CHAPTER XX.
WENERN.
“The Night has covered her beauty. Her hair sighs on Ocean’s wind. Her robe streams in dusky wreaths. She is like the fair Spirit of heaven in the midst of its shadowy mist.
“From the wood-skirted waters of Lago ascend at times grey-bosomed mists, when the gates of the West are closed on the Sun’s eagle eye. Wide over Lara’s stream is poured the vapour dark and deep. The Moon, like a dim shield, is swimming through its folds.
“‘Spread the sail,’ said the King; ‘seize the winds as they pour from Lena.’ We rose on the wave with songs,—we rushed with joy through the foam of the deep.”
Ossian.
“So peaceful, calm, and leaden grey,
Beneath our keel the waters lay,
Parting around the vessel’s prow
With rippling murmur, sweet and low,—