Page:The Bengali Book of English Verse.djvu/94

62  And the perch and the salmon in silv'ry shoals gleam, At morning and noontide in pool and in stream, And spite of their warders on hill and on plain Samarsi can harry his father's domain.

Though an outlaw decreed by the chiefs of the foe, Samarsi has homage from high and from low, For the copsewood is heavy by Saloombra park, And the vale of Banmora at noonday is dark, And he's ready, aye ready, right firmly to stand By the wood or the pass with his sword in his hand.

In the cave of Pokurna, beneath the green hill, Where the throstle keeps time to the soft-crooning rill, Samarsi at nightfall, unknown to the Moor, Lights his watch-fire in peace, when his labours are o'er, And revels in freedom till morning again Gives the signal to mount and ride down to the plain.

 

When the night is dark and dreary, and the north wind whistles shrill, And the snow storm drives in fury down the gorges of the hill, Like the necromancer's mirror, when his magic perfumes burn, Mocking Time, these curious volumes make the glorious Past return.

Fast as ripples on the river, or cloud-shadows on the grass, As I read their quaint old pages, down my curtained chamber pass Mitred priest, and hospitaller, armed and mounted for the fray, Bands of bronzed condottieri, maidens fair as laughing May.

