70

I was the eldest of the three,

And to uphold and cheer the rest
I ought to do and did—my best,
And each did well in his degree.

The youngest, whom my father loved,
Because our mother's brow was given
75 To him-with eyes as blue as heaven,
For him my soul was sorely moved;
And truly might it be distress'd
To see such bird in such a nest;
For he was beautiful as day

80

(When day was beautiful to me
As to young eagles, being free)—
A polar day, which will not see
A sunset till its summer's gone,

Its sleepless summer of long light,
85 The snow-clad offspring of the sun :
And thus he was as pure and bright,
And in his natural spirit gay,

With tears for nought but others' ills,
And then they flowed like mountain rills,

71. I ought to do.-The Verb ought, originally the past Tense of owe, is now used only as a Present. Hence, if we wish to refer to the past time, the following Verb must be in the Infinitive Perfect, not Present. The expression in the text, therefore, should be, I ought to have done.

73. The youngest...for him my soul was sorely moved.-The intended structure

of the sentence is altered, and the original Subject left without any syntactical connexion.

78. To see.-A very peculiar use of the Infinitive with the force of a Participle. 79, 80, Day and me.-A very bad rhyme, like gone and sun, 83, 85.

81. Being free is to be referred to me, not to young eagles.

90 Unless he could assuage the woe

Which he abhorr'd to view below.

V.

The other was as pure of mind,
But form'd to combat with his kind;
Strong in his frame, and of a mood

95 Which 'gainst the world in war had stood,
And perish'd in the foremost rank

100

105

With joy :-but not in chains to pine:
His spirit withered with their clank,
I saw it silently decline-

And so perchance in sooth did mine;
But yet I forced it on to cheer
Those relics of a home so dear.
He was a hunter of the hills,

Had follow'd there the deer and wolf;
To him this dungeon was a gulf,
And fetter'd feet the worst of ills.

VI.

Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls:
A thousand feet in depth below

Its massy waters meet and flow;

110 Thus much the fathom-line was sent

From Chillon's snow-white battlement,*
Which round about the wave enthrals :

91. Below.-A lingering out of the figure of the mountain rill, but very indistinct in its connexion with that figure.

95. Had, i.e., would have stood, as 141. 97. To pine, must be joined with formed in 93.

107. The Romans called the Lake of Geneva Lacus Lemanus.

* The Château de Chillon is situated between Clarens and Villeneuve, which last

is at one extremity of the Lake of Geneva. On its left are the entrances of the Rhone, and opposite are the heights of Meillerie, and the range of Alps above Bouveret and St. Gingolph.

Near it, on a hill behind, is a torrent; below it, washing its walls, the lake has been fathomed to the depth of 800 feet (French measure); within it are a range of dungeons, in which the early reformers, and

A double dungeon wall and wave Have made and like a living grave. 115 Below the surface of the lake

The dark vault lies wherein we lay,
We heard it ripple night and day;

Sounding o'er our heads it knock'd;
And I have felt the winter's spray

120 Wash through the bars, when winds were high,
And wanton in the happy sky;

And then the very rock hath rock'd
And I have felt it shake, unshock'd,

Because I could have smiled to see
125 The death that would have set me free.

VII.

I said my nearer brother pined,
I said his mighty heart declined;
He loathed and put away his food;
It was not that 'twas coarse and rude,
130 For we were used to hunter's fare,
And for the like had little care :
The milk drawn from the mountain goat
Was changed for water from the moat.
Our bread was such as captives' tears
135 Have moisten'd many a thousand years,
Since man first pent his fellow-men
Like brutes within an iron den :
But what were these to us or him?
These wasted not his heart or limb;
140 My brother's soul was of that mould
Which in a palace had grown cold,

subsequently prisoners of state, were con-
fined. Across one of the vaults is a beam
black with age, on which we were informed
that the condemned were formerly executed.
In the cells are seven pillars, or rather
eight, one being half merged in the wall;

in some of these are rings for the fetters and the fettered: in the pavement the steps of Bonnivard bave left their traces-he was confined here several years.

114. A living grave, i.e., a grave for the living.

Had his free breathing been denied
The range of the steep mountain's side;
But why delay the truth -he died,
145 I saw, and could not hold his head,

Nor reach his dying hand-nor dead,
Though hard I strove, but strove in vain,
To rend and gnash my bonds in twain.
He died and they unlock'd his chain,
150 And scoop'd for him a shallow grave
Even from the cold earth of our cave.
I begg'd them, as a boon, to lay
His corse in dust whereon the day
Might shine-it was a foolish thought,
155 But then within my brain it wrought,
That even in death his freeborn breast
In such a dungeon could not rest.
I might have spared my idle prayer—
They coldly laugh'd—and laid him there :
160 The flat and turfless earth above
The being we so much did love;
His empty chain above it leant,
Such murder's fitting monument !

VIII.

But he, the favourite and the flower,
165 Most cherish'd since his natal hour,
His mother's image in fair face,
The infant love of all his race,
His martyr'd father's dearest thought,
My latest care, for whom I sought

147. But strove in vain.-There is a logical inaccuracy in the addition, but strove in vain, which appears, if we connect the sentence thus,-I could not reach his head, though I strove in vain to rend my bonds, i.e., though I failed to rend my bonds.

160. Supply was.

162. Leant.-A bold figure, representing the chain as a monument leaning over the grave.

170 To hoard my life, that his might be
Less wretched now, and one day free;
He, too, who yet had held untired
A spirit natural or inspired-

He, too, was struck, and day by day
175 Was wither'd on the stalk away.
Oh God! it is a fearful thing
To see the human soul take wing
In any shape, in any mood :—

I've seen it rushing forth in blood,
180 I've seen it on the breaking ocean
Strive with a swoln convulsive motion,
I've seen the sick and ghastly bed
Of Sin delirious with its dread :

But these were horrors, this was woe

185 Unmix'd with such-but sure and slow :
He faded, and so calm and meek,
So softly worn, so sweetly weak,
So tearless, yet so tender-kind,

And grieved for those he left behind;
190 With all the while a cheek whose bloom
Was as a mockery of the tomb,
Whose tints as gently sunk away
As a departing rainbow's ray-
An eye of most transparent light,
195 That almost made the dungeon bright,
And not a word of murmur-not
A groan o'er his untimely lot,-
A little talk of better days,

A little hope my own to raise,
200 For I was sunk in silence-lost
In this last loss, of all the most;
175. On the stalk.-Resuming the picture
of the flower, 164.

184. But these were horrors.-It would be clearer if instead of these we could read those, referring to 179-183.

184. This, i.e., what I now experienced was woe unmix'd with such (horrors).

186. He faded.-See note on 175. There is no antithesis to so calm and meek, &c.

189. Grieved is here a Participle.

201. The most for the greatest is very un usual.