To this of course the assent was universal. The sightless brethren put their harps in time: Ap Rees enriched the strain with his harmonious chords, whilst Williams led and sung, as here ensues—
“Fearless of danger, I prepare to roam
O’er seas, whose angry billows rage and foam;
An amulet there is, that guards my breast,
Whose power can charm the loudest storm to rest.
It is the image of my darling maid,
An image by no mortal hand pourtray’d;
Love, the great master, grav’d it on my heart,
And, ere time mars it, life and I must part.
Is it for loss of me that I descry
That tearful cherub in my fair-one’s eye?
Believe it, Love, we part to meet again,
And purchase years of bliss with hours of pain.
Full well I know what title he must prove,
Whose hope aspires to gain an angel’s love;
Therefore I go, though fond affection pleads,
Where duty warns me, and where honour leads.
Farewell to all that’s good and all that’s dear!
Vice hath no pow’r that Virtue ought to fear:
Link’d to my home, whatever course I take,
The chain may lengthen, but can never break.”
If our hero John was, as I suspect, the author of these lines, it is plain he was more in love with his mistress, than his muse was with her poet: But young men are very apt to scratch, when the itch of scribbling is upon them.
CHAPTER III.
Our Hero takes his Departure from Kray Castle.
Amelia, who had counted every hour during a sleepless melancholy night, rose with the break of day, and light of foot, though with a heavy heart, flitted along the gallery in the dusk, and gently tapping at the chamber door, where John and she had mutually agreed to pass a parting hour, was instantly admitted by her lover, accoutered for his journey.
Of this scene I must decline to attempt a description. I could say nothing new to such of my readers, who know by experience how exquisitely pure those feelings are, which virtuous love inspires; and on such, as have not that experience, my labour would be lost. In short it was an interview between two young persons, firmly affianced and fondly attached to each other, and how delicately that must pass, which honour conducts on one part, and innocence on the other, there needs no ghost to tell us.