To the rich pasture sailing on,
A noble chamois moves in sight.
Quick throbs his heart; while on the ground, Beneath a rock's o'erbeetling walls,
He aims the echoes ring around,
The chamois shrieks, springs high, and falls.
With joyous shout and footing sure,"
With sportsman's thrilling zeal he flies,
His comely booty to secure,
Ere, rallying from the blow, it rise.
Too late! too late! the noble beast
Hath roused him from his bloody lair;
O hunter, 'tis in vain your haste;
Your flying prey is swifter far.
The sportsman's spirit chafes.
The charge," he mutters
O'er deep ravine and ice-bound peak
He recklessly pursues his prey;
The while, regardless of its wounds,
The dying chamois speeds its flight,
O'er yawning chasms madly bounds,
And seems to mock the hunter's sight.
Unchecked is Rudolph's hot pursuit ;
The victim of his evil star,
O'er wilds untrod by mortal foot
He bounds, a stranger yet to fear.
The narrowest ledge, the veriest stone,
Contents him for a resting place;
The game is up! the die is thrown!
His life is staked upon the chase.
Hold! hold! thou madman; seest thou not
That trackless barrier of rock?
O, leap not on that fatal spot!
Death will thy rash presumption mock.
Above, high towering in the skies,
Those giant walls their summit heave;
Below, in pitchy darkness, lies
A lone death bed, a gaping grave.
He scarce dare look for human aid:
To God he faithfully commends
That soul which God himself hath made
And formed for his eternal ends.
Hope never wearies, never fails :
With death-like grasp the hunter clings;
prays, his cruel lot bewails,
And east and west wild glances flings.
His agile foot is firmly set;
Corpse-like he stands and motionless;
One move upon that parapet
Might plunge him in the dark abyss.
Its scorching beams the journeying sun
Darts down into the deep ravine,
Heaping a thousand tortures on,
But not a ray of hope divine.
The hunter shouts; the rocks resound
His voice in empty mockery;
He sees the startled chamois bound,
He hears the avalanche reply:—
"Thou tyrant, Death, who long hast sought And tracked me on my daily path,
And thinkest Fate at length has brought
A victim to thine envious wrath.
Still undismayed I'll stand, and dare
To hang on hope, whilst yet I may;
Great Heaven, vouchsafe my strength to spare
Through the dark terrors of to-day!
"For well I know, if, unsubdued
By frost and hunger, still I live,
My Hans will seek this solitude,
And give the aid the brave can give.
Yet, fool! why hop'st thou to remain
Till morn, returning, greet thy sight?
What strength, what courage shalt thou gain,
To nerve thee through the livelong night?"
LXIX. THE SAME SUBJECT, CONCLUDED.
THE sun through rising mists the while
Gray Freiberg's slaty summits fires,
On Tödi throws one golden smile,
Then, sinking to the vale, expires.
Now gloomy darkness moves abroad;
Black lowering clouds are gathering in ;
Bravely they bear their thunder-load,
Fringed by the pale moon's glimmering.
Trust not that sullen calm-'tis o'er!
The storm is bursting in the sky;
That distant, slowly-swelling roar
Heralds its dreadful revelry.
Freiberg is a mountainous range in the canton of Glarus. Todi, or Dödi, is a lofty peak in the same canton. They are about fourteen miles apart.
With lurid glare the tempest breaks,
The rolling thunder cracks amain,
The glaciers clash, the mountain shakes,
The clouds let loose th' imprisoned rain.
"Thy wakened wrath is great, O Lord! Thine awful judgment who may face? And will not heavenly love afford
Some comfort from the source of grace? Ah, no! these lightnings flash despair; Unnerved I tremble in the storm; Thy fierce displeasure will not spare, But crush me like the abject worm."
Confounded by the maddening strife,
His courage fails, his fears increase,
He clings convulsively to life-
He feels the tempest's fury cease:
The clouds disperse-in deep dark blue,
The stars repose with mellowed light.
His strength revives! Hope beams anew,
And cheers him onward through the night.
Now on the death-pale glacier's brow
One roseate blush proclaims the morn;
The fading stars, with fainter glow,
Bear witness that a day is born.
“And shall the light once more appear?
And shall I once again be free?
Great God, in mercy lend thine ear:
Behold - forgive-O, rescue me!
"Ere noon my grief may turn to joy, Or Hope departing toll my knell: Then fare ye well, my wife, my boy,
Ye dearest ties on earth, farewell!"
With stronger gripe he clasps the rock:
O, there is anguish in that groan !
With parchéd lips he stoops to suck
The rime from off the barren stone.
The sun's impatient chariot wheels
The clear expanse of heaven ascend;
His fevered brain tormented reels,
And longs for the approaching end.
His fingers scarce retain their grasp,
His breath grows thick, his blood runs cold; He cries with agonizing gasp,
"O God, I can no longer hold."
"Guided by light from heaven I reached
This unknown region of despair;
But, what terrors must have bleached,
In one short night, thy raven hair!"
* Rime, hoar frost.
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