THE TORNADO.
AN AFRICAN SKETCH,—BY THOMAS PRINGLE.
Dost thou love to list the rushing
Of the tempest in its might?
Dost thou joy to see the gushing
Of the torrent at its height?
Hasten forth ere yet the gloaming
Waneth wildly into night,
While the troubled sea is foaming
With a strange phosphoric light.
Lo, the sea-fowl, loudly screaming,
Seeks the shelter of the land;
And a signal light is gleaming
Where yon vesel nears the strand:
Just at sun-set she was lying
All-becalmed upon the main;
Now, with sails in tatters flying,
She to sea-ward beats—in vain!
Now the forest trees are shaking,
Like bullrushes in the gale;
And the folded flocks are quaking
'Neath the pelting of the hail.
From the jungle-cumbered river
Comes a growl along the ground;
And the cattle start and shiver,
For they know full well the sound.
'Tis the lion, gaunt with hunger.
Glaring down the darkening glen;
But a fiercer Power and stronger
Drives him back into his den:
For the fiend TORNADO rideth
Forth with FEAR, his maniac bride.
Who by shipwrecked shores abideth,
With the she-wolf by her side.
Heard ye not the Demon flapping
His exulting wings aloud?
And his mate her wild hands clapping
From yon scowling thunder-cloud?
By the fireflaucht's gleamy flashing
The doomed vessel ye may spy,
With the billows o'er her dashing—
Hark (Oh God!) that fearful cry!
Seven hundred human voices
In that shriek came on the blast!
Ha! the Tempest-Fiend rejoices—
For all earthly aid is past!
White as smoke the surge is showering
O'er the cliffs that sea-ward frown,
While the greedy gulph, devouring,
Like a dragon sucks them down.
The Plates are excellent: two or three fancy portraits beam with loveliness; Christ entering Jerusalem, engraved by E.J. Roberts, from Martin, is a sublime scene of "the glorious city of God;" and Corfu and the Bridge of Alva, from drawings by Purser, maintain the promising excellence of his pencil.
Footnote 1: [(return)]
Copied by permission of the Proprietor.
Footnote 2: [(return)]
Read before the Royal Society of Literature, but since altered by the author.
Footnote 3: [(return)]
For the discovery of the cross, compare Theodoret, lib. i. c. 18; Socrates, lib. i. c. 17; and Sozomen, lib. ii. c. 1, &c.
Footnote 4: [(return)]
De Vita Constant, lib. iii. c. 33.
Footnote 5: [(return)]
St. Cyril ap. Baronium, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 326, No. 50. One whole epistle of St. Paulinis of Nola (the eleventh) is also devoted to this subject.
Footnote 6: [(return)]
The participation of the Jews is positively asserted by Eutychius (Annal. vol. ii. p. 212,) but doubted by Theophanes Chronograph, p. 252:) [Greek: os phasi tines], are his words.
Footnote 7: [(return)]
Eutychius, Annal, vol. ii. p. 242-247.
Footnote 8: [(return)]
Ducange, Gloss. Med. Graec., p. 1437.
Footnote 9: [(return)]
Theophanes, Chronograph. p. 280.
Footnote 10: [(return)]
Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 643. No. 1-4.
Footnote 11: [(return)]
Bede, Op. vol. iii. p. 370. Ed. Colon. Agripp. 1688.
Footnote 12: [(return)]
Epist, lib. 7. indict, i. ep. 34.
Footnote 13: [(return)]
Nicephor. Constantinopolit. p. 20.
Footnote 14: [(return)]
Theophanes, Chronograph. p. 318.
Footnote 15: [(return)]
Chronicon Casinense, lib. iii. c. 55.
Footnote 16: [(return)]
There is some account of its recovery by a Genoese, but it is clouded with miracles. He walked over the sea, as over dry land, &c. See Muraturi, Dissert. 58. vol. v. p. 10, ed. 1741.
Footnote 17: [(return)]
See Raynaldus, Aunual. Eccles. A.D. 1217, No. 39, and Pagi, Critic. A.D. 1187, No. 4.
Footnote 18: [(return)]
See Dupleix, Historic de France, vol. ii. p. 257. ed. 1634. The original authority is Nangis (Annales de St. Louis, p. 174. ed. 1761.) Rigord, who speaks of the sale of this relic to Philip Augustus, appears to be guilty of a fable or anachronism, in which he was follow by Raynaldus, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 1205, No. 60.
Footnote 19: [(return)]
See L'Estoile, Journal de Henri III., vol. i. p. 125, 161, ed. 1744.
Footnote 20: [(return)]
Zech. ch. xiv. ver. 20.
Footnote 21: [(return)]
Annal. Eccles. A.D. 326. No. 54.
Footnote 22: [(return)]
See a Letter from Innocent VI. ap. Raynald Annal. Eccles. A.D. 1354. No. 18.
Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset House,) London, sold by G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; CHARLES JUGEL, Francfort; and by all Newsmen and Booksellers.