214 
Tumultuous orisons ; the spacious world 
Lives but in him that is its life. But he, 
Disdainful of the universal homage, 
Holds his calm way, and vindicates for his own 
Th’ illimitable heavens, in solitude 
Of peerless glory unapproachable. 
What means thy proud undazzled look, to adore 
Or moek, ungracious ¢ 
Margarita. On yon burning orb 
I gaze, and say, Thoumightiest work of him _ 
That launch’d thee forth, a golden-crowned bride- 
groom, 
To hang thy everlasting nuptial lamp 
In the exulting heavens. In thee the light, 
Creation’s eldest-born, was tabernacled. 
To theo was given to quicken slumbering nature, 
And lead the season’s slow vicissitude 
Over the fertile breast of mother earth ; 
Till men begen to stoop their grovelling prayers 
Fron the Almighty Sire of all to thee— 
And I will add,—Thou universal emblem, 
Hung in the forehead of the all-seen heavens, 
Of him, that with the light of righteousness 
Dawn’d on our latter days; the visitant day spring 
Of the benighted world. Enduring splendour! 
Giant refresh’d! that evermore renew’st 
Thy flaming strength ; nor even shalt thou cease, 
With time coeval even till Time itself, 
Hath perish’d in eternity. Then thou 
Shalt own, from thy apparent deity 
Debased, thy mortal nature, from the sky 
Withering before the all-entightening Lamb, 
W hose radiant throne shall yuench all other fires. 
Cailias. And yet she stands unblasted! In thy 
mercy 
Thou dost remember all my faithfol vows, 
Ripperien ! and suspend the fiery shaft 
That quivers onthy string. Ah! not on her, 
This innocent, wreak thy fury! Iwill search, 
And thou wilt lend me light, although they shroud 
In deepest Orcus, I will pluck them forth, 
And set them up a mark for all thy wrath; 
Those that beguiled to this unholy madness 
My pure and blameless child. Shine forth, shine 
ort. 
Apollo! and we'll have onz full revenge! 
The scene is next transferred to the 
Prefect’s hall of justice,whither the cap- 
tured christians are brought for judg- 
ment, and, amongst the rest, Margaret, 
who has been seized in company with 
Fabius, the patriarch of her sect, and 
who now stands before the Prefect, her 
lover, and the priest, her father, to re- 
ceive her sentence at their hands. The 
whole scene is well imagined, and for- 
cibly written. It is succeeded by an 
interview between the father and child 
in the prison. The spirit of the parent 
is broken down, and he forgets, in his 
sorrow, the supposed guilt of the apos- 
tate priestess. 
Daughter! when thon serv’dst 
Thy fathers’ gods, thou wert not thus! the sun 
Was brightest where thou wert—beneath thy feet 
Flowers grew. Thou sat’st like some unclouded 
star 
Tnsphered jn thine own light and joy, and mad’st 
The world around thee beauteous; now, cold earth 
Must be thy couch to-night, to-morrow mora— 
—— What means that musie ?—~ Oh, I us’d tolove 
Those evening harpings once, my child! 
Margarita. I hear 
The maids; beneath the twilight they are thronging 
To Daphne, and they carol as they pass. 
Caliias. Thou canst not go. 
Margarita. Lament not that,.my father. 
Callias. Thou must breathe here the damp and 
stifling ai. 
Margarita. Nay, listen not. 
Callias. They call us hence. Ah! ne, 
My gentle child, in vain wouldst thou distract 
News from Parnassus...No. XVI. 
| April 1, 
My rapt attention from each well-known note, 
Once hallow’d to mine ear by thine own voice, 
ie made Antioch vacant, drawing after 
thee 
The throngang youth, which cluster’d all around 
thee 
Like bees around their queen, the happiest they 
That were the nearest. Oh, my child! my child! 
The virgins of Apollo are heard, as 
they pass by, and their evening song is 
very beautifully written. As the night 
advances, Margaret is led forth to a 
splendid palace, where the strongest 
trial of her faith is made, in the choice 
of good or evil, held out to her by the 
Prefect, to whom she is devotedly at- 
tached, and who presents the contrast 
to her senses in the strongest colours : 
Olybius. Sweet Margarita, 
Give me thine hand—for once—Oh! snowy trea- 
sure, — 
That shall be mine thus fondly clasp’d for ever. 
Now, Margarita, cast thine eyes below— 
W hat seest thou? 
Margarita. Here Apollo’s temple rests 
Its weight a its snow-white columns. There 
The massy shades of Daphne, with its streams, 
That with their babbling sounds allure the sight, 
Where their long dim-seen tracts of silvery white- 
ness 
Now gleam, and now are lost again. Beyond 
The star-lit city in its wide repose ; 
Fach tall and allent tower in stately darkness, 
Distinct against the cloudless sky. 
Olybius. Beneath thee, 
Now, to the left? 
Margarita. A dimand narrow court 
I see, where shadows as of hurrying men 
Pass and repass; and now and then their lights 
Wander on shapeless heaps, like funeral piles— 
And there are things of strange distorted shape, 
On which the torebes cast a colder hue, 
As though on iron instruments of torture. 
A little farther, there are moving lamps 
Tn the black amphitheatre, that glance, 
And as they planes, each narrow aperture 
Is feebly gilded with their slanted light. 
It is the quick and busy preparation 
For the dark sacrifice of to-morrow. 
Olybius. There, 
If thou canst add the scorn, and shame, and pain, 
The infuriate joy of the fierce multitude, 
The flowing blood, and limbs that writhe in flame, 
Thou seest what thou preparest for thyself. 
Now what Olybius’ love prepares for thee, 
Fairest, behold * * * * Behold 
Yon throne, whereon the Asiarch holds his state, 
Circled by kings, and more than kingly Romans; 
There by his side shall Margarita sit, 
Olybius’ bride ; with all the adoring city, 
And every province of the sumptuous East, 
Casting its lavish homage at her feet; 
Her life one luxury of love, her state 
One scene of peerless pomp and pride; her will 
The law of spacious kingdoms, and her lord 
More glorious for the beauty of his bride, 
Than for three triumphs. Now, my soul’s beloved! 
Make thou thy choice. 
Margarita. ?Tis made—the funeral pyre. 
The Prefect determines, notwith- 
standing, at all events to save the 
maiden’s life, and although she is 
brought with the other victims to the 
place of execution, it is only with the 
view of shaking her constancy, by mak- 
ing her an eye-witness of the various 
tortures under which they expire. Re- 
fore they are led out to death, the spirit 
of the beautiful martyr rises high with- 
in 
