BIOGRAPmCAL SKETCH. Xxiii 



J'avais douze ans, je crois: depuis celle soirée 



Qui laissa dans mon ûmc une trace dorée, 



Bien d'autres ont passé sans jamais affaiblir 



L'éclat dont celle-là les (ait toutes pfdir. 



Oui, vous serez toujours mon bonheur et ma i^loirr; 



Rien ne vous ternira dans ma chaste mémoire, 



sacrés souveuire Cjue j'adore à genoux, 

 Et je resterai pur et vierge comme vous ! 



Pau, 22 février, 1813. 



Translation.* 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHILDHOOD. 



"Dolce color d'oriental pafiiro."— Dante. 



"While I was still an infant, fresh and fliir. 

 With pure calm brow beneath my sunny hair, 

 j\Iy days in study, prayer, and childish play, 

 In solitude untroubled passed away. 



Our little house beside a convent stood, 



"Where oft I prayed before the Holy Rood. 



Saint Ursula ! — as the dear name I say, 



Come thronging thoughts of years long passed away; 



"When happy peace winged every Heeling hour, 



And Spring within my soul burst into flower. 



1 love thee ! though within thy church's walls 

 The sunshine through no pictured window falls, 

 JMaking a twilight in the dreamy air ; 



No stately nave or sculptured frieze is there. 

 I love thee ! though no dainty carvings line 

 Thy ancient Avails, nor o'er them ivies twine ; 

 No proud bell-towers, whose chiming melodies 

 Outdo the birds that warble in the skies ; 



* For the very felicitous translation of this poem, by Lucy Fouu^ain, I am 

 indebted to Putnam's Magazine for December.— L. W. B. 



