AND so it proved! The nation felt, ere long,
That peaceful signal, and, with blessings fraught,
A new-born joy appear'd; in gladsome song
To hail the youthful princely pair we sought;
While in a living, ever-swelling throng
Mingled the crowds from ev'ry region brought,
And on the stage, in festal pomp array'd
The HOMAGE OF THE ARTS * we saw displayed.
(* The title of a lyric piece composed by Schiller in honour of the marriage of the hereditary Prince of Weimar to the Princess Maria of Russia, and performed in 1804.)
When, lo! a fearful midnight sound I hear,
That with a dull and mournful echo rings.
And can it be that of our friend so dear
It tells, to whom each wish so fondly clings?
Shall death overcome a life that all revere?
How such a loss to all confusion brings!
How such a parting we must ever rue!
The world is weeping,—shall not we weep too?
He was our own! How social, yet how great