TENERIFFE. 281 



" I have loosen'd the stone on the ruin's height, 

 Where the curtaining ivy grew rank and bright ; 

 I have startled the maid in her couch of down, 

 With a sprinkle of white 'mid her tresses brown ; 

 I have rent from his idols the proud man's hold, 

 And scatter'd the hoard of the miser's gold." 



" Is this all 1 Are thy chronicles traced alone 



On the riven heart and the burial stone ?" 

 *' No, Love's young chain I have twined with flowers ; 



Have awaken'd a song in the rose-crown'd bowers ; 



Proud trophies have rear'd to the sons of fame, 



And paved the road for the cars of flame." 



But the clock struck twelve from the steeple gray. 

 And he seized his hour-glass and strode away ; 

 Yet his hand at parting I fear'd to clasp. 

 For I saw his scythe in his earnest grasp, 

 And read in the glance of his upward eye, 

 His secret league with Eternity. 



Soon after midnight we had to hurry away from 

 the social gathering and get on board, as the steamer 

 fired several guns. There was no occasion, how- 

 ever, for this haste, as we did not weigh anchor 

 until 9 the next morning. 



At 4 p.m. on New Year's Day we sighted the 

 Peak of Teneriffe, and as the nights were too dark 

 to make the anchorage, the engines were stopped 



