Well the day's toils are over, with success
I've laboured since the morning, hand in hand
With those I love, & now our foe's distress
Seems gathering to its height, my stalwart band
Desperate in purpose, cool & rock-like press
Near to their aim before another day
We hope to smite our snared & stricken prey

All seems in train for triumph, calm & stern
We see our clouded sun look out again
Not like its summer dawn the white beams burn
But withering chilly, still subdued by rain
The rain of storms that part & still return
In a dim shower sometimes, & momently
Cloud as with tears the light on land & sea

Brief fits of weeping! they can ne'er subdue
The hidden yet glorious sense of victory nigh
I feel it, all whose hearts to me are true
Feel & yet veil the impulse, still no eye
That, deep & secret consciousness may view
Save, that which would flash fierce with sympathy
It is the Avenger's latest hope & he
Waits for its full fruition, — silently!

I've borne too much to boast, even now I know
While I advance to triumph, all my host
So sternly reckless to the conflict go
Because each charm & joy of life they've lost
Because on their invaded thresholds grow[s]
Grass from their children's graves, because the cost
Of their lands's red redemption, has been blood
From gallant hearts poured out in lavish flood

Yet Oh! there is a sure & steadfast glory
In knowing that the scale ascends again
And that when we with age are bent & hoary
And when our children's children spring to men
As we tell o'er this dark invasion's story
How fires of war ran wild through every glen
And crowned each blue hill-top with crimson crest
How then at last we found victorious rest

And did not bow to demons, though their goad
With teeth of iron, urged us to despair
And though men called us rebels as they trode
Upon our yoke-bowed necks, & though the air
The pure air of our mountains, felt the load
Of putrid plague & corpses every where
Lay livid in our lonely homes, & tombs
Ceased to unclose in the rank churchyards-glooms

For none had time to bury, if the rite
Were half-commenced the summons of dismay
The cry to arms, the strange appalling sight
Of squadrons charging, called each friend away
And often thus, even, at the dead of night
Corpses were left alone midst clods of clay
And the armed mourners hurried to repel
The whirlwind onslaught of the tribes of hell

But the bare ravaged land is swept & free
Out of her shattered towns, & blighted fields
The wind has driven the locusts, gallantly
We chased the scum before us, Vengeance wields
A sword none can withstand, & as a tree
To the bleak autumn storm its foliage yields
So scarce resisting, the oppressor flew
As our tornado coming nearer drew

Rising at once, the peasantry hemmed round
Arab & Scot retreating, hearths were quenched
& homes deserted, if some hut was found
To yield a moment's shelter, to the drenched
And starved & ravenous fiends, on the cold ground
No glowing fire gleamed, & trodden bread
& scattered flour, to greet their eyes were spread

Their corpses fell like famished wolves before us
Along the winter-roads, spotting the waste
Of drifted snow, vindictive joy flashed o'er us
As the grim, belted skeletons we past
And were we wrong? and should remorse have tore us
As we beheld them in black ditches cast
Laid under leafless hedges, pale & gaunt
Murdered with hardships, dead with grinding want

Should we have wept? shades of our fathers say
Spirits of our dead comrades rise & tell
Angels of those whose dying relics lay
On beds of pestilence, Speak where ye dwell
Should we have wept?, some in your early day
The plague cut down, like shrunken flowers ye fell
And withered hopeless in a land of slaves
And knew the tyrants would tread o'er your graves

By the last sun you saw, by the wild weeping
That closed your earthly pilgrimage in gloom
By the unhallowed graves where darkly sleeping
You lie forgetful of the sorrowing home
That wails your long departure, vain the sweeping
Of the sweet native breezes o'er your tomb
Icy & mute, you never can return
But bow from heaven & hark what I have sworn

Oh by your memories martyr's, there shall be
Bloody reprisal for your fearful fate
My arm is strung with giant energy
By the convulsing thought that all's too late
New strength, springs from that stinging agony
And firmer resolution, hotter hate
Weep for the pangs of fiends! by God by heaven
I'd kill the man who wept for that, unshriven!

I am alone, it is the dead of night
I am not gone to rest, because my mind
Is too much raised for sleep, the silent light
Of the dim taper streams in unseen wind
And quite as voiceless, on the hearth burns bright
The ruddy ember, now no ear could find
A sound however faint to break the lull
Of which the shadowy realm of dreams is full

So then I've time to think of each event
That hath befallen of late to all below
I've leisure to recall the sudden rent
That tore my heart, a few short weeks ago
T'was at an inn in Calais, & the faint
Cold, sense of death, brought by that deadly blow
Whitened my cheek, & glazed my eyes awhile
Darkness o'erswept the noon-day's sunny smile

In a far foreign land with stranger's round
Reading a journal of my native West
Rung from the black-edged funeral page the sound
Expected & yet dreaded, there the crest
The arms, the name were blazoned & the ground
Marked where the corpse should lie & all exprest
Even to the grim procession, hearse & pall
The grave, the monument to cover all!

I went out sick & dizzy to the street
The air revived me, something inward said
Tis but thine own work finished, time is fleet
And early has the gloomy task been sped
Yet still, tis thy behest, now firmly meet
Its prompt fulfillment, turn thee from the dead
And go on prospering thy way is free
And they are punished, crushed that thwarted thee

Amongst the multitudes of thoughts that came
Rolling upon me I remembered well
My feelings some months since, before this aim
Of death was ripe when it began to swell
And form within my breast & like a dream
The keen & racking recollections fell
How I then watched my prey [and] slowly wrought
My mind to union with the awful thought

Nothing was bodied forth distinctly then
I was too frantic, but at this lone hour
The bitter recollection comes again
Of many a night I spent within her bower
Of all the musings that came o'er me when
Gently asleep beside me lay my flower
Blushing in blissful dreams & pressing nigher
To the dark breast that filled with fire

Watching her thus through many a sleepless night
I never utterly resolved to slay
I could not when — all young & soft & bright
Trusting adoring me in dreams she lay
Her fair cheeks pillowed on the locks of light
That Gleamed upon her delicate array
Veiling with gold her neck & shoulders white
& varying with their rich & silken flow
Her forehead's smooth expanse of stainless snow

Sometime's in sleep she'd put her hand on mine
And fold it in her slight & fairy clasp
As if my fatal thoughts she could divine
And as in terror she would faintly gasp
And nearer closer all around me twine
Holding me with an anxious, jealous grasp
And when I woke & cheered her she would say
She dreamt I'd cast her scornfully away

Often at night after a long day spent
In hearing of her father's mad designs
In toilsomely reclaiming projects bent
By his perverseness, out of the set lines
I'd furrowed in the future, all I meant
With deepest thoughts to execute, the mines
I'd laid most carefully effaced & sprung
And all that loved me by his insults stung

Harrassed by his malignity so cold
And unprovoked & bitter, I've come home
And full of stricken thoughts I never told
Bearing upon my brow my spirits gloom
Entered the atmosphere of aerial gold
Of light & fragrance in my Lady's room
And passing her, unable to reply
To the warm wish of her saluting eye

'Twas strange but Mary never seemed to dread
Or shun me in my ireful mood, she'd steal
Silently to my side & droop her head
And rest it on my knee & gently kneel
Down at my feet & then her raised glance said
Adrian I do not fear though I can feel
You'r gaze is stern & dark, but I can brook
Even ferocity in that fixed look

Sometimes her lips as well as eyes would say
If you are here I'm happy, though in wrath
But when you keep through the long night away
Repose, existence, luxury I loathe
Your presence forms the bright the cheering ray
That makes life glorious, Adrian what can soothe
Your ruffled mind, tell me & I will try
To light the gloom of that denouncing eye

Trouble yourself no more with me I said
The last time she spoke thus, when I took you
Into my bosom Mary, though your head
Was haloed, with the lustre beauty threw
And mind & youth & glowing feeling shed
Yet then I swore that if your father drew
His hand from mine, I'd give him back his gift
Of happiness, & hope & fame bereft

Percy the demon! playing with the feeling
Of an enthusiast's heart, he shall be paid
For his deceit, for his cold treacherous dealing
In miseries keen as those himself has made
Wounds festered deep beyond the power of healing
My part in the great game is also played
I've had his daughter loved her made her mine
And now the bright deposit I'll resign —

Fade love! before his sight, consume away
Reproach him with your dying gaze my Mary
It is his fault, I love you each fresh day
Intenselier than the last, I never weary
Of gazing on that young, pale face whose ray
Of deep, warm, anxious ardour, dashed with dreary
Poetic melancholy — charms me more
Than all the bloom which other eyes adore

" You love me yet you'll kill me! " she said starting
While an electric thrill of passion woke
In all her veins & wild reproaches darting
From her dark eyes, in native heat she broke
Fully upon me, all the calm departing
And classic grace, as if the sudden stroke
Had changed her nature, her most perfect form
Shaken dilated, trembling in the storm

Anger & grief & most impassioned love
Gathered upon her cheek in burning blushes
One with the other, struggling, warring strove
And each by turns prevailed in whelming gushes
She flashed a frantic glance to heaven above
She called me cruel as the fiend that crushes
Its victim after snaring it in toils
Baited with rosy flowers & golden spoils

Why have you chained me to you Adrian by
Such days of bliss, such hours of sweet carressing
Such looks of glory — words of melody
Glimpses of all on earth that's worth possessing
And now when I must live with you or die
Out of your sight distracted, every blessing
Your hand withdraws & all my anguish scorning
You go & bid me hope for no returning!

Adrian don't leave me " then the gushing tears
Smothered her utterance, so I tried my power
To soothe her terrors & allay her fears
And feed her passion with a sunny shower
Of my accustomed spells, as the sky clears
After a summer storm, in one brief hour
Happy & blest she'd given again her charms
Trembling but yet confiding to my arms

Did I think then she'd die & that for ever
The grave would hide her from me, did I deem
That after parting I should never, never
Behold her save in some delusive dream
That she would cross death's cold & icy river
Alone, without one hope one cheering beam
Of bliss to come, all dark, all spectral, dreary
Was this thy fate? my loved my sainted Mary!

Will no voice answer no? will no tongue say
That still she lives & longs & waits for me
That burning still though haply in decay
The spark of life is lingering quenchlessly
And that again the bright awakening ray
Of passion in her pale face I may see
And watch the fervid, lightning thoughts whose shine
Kindled each feature with a beam divine

Again o'er Hawkscliffes wide green wilderness
The harvest moon her boundless smile will fling
Again the savage woods will take their dress
Of dewy leaves from the refulgent spring
Darken in summer, & to autumn pass
In their wan robes of foliage withering
September's eves will close, with dreary light
Of moon & holy stars foretelling night

And shall I never wander in those shades
Where the trees sweep the earth o'ercharged with plumes
Mary! among those solemn moonlight glades
Are all our roamings over? will their glooms
Parting & bending as the breezes swayed
Shadow our love no more, like natural tombs
Where sound breathed out of darkest hush, each grove
Of Giant oaks, buried & watched that love

Others I've met by night, in field & wood
Many a burnside has been my rendezvous
And anxiously impatiently I've stood
Under the sunless sky of sombre blue
While the encroaching gloaming o'er the flood
Crept dark & still, & gathering drops of dew
Hung on the flowers & twilight breezes swung
Chilly & low, the whispering trees among

And some bright eyes are closed that once to me
Were stars of hope & heart's that loved me well
For years have stilled their beating neath some tree
Waving above the mounds where mortals dwell
After they've put on immortality
But long since I have learnt the pangs to quell
Their memories brought & now again, again
Torture is wakened by reviving pain

It cannot be, and has she cold & dying
Been stretched alone, on her forsaken bed
A stormy midnight's voice her requiem crying
And hasting, on the last dark hour of dread
With speed none could avert, and Mary lying
Conscious that death was near, her spirit led
While her soul waved its wings prepared to soar
Back to the days she never might see more

The ghastly trance increasing and above
Her thorny pillow, bent her father's brow
In agony a clouded glance of love
The lady on her sire was seen to throw
Of love & strange reproach — how thought will rove
How scenes we think of suddenly will glow
Present before us, Oh I see him bending
Over his child, I watch her soul ascending

Out of her dying eyes — now is my time
All rushes on me, could I speak the feeling
Now Percy whom in spite of blood & crime
I loved intensely — Dark thy doom is sealing
Am I not well avenged, struck in her prime
Dies thy fair daughter, her last look revealing
Her last word telling — to what hand she owes
Her grave beneath this avalanche of woes

To thine! she's gone aye shudder & stoop lower
Speak, call her back the winged spirit may hear
Paramount ruler, try thine utmost power
Revive thy faded hope, thy blossom sere
Vainly the task of the last awful hour
Is finished, now the cloud the pang, the tear
Are thine for ever, brow & heart & eye
Shall keep till death thy daughter's legacy

Different it might have been, the actual doom
Is such as I have said & Mary's gone
Floating away in light — Grief called her home
Her angel heard & answered, & the sun
Smiles over Alnwick Church & oer the tomb
Where couched in marble lies her corpse alone
And balmy gales come murmuring from each glade
And pastoral walk; where long ago she strayed

I must forget her I must cease to pine
After the days the dreams the hopes I cherished
In truth I could have wished to see the shine
Of her clear eyes before their lustre perished
Their sad soft beam like the subdued decline
Of twilight parting — could I but have nourished
Her languid wasted strength & faded bloom
And taken her to my breast again her home

But that is not vouchsafed & so at last
I must shut out her image from my heart
And mingling that with other glories past
Look back on what I leave before I start
On a divided track, a winter's blast
Howls o'er a desert, where our journeys part
And noon is past the shades of eve draw nigh
Dimly reflected from a stormy sky

Turning amid the driving sleet & rain
I look along the path way she has taken
Now far away, a slip of emerald plain
With lingering sun &, freshened foliage shaken
By a sweet Eden breeze, and once again
I see her like an apparition beckon
In the bright distance, e'er a moment gone
She'll ne'er return tis past & I'm alone

Victory the plumed the crowned, I hear her calling
Again my diadem, my land she flings
Redeemed before me, Glorious sunlight falling
On the vermilion banner, lights its wings
With the true hue of conquest

And alone shall I be when the trumpet is sounding
To tell to the world that my kingdom is free
Alone while a thousand brave bosoms are bounding
The yoke & the fetter-bolt shivered to see

Alone in the hall where the last flash is shining
Of embers that wane in their mid night decay
How shall I feel as the wild gale's repining
Fitfully whispers & wanders away?

What will it tell me of days that will never
Smile on the life-weary mourner again
What will it murmur of hours that for ever
Are past like the spring shower's glitter of rain

Blown by the wind to the verge of the torrent
Cluster the last leaves that fell long ago
Some that are scattered by chance on its current
Withered & light, fleet away in its flow

Sooner shall these on the tree or the flower
Wave in their bloom as they waved ere they fell
Than I shall behold that return of the hour
Whose sorrowful parting the night-breezes tell

Then in the silence her picture will glimmer
Solemn & shadowy, high in the hall
Still as the embers wax dimmer & dimmer
Stirring her life, to their flicker & fall

How shall I feel as the soft eyes revealing
Sweetness, & sorrow gaze down through the gloom
How shall I feel when her image comes stealing
Over me such as she was in her bloom

Twining around, me crowding the tresses
Curled on her white forehead into my breast
Wooing the love that with passionate kisses
Wildly & warmly her beauty carest

Then shall I know that all mutely reposing
Lulled in the slumbering gloom of her shrine
With Death on her white face in shadow disclosing
The trace of his truest and awfullest sign

Then shall I know that her lip would not quiver
Though with the pressure of love it met mine
Then shall I know that no glance can dissever
The sealed lids that cover her eye's ghastly shine

All will be frozen, all cold & unfeeling
Passion forgotten & sympathy gone
Neither a motion, nor murmur revealing
Life, in that colourless image of stone

I shall not see it, for Mary is buried
Far from the Calabar's war-trampled strand
And oh! her career to its dark close was hurried
Many a long league from her own native land

Could she have died with its woods waving round her
Could she have slept with their moan in her ear
Rapt in romance the last slumber found her
Fleeting away on the tone singing near

Oh that the sun of the West had been beaming
Glorious & soft on the bed where she lay
Then she had died not lamenting but dreaming
Borne on the haloes of sunset away!

Had she but known all the love that I bore her
Though I had left her in sorrow awhile
Then when the wing of the spectre swept o'er her
Her death-frozen features had fixed in a smile

But she perished in exile, she perished in mourning
Wild was the evening that closed her decline
She withered for ever, I hope no returning
And tears are so fruitless, I need not repine

God gave the summons, farewell then my Mary
Thou hast found haven, where no tears may swell
Hopeless & weary, and joyless & dreary
I must forget thee, — for ever farewell!