23S ORATIONS AND IMPASSIONED PIECES. 



" Treason arm'd against thy life, 

 Points his dagger, whets his knife, 

 Drugs his stupifying bowl, 

 Steels his unrelenting soul. 



" Now 'tis time : ere guilty night 

 Closes, round thee, speed thy flight ; 

 If the threshold once he crost, 

 Duncan! thou'rt for ever lost . 



" On* he goes ! resistless Fate 

 Hastes to fill his mortal date : 

 Cease, ye warnings, vain, though true, 

 Murder'd king, ADIEU ! ADIEU!" 



DR. AIKIN. 



THE SHIPWRECK. 



As the eldest son of Henry I. was returning from Normandy, accompanied by 

 the sons of the principal English nobility, together with Maude, his natural 

 sister, the vessel, through the negligence of the captain, was wrecked, and the 

 whole company, with one single exception, were lost. 



'Twasf night ; and its lovely empress shone 



From her azure canopy, 

 And many a bright and holy star, 

 Glittering in its silvery car, 



Spangled the cloudless sky. 

 And o'er the bosom of the deep 



A vessel rode alone, 

 And proudly sail'd the pennon'd ship, 



For she bore a monarch's son : 

 She bore great Albion's hope and pride, 



The kingly Henry's heir, 

 (And ne'er could England wish a prince 



More virtuous or more fair) ; 

 And with him were a gallant train 



The lovely, young, and brave; 

 And the sound of music and revelry 



Came lightly o'er the wave. 



* Solemn description, with a feeling approaching to horror. 

 t Solemn manner, with an easy, graceful delivery. 



