Short was her joy; for foon th' infulting maid By Heav'n's decree in the cold grave was laid,
And as in unrepenting fin she dy'd,
Doom'd to the fame bad place, is punish'd for her pride; Because she deem'd I well deferv'd to die,
And made a merit of her cruelty.
There, then, we met; both try'd and both were caft,
And this irrevocable fentence paft;
That she whom I fo long purfu'd in vain,
Should fuffer from my hands a lingring pain:
Renew'd to life, that she might daily die,
I daily doom'd to follow, fhe to fly;
No more a lover but a mortal foe,
I feek her life (for love is none below :)
As often as my dogs with better speed
Arrest her flight, is the to death decreed.
Then with this fatal fword on which I dy'd,
I pierce her open back or tender fide,
And tear that harden'd heart from out her breast, Which, with her entrails, makes my hungry hounds a feast.
Nor lies the long. but as her fates ordain,
Springs up to life, and fresh to second pain,
Is fav'd to day, to morrow to he flain.
This, vers'd in death, th' infernal knight relates,
And then for proof fulfill'd their common fates;
Her heart and bowels through her back he drew,
And fed the hounds that help'd him to pursue.
Stern look'd the fiend, as fruftrate of his will
Not half fuffic'd, and greedy yet to kill.
And now the foul expiring through the wound,
Had left the body breathless on the ground,
When thus the grisly spectre spoke again:
Behold the fruit of ill rewarded pain:
As many months as I fuftain'd ber hate,
So many years is the condemn'd by fate
To daily death; and ev'ry several place,
Confcious of her difdain, and my disgrace,
Muft witness her just punishment; and be
A scene of triumph and revenge to me.
As in this grove I took my last farewel,
As on this very spot of earth I fell,
As Friday faw me die, so she my prey
Becomes ev'n here, on this revolving day.
Thus while he spoke, the virgin from the ground
Upstarted fresh, already clos'd the wound,
And unconcern'd for all the felt before
Precipitates her flight along the shore:
The hell-hounds, as ungorg'd with flesh and blood
Purfue their prey, and feek their wonted food:
The fiend remounts his courfer; mends his pace,
And all the vifion vanish'd from the place.
Long ftood the noble youth opprefs'd with awe,
And stupid at the wond'rous things he saw
Surpaffing common faith; tranfgreffing nature's law.
He would have been asleep, and wish'd to wake,
But dreams, he knew, no long impression make,
Though ftrong at first: if vision, to what end,
But fuch as muft his future ftate portend?
His love the damfel, and himself the fiend.
But yet reflecting that it could not be
From Heav'n, which cannot impious acts decree,
Refoly'd within himself to fhun the fnare
Which hell for his destruction did prepare;
And as his better genius fhould direct
From an ill cause to draw a good effect.
Infpir'd from Heav'n he homeward took his way,
Nor pall'd his new design with long delay :
But of his train a trusty servant fent;
To call his friends together at his tent.
They came, and usual salutations paid,
With words premeditated thus he faid:
What you have often counfell'd, to remove
My vain pursuit of unregarded love;
By thrift my finking fortune to repair,
Tho' late, yet is at last become my care:
My heart shall be my own; my vast expence
Reduc'd to bounds, by timely providence:
This only I require; invite for me
Honoria, with her father's family,
Her friends, and mine; the cause I shall display,
On Friday'next, for that's th' appointed day.
Well pleas'd were all his friends, the task was light;
The father, mother, daughter, they invite;
Hardly the dame was drawn to this repast;
But yet refolv'd, because it was the laft.
The day was come; the guests invited came,
And, with the rest, th' inexorable dame :
A feast prepar'd with riotous expence,
Much coft, more care, and most magnificence.
The place ordain'd was in that haunted grove,
Where the revenging ghost pursu'd his love:
The tables in a proud pavilion spread,
With flow'rs below, and tissue overhead:
The reft in rank; Honoria chief in place,
Was artfully contriv'd to fet her face
To front the thicket, and behold the chace.
The feaft was ferv'd; the time so well forecast,
That just when the defert, and fruits were plac'd,
The fiend's alarm began: the hollow found
Sung in the leaves, the forest shook around,
Air blacken'd; roll'd the thunder; groan'd the
ground.
Nor long before the loud laments arise,
Of one distress'd, and maftiffs mingl'd cries;
And first the dame came rushing through the wood,
And next the famish'd hounds that fought their food
And grip'd her flanks, and oft effay'd their jaws in
blood.
Laft came the felon on the fable steed,
Arm'd with his naked fword, and urg'd his dogs to
She ran, and cry'd: her flight directly bent,
(A guest unbidden) to the fatal tent,
[ment.
The scene of death, and place ordain'd for punish-
Loud was the noise, aghaft was ev'ry gueft,
The women fhrick'd, the men forefook the feaft;
The hounds at nearer diftance hoarfely bay'd;
The hunter clofe purfu'd the visionary maid,
She rent the heav'n with loud laments,imploring aid.
Some deep defign, which when Honoria view'd,
The fresh impulfe her former fright renew'd:
She thought herself the trembling dame who fled,
And him the grifly ghost that spurr'd th' infernal steed:
The more difmay'd, for when the guests withdrew
Their courteous hoft faluting all the crew,
Regardless pafs'd her o'er; nor grac'd with kind adieu.
That fting infix'd within her haughty mind,
The downfal of her empire the divin'd;
And her proud heart with fecret forrow pin'd.
Home as they went, the fad discourse renew'd
'Of the relentless dame to death purfu'd,
And of the fight obfcene fo lately view'd.
None durft arraign the righteous doom she bore,
Ev'n they who pity'd most yet blam'd her more:
The parallel they needed not to name,
But in the dead they damn'd the living dame.
At ev'ry little noise the look'd behind,
For fill the knight was prefent to her mind:
And anxious oft fhe started on the way,
And thought the horseman-ghost came thund'ring for
Return'd fhe took her bed, with little reft,
But in fhort flumbers dreamt the funeral feaft:
Awak'd, fhe turn'd her fide; and slept again,
The fame black vapours mounted in her brain,
And the fame dreams return'd with double pain.
Now forc'd to wake because afraid to sleep,
Her blood all feaver'd, with a furious leap
She fprung from bed, distracted in her mind,
And fear'd, at ev'ry step, a twitching spright behind.
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