XXXI.
There are who have, at midnight hour,
In slumber scaled a dizzy tower,
And, on the verge that beetled o’er
The ocean tide’s incessant roar,
Dream’d calmly out their dangerous dream,
Till waken’d by the morning beam;
When, dazzled by the eastern glow,
Such startler[154] cast his glance below,
And saw unmeasured depth around,
And heard unintermitted sound,
And thought the battled fence[155] so frail,
It waved like cobweb in the gale;—
Amid his senses’ giddy wheel,
Did he not desperate impulse feel,
Headlong to plunge himself below,
And meet the worst his fears foreshow?—
Thus, Ellen, dizzy and astound,[156]
As sudden ruin yawn’d around,
By crossing[157] terrors wildly toss’d,
Still for the Douglas fearing most,
Could scarce the desperate thought withstand,
To buy his safety with her hand.