“Ye scenes, that flit my memory o’er,
    Deck’d in the smiles which then ye wore,
    In the same gay and varied dress,
    I cannot but admire and bless! 
    What though some anxious throbs would beat,
    Some fears within my breast retreat,
    Yet then I found sincere delight,
    Whenever beauty met my sight,
    Whether of nature, chance, or art;
    Each sight, each sound, impress’d my heart,
    Gladness undrooping to revive,
    All warm, and grateful, and alive! 
    But ere my spirit sinks, so strong
    Remembrance weighs upon the song,
    Pass we to other themes along!

      “Say, is there any present here,
    Whom I can have a cause to fear?—­
    Whom it were wrongful to perplex,
    Or faulty policy to vex? 
    In what affrights the quiet mind
    My bitter thoughts employment find! 
    In what torments a common grief
    Do I alone expect relief! 
    Our aching sorrows to disclose,
      Our discontents, our wrongs repeat,
    To hurl defiance at our foes,
      And let the soul respire, is sweet! 
    All that my conscience wills I speak
    At once, and then my heart may break!

      “Too sure King Henry’s presage rose;—­
    De Brehan link’d him with our foes: 
    Yes! ours! the Brehans us’d to be
    Patterns of faith and loyalty: 
    And many a knightly badge they wore,
    And many a trace their ’scutcheons bore,
    Of noble deeds in days of yore,—­
    Of royal bounty, and such trust
    As suits the generous and the just.

    “From every record it appears,
    That Normandy three hundred years
    Has seen in swift succession run
    With English kings, from sire to son: 
    But which of all those records saith,
    That we may change and barter faith: 
    That if our favour is not sure,
    Or our inheritance secure;
    If envy of a rival’s fame,
    Or hatred at a foeman’s name,
    Or other reason unconfest,
    Now feigning sleep in every breast;
    Upon our minds, our interest weigh,
    While any fiercer passion sway;
    We may invite a foreign yoke,
    All truth disown’d, allegiance broke? 
    Plot, and lay guileful snares to bring,
    At cost of blood, a stranger king? 
    And of what blood, if it succeed,
    Do ye atchieve the glorious deed? 
    Not of the base! when ye surprize
    A lurking mischief in the eyes,
    Dark hatred, cunning prompt to rise,
    And leap and catch at any prey,
    Such are your choice! your comrades they! 
    But if a character should stand
    Not merely built by human hand;
    Common observances; the ill
    Surrounding all; a wayward will;
    Envy; resentment; falsehood’s ease
    To win its way, evade, and please: 
    If, turning from this worldly lore,