“From the watch-tower I saw them sail,
    And pour’d forth prayers—­of no avail! 
    Yet, when a tempest howl’d around,
    Hurling huge branches on the ground
    From stately trees; when torrents swept
    The fields of air, I tranquil kept.—­

    “Hope near a fading blossom
      Will often take her stand;
    Revive it on her bosom,
      Or screen it with her wand: 
    But to the leaves no sunbeams press,
      Her fair, thick locks pervading;
    Through that bright wand no dew-drops bless,
      Still cherish’d, and still fading:—­
    Beneath her eye’s bright beam it pines,
    Fed by her angel smile, declines.

      “Eustace, meanwhile, with feverish care,
    Seem’d worse the dire suspense to bear. 
    Bewilder’d, starting at the name
    Of messenger, when any came,
    With body shrinking back, he sought,
    While his eye seem’d on fire with thought,
    Defying, yet subdued by fear,
    To ask that truth he dar’d not hear.

      “He went his rounds.—­The duty done,
    His mind still tending toward his son;
    With spirit and with heart deprest,
    A judgment unsustain’d by rest;—­
    Fainting in effort, and at strife
    With feelings woven into life;
    And with the chains of being twin’d
    By links so strong, though undefin’d,
    They curb or enervate the brain,
    Weigh down by languor, rack by pain,
    And spread a thousand subtil ties
    Across the tongue, and through the eyes;
    Till the whole frame is fancy vext,
    And all the powers of mind perplext.

      “What wonder, then, it sunk and fail’d! 
    What wonder that your plans prevail’d! 
    In vain by stratagem you toil’d;—­
    His skill and prudence all had foil’d;
    For one day’s vigilance surpast
    Seeming perfection in the last. 
    Each hour more active, more intent,
    Unarm’d and unassail’d he went;
    While every weapon glanc’d aside,
    His armour every lance defied. 
    The blow that could that soul subdue
    At length was struck—­but not by you! 
    It fell upon a mortal part—­
    A poison’d arrow smote his heart;
    The winds impelling, when they bore
    Wrecks of the vessel to our shore!

      “Oh! ever dear! and ever kind! 
    What madness could possess thy mind,
    From me, in our distress, to fly? 
    True, much delight had left my eye;
    And, in the circle of my bliss,
    One holy, rapturous joy to miss
    Was mine!—­Yet I had more than this,
    Before my wounds were clos’d, to bear! 
    See thee, an image of despair,
    Just rush upon my woe, then shun
    Her who alike deplor’d a son;
    And, ere alarm had taken breath,
    Be told, my husband, of thy death! 
    And feel upon this blighted sphere