Page:Tales and Historic Scenes.pdf/62

58

He, who his country and his faith betray'd, And lent Castile revengeful, powerful aid; A voice of sorrow swells in every gale, Each wave, low rippling, tells a mournful tale; And as the shrubs, untended, unconfined, In wild exuberance rustle to the wind; Each leaf hath language to his startled sense, And seems to murmur—"Thou hast driven her hence!" And well he feels to trace her flight were vain, —Where hath lost love been once recall'd again? In her pure breast, so long by anguish torn, His name can rouse no feeling now—but scorn. O bitter hour! when first the shuddering heart Wakes to behold the void within—and start! To feel its own abandonment, and brood O'er the chill bosom's depth of solitude. The stormy passions that in Hamet's breast Have sway'd so long, so fiercely, are at rest; Th' avenger's task is closed:36 —he finds too late, It hath not changed his feelings, but his fate. His was a lofty spirit, turn'd aside From its bright path by woes, and wrongs, and pride; And onward, in its new tumultuous course, Borne with too rapid and intense a force