How fearfully my step resounds
Along these lonely bounds:—
Spare, savage blast! the taper's quiv'ring fires,
Deep in these gath'ring shades its flame expires.
Ye host of heaven! the door recedes—
It mocks my grasp—what unseen hands
Have burst its iron bands?
No mortal force this gate unbarr'd
Where danger lives, which terrors guard—
Dread powers! its screaming hinges close
On this dire scene of impious deeds—
My feet are fix'd!—Dismay has bound
My step on this polluted ground—
But lo! the pitying moon, a line of light
Athwart the horrid darkness dimly throws,
And from yon grated window chases night.—
III.
Ye visions that before me roll,
That freeze my blood, that shake my soul!
Are ye the phantoms of a dream?
Pale spectres! are ye what ye seem?
They glide more near—
Their forms unfold!
Fix'd are their eyes, on me they bend—
Their glaring look is cold!
And hark!—I hear
Sounds that the throbbing pulse of life suspend.
IV.
"No wild illusion cheats thy sight
"With shapes that only live in night—
"Mark the native glories spread
"Around my bleeding brow!
"The crown of Albion wreath'd my head,
"And Gallia's lilies[A] twin'd below—
"When my father shook his spear,
"When his banner sought the skies,
"Her baffled host recoil'd with fear,
"Nor turn'd their shrinking eyes:—
"Soon as the daring eagle springs
"To bask in heav'n's empyreal light,
"The vultures ply their baleful wings,
"A cloud of deep'ning colour marks their flight,
"Staining the golden day:—
"But see! amid the rav'nous brood
"A bird of fiercer aspect soar—
"The spirits of a rival race[B],
"Hang on the noxious blast, and trace,
"With gloomy joy his destin'd prey;
"Inflame th' ambitious with that thirsts for blood,
"And plunge his talons deep in kindred gore.
[A] Henry the Sixth, crowned when an infant, at Paris.
[B] Richard the Third, by murdering so many near relations, seemed to
revenge the sufferings of Henry the Sixth, and his family, on the
House of York.
V.
"View the stern form that hovers nigh,
"Fierce rolls his dauntless eye
"In scorn of hideous death;
"Till starting at a brother's[A] name,
"Horror shrinks his glowing frame,
"Locks the half-utter'd groan,
"And chills the parting breath:—
"Astonish'd Nature heav'd a moan!
"When her affrighted eye beheld the hands
"She form'd to cherish, rend her holy bands.
[A] Richard the Third, who murdered his brother the Duke of Clarence.