Big, bright, and fast, unknown to her they fell.
But still her lips refus'd to send—"Farewell!"
"He's gone!"—against her heart that hand is driven,
Convuls'd and quick—then gently rais'd to heav'n;
She look'd and saw the heaving of the main:
The white sail set—she dared not look again;
But turn'd with sickening soul within the gate—
"It is no dream—and I am desolate!"
CANTO I.
The description of Conrad's return from his piratical cruise, the agony of his mind when he finds that his lovely Medora had fallen a sacrifice to her affectionate regard for him, and his sudden departure in a boat, through despair, is equally grand and powerful, and exhibits a fine specimen of the influence of female constancy even on the mind of a man like Conrad, who, from the nature of his pursuits, was inured to the infliction of wrongs on his fellow-creatures.