“My soul was proud, nor brooked restraint—­was proud, and I was young;
And with an eager joyancy I heard his flattering tongue
Proclaim me not of beggars born—­yea, as he speaking died,
I—­greedy—­mad to know the rest—­stood cursing by his side.

“I looked upon the homely garb that told my dwelling-place—­
It hung upon me heavily—­a token of disgrace! 
I fled the house—­I went to sea—­was by a wretch impressed,
The stamp of whose brutality is printed on my breast.

“Like vilest slave he fettered me, my flesh the irons tore—­
Scourged, mocked, and worse than buried me upon a lifeless shore,
Where human foot had never trod—­upon a barren rock,
Whose caves ne’er echoed to a sound save billows as they broke.

“’Twas midnight; but the morning came.  I looked upon the sea,
And a melancholy wilderness its waters were to me;
The heavens were black as yonder cloud that rolls beneath our feet,
While neither land nor living thing my eager eyes could meet.

“I naked sat upon the rock; I trembled—­strove to pray;
Thrice did I see a distant sail, and thrice they bore away. 
My brain with hunger maddening, as the steed the battle braves,
Headlong I plunged from the bare rock and buffeted the waves.

“Methought I saw a vessel near, and bitter were my screams,
But they died within me echoless as voices in our dreams;
For the winds were howling round me, and the suffocating gush
Of briny horrors rioted, the cry of death to crush.

“My senses fled.  I lifelessly upon the ocean slept;
And when to consciousness I woke, a form before me wept. 
Her face was beautiful as night; but by her side there stood
A group, whose savage glances were more dismal than the flood.

“They stood around exultingly; they snatched me from the wave—­
Stole me from death—­to torture me, to sell me as a slave. 
She who stood o’er me weeping was a partner of my chains. 
We were sold, and separation bled my heart with deeper pains.

“I knew not what her birth had been, but loved her with a love
Which nor our tyrant’s cruelty nor mockery could move. 
I saw her offered to a Moor—­another purchased me;
But, Heavens! my arms once fetterless, ere midnight I was free!

“Memory, with eager eye, had marked her master’s hated door—­
I grasped a sabre, reached the house, and slew the opposing Moor. 
I bore her rapidly away; a boat was on the beach—­
We put to sea—­saw morning dawn ‘yond our pursuers’ reach

“I gazed upon her silently—­I saw her sink to sleep,
As darkness gathered over us upon the cheerless deep;
I saw her in her slumber start—­unconsciously she spoke—­
Oh death!—­she called upon his name who left me on the rock!

“Then there was madness in my breast and fury in my brain—­
She never heard that name from me, yet uttered it again! 
I started forth and grasped her hand—­’Are we pursued?’ she cried—­
I trembled in my agony, and speechless o’er her sighed.