Onward in haste Llewellyn past,
And on went Gelert too;
And still where'er his eyes he cast
Fresh blood-drops shock'd his view!

O'erturn'd his infant's bed he found,
The blood-stain'd covert [1] rent;
And all around the walls and ground
With recent blood besprent. [2]

He call'd his child, no voice replied-
He search'd with terror wild;
Blood, blood he found on every side,
But nowhere found the child!

"Hell-hound! by thee my

The frantic father cried;

child's devour'd!"

And to the hilt his vengeful sword
He plunged in Gelert's side.

His suppliant look, as prone he fell,
No pity could impart ;
Yet mournfully his dying yell
Sunk in Llewellyn's heart.

Arous'd by Gelert's dying yell

Some slumberer wakened nigh; What words the parent's joy can tell, To hear his infant cry!

Conceal'd amidst a mingled heap,

His hurried search had miss'd:

[1] Covert for coverlet, the outermost of the bedclothes.

[2] Besprent-sprinkled.

All glowing from his rosy sleep,
His cherub boy he kiss'd!

Nor wound had he, nor harm, nor dread;
But the same couch beneath,

Lay a great wolf, [1] all torn and dead,
Tremendous still in death!

Ah! what was then Llewellyn's pain,
For now the truth was clear,
The gallant hound the wolf had slain,
And saved Llewellyn's heir.

Vain, vain was all Llewellyn's woe;
"Best of thy kind, adieu!

The frantic deed which laid thee low,
This heart shall ever rue!" [2]

And now a gallant tomb they raise,
With costly sculpture deckt;
And marbles, storied [3] with his praise,
Poor Gelert's bones protect.

Here never could the spearman pass,
Or forester, unmoved;

Here oft the tear-besprinkled grass
Llewellyn's sorrow proved.

And here he hung his horn and spear,
And oft, as evening fell,

In fancy's piercing sounds would hear

Poor Gelert's dying yell!

[1] Wolf-wolves were at this time numerous and formidable in Wales.

[2] Rue-regret, lament.

[3] Storied-engraved, or written over.

And till great Snowdon's rocks grow old,
And cease the storm to brave,
The consecrated spot shall hold

The name of "GELERT'S GRAVE."

W. Spenser.

156.-TO THE SKY-LARK.

Bird of the sweet and early wakening hour!
When dew-drops sparkle o'er the lea,
Ere yet upon the bending flower

Has lit the busy humming bee ;

Pure as all nature is to thee

Thou, with an instinct half divine,
Wingest thy fearless flight so free,
Up toward a yet more glorious shrine.
Bird of the morn! from thee might man,
Creation's lord, a lesson take;
If thou, whose instinct ill may scan
The glories that around thee break,
Thus bidd'st a sleeping world awake

To joy and praise; Oh! how much more Should mind immortal earth forsake,

And man look upward to adore !

157.

Bernard Barton.

THE SANDAL TREE.

The best revenge is love:-disarm

Anger with smiles: heal wounds with balm ;
Give water to thy thirsting foe.

The sandal tree, as if to prove
How sweet to conquer hate by love,
Perfumes the axe that lays it low.

S. C. Wilkes.

158.-REASONS FOR MIRTH.

The sun is careering in glory and might
Mid the deep blue sky and the clouds so bright;
The billow is tossing its foam on high,

And the summer breezes go lightly by ;
The air and the water dance, glitter and play-
And why should not I be as merry as they?

The linnet is singing the wild wood through,
The fawn's bounding footstep skims over the dew;
The butterfly flits round the flowering tree,
And the cowslip and blue-bell are bent by the

bee;

All the creatures that dwell in the forest are gay, And why should not I be as merry as they?

Miss Mitford.

159.-INSECTS.

What atom forms of insect life appear!
And who can follow nature's pencil here ?
Their wings with azure, green, and purple gloss'd,
Studded with colour'd eyes, with gems emboss'd,
Inlaid with pearl, and mark'd with various stains
Of lively crimson through their dusky veins.
Some shoot like living stars athwart the night,
And scatter from their wings a vivid light,
To guide the Indian to his tawny loves,

As through the wood with cautious step he moves.
See the proud giant of the beetle race;
What shining arms his polish'd limbs enchase!

Like some stern warrior, formidably bright,
His steely sides reflect a gleaming light:
On his large forehead spreading horns he wears;
And high in air the branching antlers bears:
O'er many an inch extends his wide domain,
And his rich treasury swells with hoarded grain.
Mrs. Barbauld.

160.-LAPLAND.

"With blue cold nose and wrinkled brow,

Traveller, whence comest thou?"

"From Lapland woods and hills of frost,

By the rapid rein-deer crost;

Where tap'ring grows the gloomy fir
And the stunted [1] juniper ;

Where the wild hare and the crow

Whiten in surrounding snow;

Where the shiv'ring huntsmen tear
His fur coat from the grim white bear ;
Where the wolf and arctic fox
Prowl among the lonely rocks;
And tardy suns to deserts drear
Give days and nights of half a year;
-From icy oceans, where the whale
Tosses in foam his lashing tail;
Where the snorting sea-horse shows
His ivory teeth in grinning rows;
Where, tumbling in their seal-skin boat,
Fearless the hungry fishers float,
And from teeming seas supply
The food their niggard plains deny."

Aikin.

[1] Stunted-hindered from growth, dwarf.