wistful glance, whene'er she past—
While those, who gave me to the light,
Loath'd the foul object of their sight!
And, in the gangrene of their scorn,
In life, in light, in hope forlorn,

I nurst the serpent in my soul,
Till all was black, and waste, and drear,
Corruption revel'd in the whole—
And made me fit—to mingle here!

VII.

“Ye gave me—honour, wealth and love—
But gave my soul no place above;
The never-dying worm ye gave,
Hell here—and hell beyond the grave!
My term is set—and fear of THAT,
Which, come what will, must be my fate,
Drugs, that poor cup of present joy,
Which, e'en unmix'd too soon would cloy!
I may not sleep in Christian ground,
Nor in holy earth my bones be found:
And, might I—O what sod could bloom
Upon the ‘God abandon'd’ tomb?
What flower could lift its lovely head,
Where cheering hope had never shed
On that accursed soil, one ray?
What mourner there a prayer shall say,
Or drop one tear, or cast one look
Upon that unassoiled nook?
What child his father's deeds shall tell,
And with the kindling ardour swell
That erst awoke within his sire?
Poor wretch! the spawn of guilt and hell,
Giv'n to the earth by miracle,
And warm'd with everlasting fire!

VIII.

“No kindred tree the Upas knows;
In isolation stern it blows;—

Its roots unmingling with its kind,
No sympathy its juices find;
Its nurture into venom turns,
Death in the living currents burns!
For wrongs sustain'd, for insults brook'd,
In hopeless impotence o'erlook'd,—
—Last savage joy this heart can feel!
Even what YE left, REVENGE shall steel—
And in my brief and fiery span,
I live to plague the race of man!

IX.

“Now mock me not! I will not shrink—
I'll stretch my chain's remotest link;
Tremble—for I can call up here
Him, whom your wild battalia fear,
When shrinking in your burning beds,
Ye bear him, as his home he treads!
—Say, have ye perform'd your care?
Where is the charm ye should prepare?”

X.

The shooting flame its dying rays
Now scatter'd high with bickering blaze;
And darkly show'd its lurid gleam
Below a foul and troubled stream:
The charm did an evil spirit take,
He dipp'd it thrice in the cursed lake,
Then gave it to the knight;
He paus'd not for more parley then,
But swift he left that dismal den,
To catch the blessed light;

Still, as he went, he heard their song
That winding passage dark prolong.

XI.
Spirits' Memento.

Thou shalt not bow to altar low,
Nor book nor saint shall hear thy vow;
Remember!

In holy rite if thou dost unite,
Thou may'st no more partake the light,
Remember!

Hear, DESTIN'D ONE! thy doom is done,
When thou breathest prayer to the Holy One,
Remember!

University of Virginia Library

SCENE I. THE CHARM.

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

X.

XI. Spirits' Memento.

SCENE I.
THE CHARM.

XI.
Spirits' Memento.