BL ANN AID. 



No voice disturbs the silent air 



On lonely hill or brake 

 The merry horn is waking there 



No echo on the lake. 



And she looks at the forest, that lady fair, 

 As if she feared that some foe was there ; 

 And her brow it glows, and her cheek it is flushed, 

 As the sudden blood from her bosom rushed, 

 Dyeing it with that hue which gives 

 To the rose's and lily's mingled leaves 

 That blended beauty, whose loveliness 

 Might be shaded by more of each, or less : 

 And her heart beats high, as if with that beat 

 Which would rise for a lover alone at her feet. 



IV. 



As falls the twilight's silent hour, 

 Why steals that lady to the bower, 

 And with a step so slow so still, 

 As proves a consciousness of ill ? 

 For if one wayward breath of air 

 But wanton with the aspen there, 

 She starts, as though the noiseless stir 

 Had menaced danger dark to her ; 

 The very wave that poured along 

 Its lulled and melancholy song, 

 Was loud as tho' a thousand streams 

 Had roused her from her midnight dreams. 



V. 



Whate'er she felt, is felt no more : 

 Her fears, her hopes, her doubts are o'er 

 One moment sees her pausing there 



Within that twilight grove, 

 As tho' she gathered strength to bear 



Th' abandonment of love. 

 The next oh ! how her neck and face 

 Are burning in that wild embrace ! 

 The beating of her heart is thrill'd, 

 As if that shock of rapture still'd 

 In all its heat that fiery blood 

 Which rushed in its volcanic flood ! 



VI. 



And who is he within whose arms 

 Reposed those almost lifeless charms, 

 And whose the lips that, hot and quick, 

 Are straying o'er that glowing cheek ? 

 'Tis he who won her by the sword 

 'Tis he but not her wedded lord ; 

 And he is come to claim that heart 

 Whose throbbings could not live apart 

 From him, tho' time and distance strove 

 To wean her from unhallowed love. 

 Alas ! that still and stealthy pace, 

 That blush of guilt upon her face, 

 That timid glance that start which shan 

 So sudden sends along her frame : 

 The terror lest some prying eye 

 The weakness of her heart may spy 



