1826.] The Forest Sanclmry. 383 



Inez, the second sister, is thus captivatingly described. 



XLII. 



And she to die ! — she lov'd tlic laughing earth 

 With such deep joy in its frcsli leaves and flowers ! 

 — Was not her smile even as the sudden birth 

 Of a young rainbow, colouring vernal showers ? 

 Yes ! but to meet her fawn- like step, to hear 

 The gushes of wild song, so silvery clear, 

 Whicli, oft unconsciously, in liappier hours 

 Flow'd fi'om her lijjs, was to forget the sway 

 Of Time and Death below, — blight, shadow, dull decay ! 



XLiir. 



Could this eliange be ? — the hour, the scene, where last 

 I saw that form, came floating o'er my mind ; 

 — A golden vintage-eve ; — the heats were pass'd, 

 And, in the freshness of the fanning wind. 

 Her father sat, where gleam'd the first faint star 

 Through the lime-boughs ; and with lier light guitar. 

 She, on the greensward at his feet reclin'd, 

 In his calm face laugh'd up ; some shepherd-lay 

 Singing, as childhood sings on the lone hills at play. 



XLIV. 



And now — oh God ! — the bitter fear of death. 

 The sore ainaze, the faint o'erehadowing dread. 

 Had gnisp'd her ! — panting in her quick-drawn breath, 

 And in her white lijjs quivering;— onward led. 

 She look'd up with her dim bcwilder'd eyes, 

 And there smil'd out her own soft brilliant skies. 

 Far in their sultry southern azure spread. 

 Glowing with joy, but silent ! — still they smil'd. 

 Yet sent down no reprieve for earth's poor trembling child. 



One of the refinements of barbarism, in those hideous sacrifices, was the 

 delay of death. The previous ceremonies were, according to tiie genius of the 

 church, the time, and the nation, so numerous, and so formally gone through, 

 that the victims of the inquisition were often ive{)t in that worse agony than 

 death, for many hours together. The whole preparation for their torture was 

 before their eyes, and they were exposed to the bowlings of the multitude, the 

 more afflicting exhortations of the monks, and the obvious misery of their 

 relatives and friends among the spectators, frequently till the day had gone 

 down, and the execution was left> to be finished in darkness. This scene, and its 

 contrast with the landscape, are powerfully marked in the following description. 

 The Auto da Fe was sometimes held outside the cities. 



L. 

 It died away; — the incense-cloud was driven 

 Before tlie breeze — the words of doom were said ; 

 And the sun faded mournfully from Heaven, 

 —He faded moiu-nfully ! and dimly red. 

 Parting in clouds from those that look'd their last. 

 And sigh'd— " farewell, thou sun !" — Eve glow'd and pass'd — 

 Night — midnight and the moon— came forth and shed 

 Sleep, even as dew, on glen, wood, peopled spot — 

 Save one— a place of death— and there men slumber'd not. 



LI. 

 'Twas not within the city — but in sight 

 Of the snow-crown'd sierras, freely sweeping. 

 With many an eagle's ejTie on the height. 

 And hunter's cabin, by the torrent peeping 

 Far off : and vales between, and vineyards lay, 

 With sound and gleam of waters on their way, 

 And chestnut-woods, that girt the happy sleoping, 



