IX.

"It is no spirit that you see

Now standing here before your view,

But her who once was told by thee

That thou with heart both warm and true,

Would love her with such holy love

As only angels from above

Can know; whose sweet affection's light

Burns on for ever pure and bright.

Thus flattered by thy evil smile,

She fell a victim to thy plot

And like a flower that bloomed awhile

Then withered and was heeded not.

Yes, 'tis Inez that you see,

A ruin wrought by hell and thee,

A wretch on life's rough ocean tost,

Her

peace and fame for ever lost,

With feelings crushed, and joys destroyed,

And maddened by the mind's dark void,

That chills the heart in its distress

Amid the wide world's loneliness.

Yes, I have wandered far away

From that fair land which gave me birth, Beneath whose sun a brighter ray

Smiles forth upon the gladdened earth ; Yet never found I rest from pain;

I slept but 'twas to wake again,
To know and feel the bitter smart
That rankles in a blighted heart,

When vows once deemed as truly spoken
With sweet affections chords are broken;

Degraded with a sullied name,

Bowed down with sorrow, sin, and shame;

Then left deserted and alone

With broken heart the world to roam,

Without a hope, a thought, or care,

The hapless victim of despair,

A being shunned by all to be,

The poor and ruined thing you see.

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Here before the face of Heaven

As thou dost hope to be forgiven,

By thy oath I ask thee now
Fulfilment of thy promised vow,

But if thy heart refuse to be
Aroused to justice-then on thee
My bitterest curse shall surely fall
Beyond the vain hope of recall."

X.

She ceased-there played a bitter smile

Upon her lips of scorn and pride,

As if she pitied, yet the while

The worst that could befall defied.

De Mowbray quailed beneath the look

That glanced from that dark fiery eye, And like some wretched culprit shook

With conscience-stricken agony.

There is a power beyond control,

That dwells within the guilty breast;

Which like a demon gnaws the soul

Unceasingly and without rest.

It is when memory wakes at last,
Recalling faults and crimes long past;

And this, alas! too well he knew,

And to his heart's cost felt it too.

XI.

With quivering lip and pallid cheek,
His faltering tongue essayed to speak:
"Oh! taunt me not-like scorpion stings,

Thy words have wrung my bursting breast; While back to mind remembrance brings

Thy wrongs that still are unredressed. "Oft in the lonely hour of night,

When sleep hath left my aching eyes, Spirit like before my sight,

Thy well known form appears to rise. "Thus bound by misery's galling chain,

I've felt the worm that knows no rest,

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While phantoms of a fevered brain.

Have made a hell within my breast.

Yes, Inez, 'tis decreed by Fate,

That we again must never meet;

No power to close, hath love or hate,

The gulf that yawns beneath our feet.

And now from hence I will depart

To kneel before our Ladye's shrine,
There humbly ask with contrite heart,
Forgiveness of my sins and thine.

"But when on yonder green hill's side,
Thou seest the setting sunbeams play,
Thou'lt know that I at eventide,

Shall be upon my homeward way.

"Then here beside this holy well,

We'll meet once more before we sever,

To take a long and last farewell,

Then breathe a prayer, and part for ever!"

With smothered voice, he turned aside,

As if he wished a tear to hide,