Which yawned upon him through the gloom.

The summer flowers were on their wane;

And silently, like one in pain,

Who hides his pangs from loving eyes,

The brooks looked calmly toward the skies.

A little circle in a wood—

The heart of the old solitude—

Lay wrapped in something more than sleep—

A boding silence, stern and deep.

Suddenly, from a distant bell,