I was summoned to the palace, to the | And my footsteps were elastic with presence of the Duke, Feeling hopes arise within me that no grandeur could rebuke. an energy divine; Never in those breasts of iron beat a heart as proud as mine! There for days I walked the chamber with a spirit all inflamed, And I thought on all the subjects which the generous Duke had named Thought of those, and thought of others, slowly thought them o'er and o'er, Till my stormy brain went throbbing like the surf along the shore. In despair I left the palace, sought my humble room again, And my gentle Christine met me, and she smiled away my pain. "Courage!" said she, and my courage leapt within me as she spake, And my soul was sworn to trial and to triumph for her sake. Who shall say that love is idle, or a weight upon the mind? Friend! the soul that dares to scorn it, hath in idle dust reclined. I returned, and in the chamber piled the shapeless Adam-earth; Piled it carelessly, not knowing to what form it might give birth. There I leaned, and dreamed, above it, till the day went down the west, And the darkness came unto me like an old familiar guest. But I started, for a rustle swept athwart the solemn gloom! And with light, like morn's horizon, gleamed the far end of the room! Then a heavy sea of curtain, in a tempest rolled away! Blessed Virgin! how I trembled ! but it was not with dismay. And my eyes grew large and larger, as I looked with lips apart; And my senses drank in beauty, till it drowned my happy heart. There it stood, a living statue! with | Then I hurried to the statue, where its loosened locks of brownIn an attitude angelic, with the folded hands dropt down. so often I had failed, And I made the face of Christine, and it stood no longer veiled! With a flush upon my forehead, then I called the Duke-he came, And in rustling silks beside him walked his tall and stately dame; And they looked upon the statuethen on me with stern surprise; Then they looked upon each other with a wonder in their eyes! "What is this?" spake out the Duchess, with her gaze fixed on the Duke; "What is this?" and me he questioned in a tone of sharp rebuke. Like a miserable echo, I the question asked again And he said, "It is our daughter! your presumption for your pain !" But asudden from the curtain, in her jewelled dress complete, Swept a maiden in her beauty, and she dropped before his feet And she cried, "O! father-mother, cast aside that frowning mien; And forgive my own Andrea, and forgive your child Christine! "O! forgive us: for, believe me, all the fault was mine alone !"' And they granted her petition, and they blessed us as their own. THE FAIRER LAND. ALL the night, in broken slumber, Swept by loud and laboring streams, Where the masters wandered, chanting Ponderous and tumultuous themes. |