Page:Troubadour.pdf/53

Rh

It was a lone and secret shade, As nature form'd an ambuscade For the bird's nest and the deer's lair, Though now less quiet guests were there. On one side like a fortress stood A mingled pine and chesnut wood; Autumn was falling, but the pine Seem'd as it mock'd all change; no sign Of season on its leaf was seen, The same dark gloom of changeless green. But like the gorgeous Persian bands 'Mid the stern race of northern lands, The chesnut boughs were bright with all That gilds and mocks the autumn's fall.

Like stragglers from an army's rear Gradual they grew, near and less near,