Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 056.djvu/639

1844.] " Yes, your lordship judges rightly! Whom I marry, shall be noble, —

Ay, and wealthy. I shall never blush to think how he was born." —

Upon which, imagining that these words have some special and cutting reference to himself, he passes into the presence of the lady, and rates her in a strain of very fierce invective, which shows that his blood is really up, whatever may be thought of the taste which dictated his language, or of the title he had to take to task so severely a lady who had never given him any sort of encouragement. In a letter to a friend, he thus describes the way in which he went to work—the fourth line is a powerful one— " Oh, she flutter'd like a tame bird, in among its forest-brothers,

Far too strong for it! then drooping, bow'd her face upon her hands—

And I spake out wildly, fiercely, brutal truths of her and others!

I, she planted in the desert, swathed her, windlike, with my sands.

" I pluck'd up her social fictions, bloody-rooted, though leaf-verdant,—

Trod them down with words of shaming,—all the purples and the gold,

And the 'landed stakes' and Lordships—all that spirits pure and ardent

Are cast out of love and reverence, because chancing not to hold.

" 'For myself I do not argue,' said I, 'though I love you, Madam,

But for better souls, that nearer to the height of yours have trod—

And this age shows, to my thinking, still more infidels to Adam,

Than directly, by profession, simple infidels to God.

" 'Yet, O God' (I said,) 'O grave' (I said,) 'O mother's heart and bosom!

With whom first and last are equal, saint and corpse and little child!

We are fools to your deductions, in these figments of heart-closing!

We are traitors to your causes, in these sympathies defiled!

" 'Learn more reverence, madam, not for rank or wealth—that needs no learning;

That comes quickly—quick as sin does! ay, and often works to sin;

But for Adam's seed, ! Trust me, 'tis a clay above your scorning,

With God's image stamp'd upon it, and God's kindling breath within.

" 'What right have you, Madam, gazing in your shining mirror daily,

Getting, so, by heart your beauty, which all others must adore,—

While you draw the golden ringlets down your fingers, to vow gaily,. .

You will wed no man that's only good to God,—and nothing more.' "

In the second stanza, we cannot make out the construction of the words, "all that spirits pure and ardent are cast out of love and reverence." This vigorous tirade is continued throughout several stanzas. The poor lady merely utters the word "Bertram," and the lover is carried to bed in a fainting fit when his passion is expended. When he recovers he indites the aforesaid letter. After he has dispatched it, the lady enters his apartment: oh, blessed and gracious apparition! We quote the dénouement, omitting one or two stanzas— " Soh! how still the lady standeth! 'tis a dream—a dream of mercies!

'Twixt the purple lattice-curtains, how she standeth still and pale!

'Tis a vision, sure, of mercies, sent to soften his self-curses—

Sent to sweep a patient quiet, o'er the tossing of his wail.

" 'Eyes,' he said, 'now throbbing through me! are ye eyes that did undo me?

Shining eyes, like antique jewels set in Parian statue-stone!

Underneath that calm white forehead, are ye ever burning torrid,

O'er the desolate sand-desert of my heart and lit, undone? '