XII.

And now, upon a knoll beside the Lake,
Embowered with trees their resting-place they make;
The savoury light repast was over, won
By Manu's indefatigable gun,
Whose echo through the day they oft had caught
Faint from the glens or o'er the waters brought
page 345 Their young elastic spirits they resigned
To the soft hour's delicious influence,
And the full consciousness of all the bliss
Of love like theirs in such a life as this;
As sweet and free to their enamoured sense
As the pure air without a sound or sigh
They breathed in its sunlit serenity.
The solitude—the stillness so intense—
The blue ethereal lake—the liquid sky—
The silent banks and bluffs that watched around;—
The silent beams that broadly visible streamed
Through limpid veils of atmosphere, and gleamed
Along the silent hills that looked, spell-bound,
As if they felt the shadows o'er them grow,
From every fold and crevice creeping slow
And linking to exclude each slanting ray
That slumberous on their burnished shoulders lay;—
Or where those faint cliffs seemed in fading day
Refining to a vision far away—
Soft tints aerial—tender streaks of shade,
Or mottling stains their painted verdure made;—
All was so rapt and mute and motionless—
The pictured dream of lonely loveliness
Diffused o'er hearts that needed no such balm
The soft contagion of its soothing calm!
Twin hearts—mere atoms in the wide expanse—
They seemed absorbed in its voluptuous trance;
Yet 'twas the rapturous love that through them thrilled
That rather into Nature's frame instilled
Their own impassioned warmth, until it glowed
As fit for spirits in bliss some high divine abode!
page 346 Now Sunset's hushed and awful Splendour fills
The solemn scene;—transfigures heaven and earth
With luminous glory as in strange new-birth;
Clothes with vermilion woods the Eastern hills;
And where the Lake should spread its glassy length
Leaves a great hollow of one hue—blood-red
As the mysterious garments round Him rolied
Who travelling in the greatness of his strength,
In glory of apparel unalloyed,
Though stained like one who doth the winepress tread,
From Edom and from Bozrah came of old.
A single bar of light, a silver thread—
Stretched o'er the incarnadined and hollow void—
Betrays the viewless surface. On each hand
See how the headlands glow in solid gold!
See in the midst that mighty Mountain stand
One ruby!—deepening off through bluer shade
And bluer, towards the North the hills and sky
Lose more and more of that ensanguined dye—
Through all the purples of the pansy fade;
And in their darkest, most impressive gloom,
Rival the richest violet's loveliest bloom.

And Amo felt the evening;—felt
The solemn tenderness that dwelt
In all that gorgeous flood of pride
And splendour, spreading far and wide
Into her kindred spirit melt:
And nestling close to Ranolfs side
As half in sport and half in fear—
"Hush! "—whispered she, quite serious-eyed—
"Some awful Spirit must be near!—
page 347 What is it else that from the deep
Abyss o'erhead, seems so to creep
And creep—and ever nearer steal,
As though the heavens above us bending
Were closing round us—slow descending!—
Not evil though, that Spirit, I feel!
Hut like some gentle boundless arm
Encircling us—in shelter warm
Infolding us from hurt or harm;
Close to us, yet unheard, unseen:
Just as I felt you bending down
One morn above our couch of fern,
Which you had left so soon, to learn
What bird it was whose strange new cry
('Twas that blue crane with bristly crown—
You recollect?) we heard so nigh;
And I, unknowing your return
Lay half-awake nor wooing sleep;
With eyes just lightly shut to keep
Your image there with clearer glow,
And play with it in fancy so;
In dreamy bliss—such full content—
Somehow as calm and innocent,
It seemed, as when in infant days
Upon a mother's breast I leant;
So loath was I my lids to raise;
Or my fantastic joy resign
Till I should be no more alone!—
But you had stol'n towards me unknown;
And though I neither saw nor heard,
I felt your face approach my own:
Your lips were almost touching mine,
But did not—and no limb you stirred;
page 348 J neither heard nor felt your breath,
For you were silent—still as death;
And yet I knew your presence dear,
I knew that it was you so near,
Pausing before you would impress
Of fond and playful tenderness.
But that was Love—made me so wise,
To see without the use of eyes;
And know who 'twas did by me stand,
Without the aid of ear or hand:
No tongue to speak—no limb to move,
Was needed for ray heart to prove
That near approach of Love to Love! "—

"Yes—that was Love! and this, as well,
This solemn, sweet, absorbing spell,
This charm diffused o'er heaven and earth,
In Love may have its hidden birth!
For all that Reason—Science—guess,
It stands a mystery, none the less;—
A symbol why not so designed.
To do just what we find it do?
Impress upon the human Mind
A soothing sense of Love as true,
As warm and true as mine and thine,
But infinite—and all divine!—