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"And let the song with solemn harping join'd,
"And wailing notes, unfold the tale of woe."
She spoke, and waking thro' the breathing wind,
From lyres unseen the solemn harpings flow.

The song began; "How bright her early morn!
"What lasting joys her smiling fate portends!
"To wield the awful British sceptres born,

"And Gaul's young heir her bridal bed ascends.

"See, round her bed, light floating on the air,

The little Loves their purple wings display;
"When sudden, shrieking at the dismal glare,
"Of funeral torches, far they speed away.

"Far with the Loves each blissful omen speeds,
"Her eighteenth April hears her widow'd moan;
"The bridal bed the sable herse succeeds.

"And struggling factions shake her native throne.

"No more a goddess in the swimming dance

"Mayst thou, O queen, thy lovely form display;
"No more thy beauty reign the charm of France,
"Nor in Versaille's proud bowers outshine the day.

"A nation stern and stubborn to command,

"And now convuls'd with Faction's fiercest rage,
"Commits its sceptre to thy gentle hand,
"And asks a bridle from thy tender age.

"Domestic bliss, that dear, that sovereign joy,
"Far from her hearth was seen to speed away;
"Straight dark-brow'd factions entering in destroy
"The seeds of peace, and mark her for their prey.

"No more by moon shine to the nuptial bower "Her Francis comes, by Love's soft fetters led; "For other spouse now wakes her midnight hour, "Enrag'd, and reeking from the harlot's bed.

"Ah! draw the veil," shrill trembles thro' the air! The veil was drawn, but darker scenes arose, Another nuptial couch the Fates prepare,

The baleful teeming source of deeper woes.

The bridal torch her evil angel wav'd,

Far from the couch offended Prudence fled Of deepest crimes deceitful Faction rav'd,

And rous'd her trembling from the fatal bed.

The hinds are seen in arms, and glittering spears Instead of crooks the Grampian shepherds wield; Fanatic rage the plowman's visage wears,

And red with slaughter lies the harvest fields.

From Borthwick field, deserted and forlorn,
The beauteous queen all tears is seen to fly;
Now thro' the streets a weeping captive borne,
Her woes the triumph of the vulgar eye.

Again the vision shifts the fatal scene,
Again forlorn from rebel arms she flies,

And, unsuspecting, on a sister queen
The lovely injured fugitive relies.

When wisdom baffled owns th' attempt in vain, Heaven oft delights to set the virtuous free: Some friend appears, and breaks affliction's chain, But ah! no generous friend appears for thee.

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A prison's ghastly walls and grated cells

Deform'd the airy scenery as it past;
The haunt where listless melancholy dwells,
Where every genial feeling shrinks aghast.

No female eye her sickly bed to tend!

"Ah! cease to tell it in the female ear; "A woman's stern command! a proffer'd friend! "O generous passion, peace, for bear, forbear!

"And could, O Tudor, could thy breast retain

"No softening thoughts of what thy woes had been, "When thou, the heir of England's crown, in vain, "Didst sue the mercy of a tyrant queen?

"And could no pang from tender memory wake, "And feel those woes that once had been thine own;

"No pleading tear to drop for Mary's sake,

"For Mary's sake, the heir of England's throne?

"Alas! no pleading pang thy memory knew,

"Dry'd were the tears which for thyself had flow'd; "Dark politics alone engaged thy view;

"With female jealousy thy bosom glow'd.

"And say, did Wisdom own thy stern command?
"Did Honour wave his banner o'er the deed?
"No:-Mary's fate thy name shall ever brand,
"And ever o'er her woes shall pity bleed

"The babe that prattled on his nurse's knee, "When first thy woful captive hours began, "Ere heaven, oh hapless Mary! set thee free,

"That babe to battle march'd in arms a man."

A nawful pause ensues- -With speaking eyes,

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And hands half raised the guardian wood nymphs wait While slow and sad the airy scenes arise,

Stain'd with the last deep woes of Mary's fate.

With dreary black hung round the hall appears,
The thirsty saw dust strews the marble floor,
Blue gleams the ax, the block its shoulders rears,
And pikes and halberts guard the iron door.

The clouded moon her dreary glimpses shed,

And Mary's maids, a mournful train, pass by; Languid they walk, and listless hang the head, And silent tears pace down from every eye.

Serene and nobly mild appears the queen,

She smiles on heaven, and bows the injur'd head; The ax is lifted From the dreadful scene,

The guardian turn'd, and all the picture fled.

It fled the wood nymphs o'er the distant lawn,
As wrapt in vision, dart their earnest eyes,
So when the huntsman hears the rustling fawn,
He stands impatient of the starting prize.

The sovereign dame her awful eye-balls roll'd,
As Luma's maid when by the God inspir'd;

"The depths of ages to my sight unfold,"

She cries," and Mary's meed my breast has fir❜d.

"On Tudor's throne her sons shall ever reign, 66 Age after age shall see their flag unfurl'd "With sovereign pride, where ever roars the main, "Stream to the wind, and awe the trembling world.

"Nor in their Britain shall they reign alone,

"Age after age through lengthening time shall see, "Her branching race on Europe's every throne, "And Goths and Vandals bend to them the knee.

"But Tudor as a fruitless gourd shall die;

"I see her death scene- On the lonely floor, "Dreary she sits, cold grief has glass'd her eye,

"And anguish gnaws her till she breathes no more.

But hark!-loud howling thro' the midnight gloom,
Faction is rous'd and sends her baleful yell!

Oh! save, ye generous few, your Mary's tomb,
Oh! save her ashes from the blasting spell :

"And see where Time with brightened face serene, "Points to yon far, but glorious opening sky;

"See Truth walk forth, majestic, awful queen, "And Party's blackening mists before her fly.

"Falsehood unmask'd, withdraws her ugly train, "And Mary's virtues all illustrious shine"Yes, thou hast friends- --the goodlike and humane "Of latest ages, injur'd queen, are thine."

The milky splendors of the dawning ray

Now thro' the groves a trembling radiance shed, With sprightly note the woodlark hail'd the day, And with the moonshine all the vision fled.

FINIS

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