Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/310

288 Issued, on delegation to sustain

Humanity and right, that Robespierre,

He who thereafter, and in how short time!

Wielded the sceptre of the Atheist crew.

When the calamity spread far and wide—

And this same city, that did then appear

To outrun the rest in exultation, groaned

Under the vengeance of her cruel son,

As Lear reproached the winds—I could almost

Have quarrelled with that blameless spectacle

For lingering yet an image in my mind

To mock me under such a strange reverse.

O Friend! few happier moments have been mine

Than that which told the downfall of this Tribe

So dreaded, so abhorred. The day deserves

A separate record. Over the smooth sands

Of Leven's ample estuary lay

My journey, and beneath a genial sun,

With distant prospect among gleams of sky

And clouds, and intermingling mountain tops,

In one inseparable glory clad,

Creatures of one ethereal substance met

In consistory, like a diadem

Or crown of burning seraphs as they sit