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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Imogen, by William Godwin
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: Imogen
+       A Pastoral Romance
+
+Author: William Godwin
+
+Release Date: September 8, 2003 [EBook #9152]
+[Most recently updated: April 6, 2020]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMOGEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David Garcia and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+Imogen
+
+A Pastoral Romance
+_From the Ancient British_
+
+by William Godwin
+
+
+Contents
+
+ Preface
+ BOOK THE FIRST
+ BOOK THE SECOND
+ BOOK THE THIRD
+ BOOK THE FOURTH
+ BOOK THE FIFTH
+ BOOK THE SIXTH
+
+
+
+
+Preface
+
+[_By_ WILLIAM GODWIN]
+
+
+The following performance, as the title imports, was originally
+composed in the Welch language. Its style is elegant and pure. And if
+the translator has not, as many of his brethren have done, suffered the
+spirit of the original totally to evaporate, he apprehends it will be
+found to contain much novelty of conception, much classical taste, and
+great spirit and beauty in the execution. It appears under the name of
+Cadwallo, an ancient bard, who probably lived at least one hundred
+years before the commencement of our common era. The manners of the
+primitive times seem to be perfectly understood by the author, and are
+described with the air of a man who was in the utmost degree familiar
+with them. It is impossible to discover in any part of it the slightest
+trace of Christianity. And we believe it will not be disputed, that in
+a country so pious as that of Wales, it would have been next to
+impossible for the poet, though ever so much upon his guard, to avoid
+all allusion to the system of revelation. On the contrary, every thing
+is Pagan, and in perfect conformity with the theology we are taught to
+believe prevailed at that time.
+
+These reasons had induced us to admit, for a long time, that it was
+perfectly genuine, and justly ascribed to the amiable Druid. With
+respect to the difficulty in regard to the preservation of so long a
+work for many centuries by the mere force of memory, the translator,
+together with the rest of the world, had already got over that
+objection in the case of the celebrated Poems of Ossian. And if he be
+not blinded by that partiality, which the midwife is apt to conceive
+for the productions, that she is the instrument of bringing into the
+world, the Pastoral Romance contains as much originality, as much
+poetical beauty, and is as happily calculated to make a deep impression
+upon the memory, as either Fingal, or Temora.
+
+The first thing that led us to doubt its authenticity, was the striking
+resemblance that appears between the plan of the work, and Milton’s
+celebrated Masque at Ludlow Castle. We do not mean however to hold
+forth this circumstance as decisive in its condemnation. The
+pretensions of Cadwallo, or whoever was the author of the performance,
+are very high to originality. If the date of the Romance be previous to
+that of Comus, it may be truly said of the author, that he soared above
+all imitation, and derived his merits from the inexhaustible source of
+his own invention. But Milton, it is well known, proposed some
+classical model to himself in all his productions. The Paradise Lost is
+almost in every page an imitation of Virgil, or Homer. The Lycidas
+treads closely in the steps of the Daphnis and Gallus of Virgil. The
+Sampson Agonistes is formed upon the model of Sophocles. Even the
+little pieces, L’Allegro and Il Penseroso have their source in a song
+of Fletcher, and two beautiful little ballads that are ascribed to
+Shakespeare. But the classical model upon which Comus was formed has
+not yet been discovered. It is infinitely unlike the Pastoral Comedies
+both of Italy and England. And if we could allow ourselves in that
+licence of conjecture, which is become almost inseparable from the
+character of an editor, we should say: That Milton having written it
+upon the borders of Wales, might have had easy recourse to the
+manuscript whose contents are now first given to the public: And that
+the singularity of preserving the name of the place where it was first
+performed in the title of his poem, was intended for an ingenuous and
+well-bred acknowledgement of the source from whence he drew his
+choicest materials.
+
+But notwithstanding the plausibility of these conjectures, we are now
+inclined to give up our original opinion, and to ascribe the
+performance to a gentleman of Wales, who lived so late as the reign of
+king William the third. The name of this amiable person was Rice ap
+Thomas. The romance was certainly at one time in his custody, and was
+handed down as a valuable legacy to his descendants, among whom the
+present translator has the honour to rank himself. Rice ap Thomas,
+Esquire, was a man of a most sweet and inoffensive disposition, beloved
+and respected by all his neighbours and tenants, and “passing rich with
+‘sixty’ pounds a year.” In his domestic he was elegant, hospitable, and
+even sumptuous, for the time and country in which he lived. He was
+however naturally of an abstemious and recluse disposition. He abounded
+in singularities, which were pardoned to his harmlessness and his
+virtues; and his temper was full of sensibility, seriousness, and
+melancholy. He devoted the greater part of his time to study; and he
+boasted that he had almost a complete collection of the manuscript
+remains of our Welch bards. He was often heard to prefer even to
+Taliessin, Merlin, and Aneurim, the effusions of the immortal Cadwallo,
+and indeed this was the only subject upon which he was ever known to
+dispute with eagerness and fervour. In the midst of the controversy, he
+would frequently produce passages from the Pastoral Romance, as
+decisive of the question. And to confess the truth, I know not how to
+excuse this piece of jockeyship and ill faith, even in Rice ap Thomas,
+whom I regard as the father of my family, and the chief ornament of my
+beloved country.
+
+Some readers will probably however be inclined to apologise for the
+conduct of Mr. Thomas, and to lay an equivalent blame to my charge.
+They will tell me, that nothing but the weakest partiality could blind
+me to the genuine air of antiquity with which the composition is every
+where impressed, and to ascribe it to a modern writer. But I am
+conscious to my honesty and defy their malice. So far from being
+sensible of any improper bias in favour of my ancestor, I am content to
+strengthen their hands, by acknowledging that the manuscript, which I
+am not at all desirous of refusing to their inspection, is richly
+emblazoned with all the discoloration and rust they can possibly
+desire. I confess that the wording has the purity of Taliessin, and the
+expressiveness of Aneurim, and is such as I know of no modern Welchman
+who could write. And yet, in spite as they will probably tell me of
+evidence and common sense, I still aver my persuasion, that it is the
+production of Rice ap Thomas.
+
+But enough, and perhaps too much, for the question of its antiquity. It
+would be unfair to send it into the world without saying something of
+the nature of its composition. It is unlike the Arcadia of sir Philip
+Sidney, and unlike, what I have just taken the trouble of running over,
+the Daphnis of Gessner. It neither on the one hand leaves behind it the
+laws of criticism, and mixes together the different stages of
+civilization; nor on the other will it perhaps be found frigid,
+uninteresting, and insipid. The prevailing opinion of Pastoral seems to
+have been, that it is a species of composition admirably fitted for the
+size of an eclogue, but that either its nature will not be preserved,
+or its simplicity will become surfeiting in a longer performance. And
+accordingly, the Pastoral Dramas of Tasso, Guarini, and Fletcher,
+however they may have been commended by the critics, and admired by
+that credulous train who clap and stare whenever they are bid, have
+when the recommendation of novelty has subsided been little attended to
+and little read. But the great Milton has proved that this objection is
+not insuperable. His Comus is a master-piece of poetical composition.
+It is at least equal in its kind even to the Paradise Lost. It is
+interesting, descriptive and pathetic. Its fame is continually
+increasing, and it will be admired wherever the name of Britain is
+repeated, and the language of Britain is understood.
+
+If our hypothesis respecting the date of the present performance is
+admitted, it must be acknowleged that the ingenious Mr. Thomas has
+taken the Masque of Milton for a model; and the reader with whom Comus
+is a favourite, will certainly trace some literal imitations. With
+respect to any objections that may be made on this score to the
+Pastoral Romance, we will beg the reader to bear in mind, that the
+volumes before him are not an original, but a translation. Recollecting
+this, we may, beside the authority of Milton himself, and others as
+great poets as ever existed who have imitated Homer and one another at
+least as much as our author has done Comus, suggest two very weighty
+apologies. In the first place, imitation in a certain degree, has ever
+been considered as lawful when made from a different language: And in
+the second, these imitations come to the reader exaggerated, by being
+presented to him in English, and by a person who confesses, that he has
+long been conversant with our greatest poets. The translator has always
+admired Comus as much as the Pastoral Romance; he has read them
+together, and been used to consider them as illustrating each other.
+Any verbal coincidences into which he may have fallen, are therefore to
+be ascribed where they are due, to him, and not to the author. And upon
+the whole, let the imperfections of the Pastoral Romance be what they
+will, he trusts he shall be regarded as making a valuable present to
+the connoisseurs and the men of taste, and an agreeable addition to the
+innocent amusements of the less laborious classes of the polite world.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK THE FIRST
+
+CHARACTER OF THE SHEPHERDESS AND HER LOVER.—FEAST OF RUTHYN.—SONGS OF
+THE BARDS.
+
+
+Listen, O man! to the voice of wisdom. The world thou inhabitest was
+not intended for a theatre of fruition, nor destined for a scene of
+repose. False and treacherous is that happiness, which has been
+preceded by no trial, and is connected with no desert. It is like the
+gilded poison that undermines the human frame. It is like the hoarse
+murmur of the winds that announces the brewing tempest. Virtue, for
+such is the decree of the Most High, is evermore obliged to pass
+through the ordeal of temptation, and the thorny paths of adversity.
+If, in this day of her trial, no foul blot obscure her lustre, no
+irresolution and instability tarnish the clearness of her spirit, then
+may she rejoice in the view of her approaching reward, and receive with
+an open heart the crown that shall be bestowed upon her.
+
+The extensive valley of Clwyd once boasted a considerable number of
+inhabitants, distinguished for primeval innocence and pastoral
+simplicity. Nature seemed to have prepared it for their reception with
+all that luxuriant bounty, which characterises her most favoured spots.
+The inclosure by which it was bounded, of ragged rocks and snow-topt
+mountains, served but for a foil to the richness and fertility of this
+happy plain. It was seated in the bosom of North Wales, the whole face
+of which, with this one exception, was rugged and hilly. As far as the
+eye could reach, you might see promontory rise above promontory. The
+crags of Penmaenmawr were visible to the northwest, and the unequalled
+steep of Snowden terminated the prospect to the south. In its farthest
+extent the valley reached almost to the sea, and it was intersected,
+from one end to the other, by the beautiful and translucent waters of
+the river from which it receives its name.
+
+In this valley all was rectitude and guileless truth. The hoarse din of
+war had never reached its happy bosom; its river had never been
+impurpled with the stain of human blood. Its willows had not wept over
+the crimes of its inhabitants, nor had the iron hand of tyranny taught
+care and apprehension to seat themselves upon the brow of its
+shepherds. They were strangers to riches, and to ambition, for they all
+lived in a happy equality. He was the richest man among them, that
+could boast of the greatest store of yellow apples and mellow pears.
+And their only objects of rivalship were the skill of the pipe and the
+favour of beauty. From morn to eve they tended their fleecy
+possessions. Their reward was the blazing hearth, the nut-brown beer,
+and the merry tale. But as they sought only the enjoyment of a humble
+station, and the pleasures of society, their labours were often
+relaxed. Often did the setting sun see the young men and the maidens of
+contiguous villages, assembled round the venerable oak, or the
+wide-spreading beech. The bells rung in the upland hamlets; the rebecs
+sounded with rude harmony; they danced with twinkling feet upon the
+level green or listened to the voice of the song, which was now gay and
+exhilarating, and now soothed them into pleasing melancholy.
+
+Of all the sons of the plain, the bravest, and the most comely, was
+Edwin. His forehead was open and ingenuous, his hair was auburn, and
+flowed about his shoulders in wavy ringlets. His person was not less
+athletic than it was beautiful. With a firm hand he grasped the
+boar-spear, and in pursuit he outstripped the flying fawn. His voice
+was strong and melodious, and whether upon the pipe or in the song,
+there was no shepherd daring enough to enter the lists with Edwin. But
+though he excelled all his competitors, in strength of body, and the
+accomplishments of skill, yet was not his mind rough and boisterous.
+Success had not taught him a despotic and untractable temper, applause
+had not made him insolent and vain. He was gentle as the dove. He
+listened with eager docility to the voice of hoary wisdom. He had
+always a tear ready to drop over the simple narrative of pastoral
+distress. Victor as he continually was in wrestling, in the race, and
+in the song, the shout of triumph never escaped his lips, the
+exultation of insult he was never heard to utter. On the contrary, with
+mild and unfictitious friendship, he soothed the breast of
+disappointment, and cheered the spirits of his adversary with honest
+praise.
+
+But Edwin was not more distinguished among his brother shepherds, than
+was Imogen among the fair. Her skin was clear and pellucid. The fall of
+her shoulders was graceful beyond expression. Her eye-brows were
+arched, and from her eyes shot forth the grateful rays of the rising
+sun. Her waist was slender; and as she ran, she outstripped the winds,
+and her footsteps were printless on the tender herb. Her mind, though
+soft, was firm; and though yielding as wax to the precepts of wisdom,
+and the persuasion of innocence, it was resolute and inflexible to the
+blandishments of folly, and the sternness of despotism. Her ruling
+passion was the love of virtue. Chastity was the first feature in her
+character. It gave substance to her accents, and dignity to her
+gestures. Conscious innocence ennobled all her reflexions, and gave to
+her sentiments and manner of thinking, I know not what of celestial and
+divine.
+
+Edwin and Imogen had been united in the sports of earliest infancy.
+They had been mutual witnesses to the opening blossoms of understanding
+and benevolence in each others breasts. While yet a boy, Edwin had
+often rescued his mistress from the rude vivacity of his playmates, and
+had bestowed upon her many of those little distinctions which were
+calculated to excite the flame of envy among the infant daughters of
+the plain. For her he gathered the vermeil-tinctured pearmain, and the
+walnut with an unsavoury rind; for her he hoarded the brown filberd,
+and the much prized earth-nut. When she was near, the quoit flew from
+his arm with a stronger whirl, and his steps approached more swiftly to
+the destined goal. With her he delighted to retire from the heat of the
+sun to the centre of the glade, and to sooth her ear with the gaiety of
+innocence, long before he taught her to hearken to the language of
+love. For her sake he listened with greater eagerness to the mirthful
+relation, to the moral fiction, and to the song of the bards. His store
+of little narratives was in a manner inexhaustible. With them he
+beguiled the hour of retirement, and with them he hastened the sun to
+sink behind the western hill.
+
+But as he grew to manly stature, and the down of years had begun to
+clothe his blushing cheek, he felt a new sensation in his breast
+hitherto unexperienced. He could not now behold his favourite companion
+without emotion; his eye sparkled when he approached her; he watched
+her gestures; he hung upon her accents; he was interested in all her
+motions. Sometimes he would catch the eye of prudent age or of
+sharp-sighted rivalry observing him, and he instantly became
+embarrassed and confused, and blushed he knew not why. He repaired to
+the neighbouring wake, in order to exchange his young lambs and his
+hoard of cheeses. Imogen was not there, and in the midst of traffic,
+and in the midst of frolic merriment he was conscious to a vacancy and
+a listlessness for which he could not account. When he tended his
+flocks, and played upon his slender pipe, he would sink in reverie, and
+form to himself a thousand schemes of imaginary happiness. Erewhile
+they had been vague and general. His spirit was too gentle for him not
+to represent to himself a fancied associate; his heart was not narrow
+enough to know so much as the meaning of a solitary happiness. But
+Imogen now formed the principal figure in these waking dreams. It was
+Imogen with whom he wandered beside the brawling rill. It was Imogen
+with whom he sat beneath the straw-built shed, and listened to the
+pealing rain, and the hollow roaring of the northern blast. If a moment
+of forlornness and despair fell to his lot, he wandered upon the heath
+without his Imogen, and he climbed the upright precipice without her
+harmonious voice to cheer and to animate him. In a word, passion had
+taken up her abode in his guileless heart before he was aware of her
+approach. Imogen was fair; and the eye of Edwin was enchanted. Imogen
+was gentle; and Edwin loved.
+
+Simple as was the character of the inhabitants of this happy valley, it
+is not to be supposed that Edwin found many obstacles to the enjoyment
+of the society of his mistress. Though strait as the pine, and
+beautiful as the gold-skirted clouds of a summer morning, the parents
+of Imogen had not learned to make a traffic of the future happiness of
+their care. They sought not to decide who should be the fortunate
+shepherd that should carry her from the sons of the plain. They left
+the choice to her penetrating wit, and her tried discretion. They
+erected no rampart to defend her chastity; they planted no spies to
+watch over her reputation. They entrusted her honour to her own
+keeping. They were convinced, that the spotless dictates of conscious
+innocence, and that divinity that dwells in virtue and awes the shaggy
+satyr into mute admiration, were her sufficient defence. They left to
+her the direction of her conduct. The shepherdess, unsuspicious by
+nature, and untaught to view mankind with a wary and a jealous eye, was
+a stranger to severity and caprice. She was all gentleness and
+humanity. The sweetness of her temper led her to regard with an eye of
+candour, and her benevolence to gratify all the innocent wishes, of
+those about her. The character of a woman undistinguishing in her
+favours, and whose darling employment is to increase the number of her
+admirers, is in the highest degree unnatural. Such was not the
+character of Imogen. She was artless and sincere. Her tongue evermore
+expressed the sentiments of her heart. She drew the attention of no
+swain from a rival; she employed no stratagems to inveigle the
+affections; she mocked not the respect of the simple shepherd with
+delusive encouragement. No man charged her with broken vows; no man
+could justly accuse her of being cruel and unkind.
+
+It may therefore readily be supposed, that the subject of love rather
+glided into the conversation of Edwin and Imogen, than was regularly
+and designedly introduced. They were unknowing in the art of disguising
+their feelings. When the tale spoke of peril and bravery, the eyes of
+Edwin sparkled with congenial sentiments, and he was evermore ready to
+start from the grassy hilloc upon which they sat. When the little
+narrative told of the lovers pangs, and the tragic catastrophe of two
+gentle hearts whom nature seemed to have formed for mildness and
+tranquility, Imogen was melted into the softest distress. The breast of
+her Edwin would heave with a sympathetic sigh, and he would even
+sometimes venture, from mingled pity and approbation, to kiss away the
+tear that impearled her cheek. Intrepid and adventurous with the hero,
+he began also to take a new interest in the misfortunes of love. He
+could not describe the passionate complaints, the ingenuous tenderness
+of another, without insensibly making the case his own. “Had the lover
+known my Imogen, he would no longer have sighed for one, who could not
+have been so fair, so gentle, and so lovely.” Such were the thoughts of
+Edwin; and till now Edwin had always expressed his thoughts. But now
+the words fell half-formed from his trembling lips, and the sounds died
+away before they were uttered. “Were I to speak, Imogen, who has always
+beheld me with an aspect of benignity, might be offended. I should say
+no more than the truth; but Imogen is modest. She does not suspect that
+she possesses half the superiority over such as are called fair, which
+I see in her. And who could bear to incur the resentment of Imogen? Who
+would irritate a temper so amiable and mild? I should say no more than
+the truth; but Imogen would think it flattery. Let Edwin be charged
+with all other follies, but let that vice never find a harbour in his
+bosom; let the imputation of that detested crime never blot his
+untarnished name.”
+
+Edwin had received from nature the gift of an honest and artless
+eloquence. His words were like the snow that falls beneath the beams of
+the sun; _they melted as they fell_. Had it been his business to have
+pleaded the cause of injured innocence or unmerited distress, his
+generous sympathy and his manly persuasion must have won all hearts.
+Had he solicited the pursuit of rectitude and happiness, his ingenuous
+importunity could not have failed of success. But where the mind is too
+deeply interested, there it is that the faculties are most treacherous.
+Ardent were the sighs of Edwin, but his voice refused its assistance,
+and his tongue faultered under the attempts that he made. Fluent and
+voluble upon all other subjects, upon this he hesitated. For the first
+time he was dissatisfied with the expressions that nature dictated. For
+the first time he dreaded to utter the honest wishes of his heart,
+apprehensive that he might do violence to the native delicacy of
+Imogen.
+
+But he needed not have feared. Imogen was not blind to those
+perfections which every mouth conspired to praise. Her heart was not
+cold and unimpassioned; she could not see these perfections, united
+with youth and personal beauty, without being attracted. The accents of
+Edwin were music to her ear. The tale that Edwin told, interested her
+twice as much as what she heard from vulgar lips. To wander with Edwin
+along the flowery mead, to sit with Edwin in the cool alcove, had
+charms for her for which she knew not how to account, and which she was
+at first unwilling to acknowledge to her own heart. When she heard of
+the feats of the generous lover, his gallantry in the rural sports, and
+his reverence for the fair, it was under the amiable figure of Edwin
+that he came painted to her treacherous imagination. She was a stranger
+to artifice and disguise, and the renown of Edwin was to her the feast
+of the soul, and with visible satisfaction she dwelt upon his praise.
+Even in sleep her dreams were of the deserving shepherd. The delusive
+pleasures that follow in the train of dark-browed night, all told of
+Edwin. The unreal mockery of that capricious being, who cheats us with
+scenes of fictitious wretchedness, was full of the unmerited
+calamities, the heartbreaking woe, or the untimely death of Edwin. From
+Edwin therefore the language of love would have created no disgust.
+Imogen was not heedless and indiscreet; she would not have sacrificed
+the dignity of innocence. Imogen was not coy; she would not have
+treated her admirer with affected disdain. She had no guard but virgin
+modesty and that conscious worth, _that would be wooed, and not
+unsought be won_.
+
+Such was the yet immature attachment of our two lovers, when an
+anniversary of religious mirth summoned them, together with their
+neighbour shepherds of the adjacent hamlet, to the spot which had long
+been consecrated to rural sports and guiltless festivity, near the
+village of Ruthyn. The sun shone with unusual splendour; the Druidical
+temples, composed of immense and shapeless stones, heaped upon each
+other by a power stupendous and incomprehensible, reflected back his
+radiant beams. The glade, the place of destination to the frolic
+shepherds, was shrouded beneath two venerable groves that encircled it
+on either side. The eye could not pierce beyond them, and the
+imagination was in a manner embosomed in the vale. There were the
+quivering alder, the upright fir, and the venerable oak crowned with
+sacred mistletoe. They grew upon a natural declivity that descended
+every way towards the plain. The deep green of the larger trees was
+fringed towards the bottom with the pleasing paleness of the willow.
+From one of the groves a little rivulet glided across the plain, and
+was intersected on one side by a stream that flowed into it from a
+point equally distant from either extremity of its course. Both these
+streams were bordered with willows. In a word, upon the face of this
+beautiful spot all appeared tranquility and peace. It was without a
+path, and you would imagine that no human footsteps had ever invaded
+the calmness of its solitude. It was the eternal retreat of the
+venerable anchorite; it was the uninhabited paradise in the midst of
+the trackless ocean.
+
+Such was the spot where the shepherds and shepherdesses of a hundred
+cots were now assembled. In the larger compartiments of the vale, the
+more muscular and vigorous swains pursued the flying ball, or contended
+in the swift-footed race. The bards, venerable for their age and the
+snowy whiteness of their hair, sat upon a little eminence as umpires of
+the sports. In the smaller compartiments, the swains, mingled with the
+fair, danced along the level green, or flew, with a velocity that
+beguiled the eager sight, beneath the extended arms of their fellows.
+Here a few shepherds, apart from the rest, flung the ponderous quoit
+that sung along the air. There two youths, stronger and more athletic
+than the throng, grasped each others arms with an eager hand, and
+struggled for the victory. Now with manly vigour the one shook the
+sinewy frame of the other; now they bended together almost to the
+earth, and now with double force they reared again their gigantic
+stature. At one time they held each other at the greatest possible
+distance; and again, their arms, their legs and their whole bodies
+entwined, they seemed as if they had grown together. When the weaker or
+less skilful was overthrown, he tumbled like a vast and mountain oak,
+that for ages had resisted the tumult of the winds; and the whole plain
+resounded at his fall. Such as were unengaged formed a circle round the
+wrestlers, and by their shouts and applause animated by turns the
+flagging courage of either.
+
+And now the sun had gained his meridian height, and, fatigued with
+labour and heat, they seated themselves upon the grass to partake of
+their plain and rural feast. The parched wheat was set out in baskets,
+and the new cheeses were heaped together. The blushing apple, the
+golden pear, the shining plum, and the rough-coated chesnut were
+scattered in attractive confusion. Here were the polished cherry and
+the downy peach; and here the eager gooseberry, and the rich and
+plenteous clusters of the purple grape. The neighbouring fountain
+afforded them a cool and sparkling beverage, and the lowing herds
+supplied the copious bowl with white and foaming draughts of milk. The
+meaner bards accompanied the artless luxury of the feast with the
+symphony of their harps.
+
+The repast being finished, the company now engaged in those less active
+sports, that exercise the subtility of the wit, more than the agility
+or strength of the body. Their untutored minds delighted themselves in
+the sly enigma, and the quaint conundrum. Much was their laughter at
+the wild guesses of the thoughtless and the giddy; and great the
+triumph of the swain who penetrated the mystery, and successfully
+removed the abstruseness of the problem. Many were the feats of skill
+exhibited by the dextrous shepherd, and infinite were the wonder and
+admiration of the gazing spectators. The whole scene indeed was
+calculated to display the triumph of stratagem and invention. A
+thousand deceits were practised upon the simple and unsuspecting, and
+while he looked round to discover the object of the general mirth, it
+was increased into bursts of merriment, and convulsive gaiety. At
+length they rose from the verdant green, and chased each other in mock
+pursuit. Many flew towards the adjoining grove; the pursued concealed
+himself behind the dark and impervious thicket, or the broad trunk of
+the oak, while the pursuers ran this way and that, and cast their wary
+eyes on every side. Carefully they explored the bushes, and surveyed
+each clump of tufted trees. And now the neighbouring echoes repeated
+the universal shout, and proclaimed to the plain below, that the object
+of their search was found. Fatigue however, in spite of the gaiety of
+spirit with which their sports were pursued, began to assert his
+empire, and they longed for that tranquility and repose which were
+destined to succeed.
+
+At this instant the united sound of the lofty harp, the melodious
+rebec, and the chearful pipe, summoned them once again to the plain.
+From every side they hastened to the lawn, and surrounded, with ardent
+eyes, and panting expectation, the honoured troop of the bards, crowned
+with laurel and sacred mistletoe. And now they seated themselves upon
+the tender herb; and now all was stilness and solemn silence. Not one
+whisper floated on the breeze; not a murmur was heard. The tumultuous
+winds were hushed, and all was placid composure, save where the gentle
+zephyr fanned the leaves. The tinkling rill babbled at their feet; the
+feathered choristers warbled in the grove; and the deep lowings of the
+distant herds died away upon the ear. The solemn prelude began from a
+full concert of the various instruments. It awakened attention in the
+thoughtless, and composed the frolic and the gay into unbroken
+heedfulness. The air was oppressed with symphonious sounds, and the ear
+filled with a tumult of harmony.
+
+On a sudden the chorus ceased: Those instruments which had united their
+force to fill the echoes of every grove, and of every hill, were
+silent. And now a bard, of youthful appearance, but who was treated
+with every mark of honour and distinction, and seated on the left hand
+of the hoary Llewelyn, the prince of song, struck the lyre with a lofty
+and daring hand. His eye sparkled with poetic rapture, and his
+countenance beamed with the sublime smile of luxuriant fancy and
+heaven-born inspiration. He sung of the wanton shepherd, that followed,
+with ungenerous perseverance, the chaste and virgin daughter of
+Cadwallo. The Gods took pity upon her distress, the Gods sent down
+their swift and winged messenger to shield her virtue, and deliver her
+from the persecution of Modred. With strong and eager steps the
+ravisher pursued: timid apprehension, and unviolated honour, urged her
+rapid flight. But Modred was in the pride of youth; muscular and sinewy
+was the frame of Modred. Beauteous and snowy was the person of the
+fair: her form was delicate, and her limbs were tender. If heaven had
+not interposed, if the Gods had not been on her side, she must have
+fallen a victim to savage fury and brutal lust. But, in the crisis of
+her fate, she gradually sunk away before the astonished eyes of Modred.
+That beauteous frame was now no more, and she started from before him,
+swifter than the winds, a timid and listening hare. Still, still the
+hunter pursued; he suspended not the velocity of his course. The speed
+of Modred was like the roe upon the mountains; every moment he gained
+upon the daughter of Cadwallo. But now the object of his pursuit
+vanished from his sight, and eluded his eager search. In vain he
+explored every thicket, and surveyed all the paths of the forest. While
+he was thus employed, on a sudden there burst from a cave a hungry and
+savage wolf; it was the daughter of Cadwallo. Modred started with
+horror, and in his turn fled away swifter than the winds. The fierce
+and ravenous animal pursued; fire flashed from the eye, and rage and
+fury sat upon the crest. Mild and gentle was the daughter of Cadwallo;
+her heart relented; her soft and tender spirit belied the savage form.
+They approached the far famed stream of Conway. Modred cast behind him
+a timid and uncertain eye; the virgin passed along, no longer terrible,
+a fair and milk white hind. Modred inflamed with disappointment, reared
+his ponderous boar spear, and hurled it from his hand. Too well, ah,
+cruel and untutored swain! thou levelest thy aim. Her tender side is
+gored; her spotless and snowy coat is deformed with blood. Agitated
+with pain, superior to fear, she plunges in the flood. When lo! a
+wonder; on the opposite shore she rises, radiant and unhurt, in her
+native form. Modred contemplates the prodigy with astonishment; his
+lust and his brutality inflame him more than ever. Eagerly he gazes on
+her charms; in thought he devours her inexpressive beauties. And now he
+can no longer restrain himself; with sudden start he leaps into the
+river. The waves are wrought into a sudden tempest; they hurry him to
+and fro. He buffets them with lusty arms; he rides upon the billows.
+But vain is human strength; the unseen messenger of the Gods laughs at
+the impotent efforts of Modred. At length the waters gape with a
+frightful void; the bottom, strewed with shells, and overgrown with
+sea-weed, is disclosed to the sight. Modred, unhappy Modred, sinks to
+rise no more. His beauty is tarnished like the flower of the field; his
+blooming cheek, his crimson lip, is pale and colourless. Learn hence,
+ye swains, to fear the Gods, and to reverence the divinity of virtue.
+Modred never melted for another’s woe; the tear of sympathy had not
+moistened his cheek. The heart of Modred was haughty, insolent and
+untractable; he turned a deaf ear to the supplication of the helpless,
+he listened not to the thunder of the Gods. Let the fate of Modred be
+remembered for a caution to the precipitate; let the children of the
+valley learn wisdom. Heaven never deserts the cause of virtue; chastity
+wherever she wanders (_be it not done in pride or in presumption_) is
+sacred and invulnerable.
+
+Such was the song of the youthful bard. Every eye was fixed upon his
+visage while he struck the lyre; the multitude of the shepherds
+appeared to have no faculty but the ear. And now the murmur of applause
+began; and the wondering swains seemed to ask each other, whether the
+God of song were not descended among them. “Oh glorious youth,” cried
+they, “how early is thy excellence! Ere manhood has given nerve and
+vigour to thy limbs, ere yet the flowing beard adorns thy gallant
+breast, nature has unlocked to thee her hidden treasures, the Gods have
+enriched thee with all the charms of poetry. Great art thou among the
+bards; illustrious in wisdom, where they all are wise. Should gracious
+heaven spare thy life, we will cease to weep the death of Hoel; we will
+lament no longer the growing infirmities of Llewelyn.”
+
+While they yet spoke, a bard, who sat upon the right hand of the
+prince, prepared to sweep the string. He was in the prime of manhood.
+His shining locks flowed in rich abundance upon his strong and graceful
+shoulders. His eye expressed more of flame than gaiety, more of
+enthusiasm than imagination. His brow, though manly, and, as it should
+seem, by nature erect, bore an appearance of solemn and contemplative.
+He had ever been distinguished by an attachment to solitude, and a love
+for those grand and tremendous objects of uncultivated nature with
+which his country abounded. His were the hanging precipice, and the
+foaming cataract. His ear drank in the voice of the tempest; he was
+rapt in attention to the roaring thunder. When the contention of the
+elements seemed to threaten the destruction of the universe, when
+Snowdon bowed to its deepest base, it was then that his mind was most
+filled with sublime meditation. His lofty soul soared above the little
+war of terrestrial objects, and rode expanded upon the wings of the
+winds. Yet was the bard full of gentleness and sensibility; no breast
+was more susceptible to the emotions of pity, no tongue was better
+skilled in the soft and passionate touches of the melting and pathetic.
+He possessed a key to unlock all the avenues of the heart.
+
+Such was the bard, and this was the subject of his song. He told of a
+dreadful famine, that laid waste the shores of the Menai. Heaven, not
+to punish the shepherds, for, alas, what had these innocent shepherds
+done? but in the mysterious wisdom of its ways, had denied the
+refreshing shower, and the soft-descending dew. From the top of
+Penmaenmawr, as far as the eye could reach, all was uniform and waste.
+The trees were leafless, not one flower adorned the ground, not one
+tuft of verdure appeared to relieve the weary eye. The brooks were
+dried up; their beds only remained to tell the melancholy tale, Here
+once was water; the tender lambs hastened to the accustomed brink, and
+lifted up their innocent eyes with anguish and disappointment. The
+meadows no longer afforded pasture of the cattle; the trees denied
+their fruits to man. In this hour of calamity the Druids came forth
+from their secret cells, and assembled upon the heights of Mona. This
+convention of the servants of the Gods, though intended to relieve the
+general distress, for a moment increased it. The shepherds anticipated
+the fatal decree; they knew that at times like this the blood of a
+human victim was accustomed to be shed upon the altars of heaven. Every
+swain trembled for himself or his friend; every parent feared to be
+bereaved of the staff of his age. And now the holy priest had cast the
+lots in the mysterious urn; and the lot fell upon the generous Arthur.
+Arthur was beloved by all the shepherds that dwelt upon the margin of
+the main; the praise of Arthur sat upon the lips of all that knew him.
+But what served principally to enhance the distress, was the attachment
+there existed between him and the beauteous Evelina. Mild was the
+breast of Evelina, unused to encounter the harshness of opposition, or
+the chilly hand and forbidding countenance of adversity. From twenty
+shepherds she had chosen the gallant Arthur, to reward his pure and
+constant love. Long had they been decreed to make each other happy. No
+parent opposed himself to their virtuous desires; the blessing of
+heaven awaited them from the hand of the sacred Druid. But in the
+general calamity of their country they had no heart to rejoice; they
+could not insult over the misery of all around them. “Soon, oh soon,”
+cried the impatient shepherd, “may the wrath of heaven be overpast!
+Extend, all-merciful divinity, thy benign influence to the shores of
+Arvon! Once more may the rustling of the shower refresh our longing
+ears! Once more may our eyes be gladdened with the pearly, orient dew!
+May the fields be clothed afresh in cheerful green! May the flowers
+enamel the verdant mead! May the brooks again brawl along their pebbly
+bed! And may man and beast rejoice together!” Ah, short-sighted,
+unapprehensive shepherd! thou dost not know the misfortune that is
+reserved for thyself; thou dost not know, that thou shalt not live to
+behold those smiling scenes which thy imagination forestallest; thou
+dost not see the dart of immature and relentless death that is
+suspended over thee. Think, O ye swains, what was the universal
+astonishment and pity, when the awful voice of the Druid proclaimed the
+decree of heaven! Terror sat upon every other countenance, tears
+started into every other eye; but the mien of Arthur was placid and
+serene. He came forward from the throng; his eyes glistened with the
+fire of patriotism. “Hear me, my countrymen,” cried he, “for you I am
+willing to die. What is my insignificant life, when weighed against the
+happiness of Arvon? Be grateful to the Gods, that, for so poor a boon,
+they are willing to spread wide the hand of bounty, and to exhaust upon
+your favoured heads the horn of plenty.” While he spoke he turned his
+head to the spot from which he had advanced, and beheld, a melting
+object, Evelina, pale and breathless, supported in the arms of the
+maidens. For a moment he forgot his elevated sentiments and his
+heroism, and flew to raise her. “Evelina, mistress of my heart, awake.
+Lift up thine eyes and bless thy Arthur. Be not too much subdued by my
+catastrophe. Live to comfort the grey hairs, and to succour the
+infirmities of your aged parent.” While the breast of Arthur was
+animated with such sentiments, and dictated a conduct like this, the
+priests were employed in the mournful preparations. The altar was made
+ready; the lambent fire ascended from its surface; the air was perfumed
+with the smoke of the incense; the fillets were brought forth; and the
+sacred knife glittered in the hand of the chief of the Druids. The
+bards had strung their harps, and began the song of death. The sounds
+were lofty and animating, they were fitted to inspire gallantry and
+enterprise into the trembling coward; they were fitted to breathe a
+soul into the clay-cold corse. The spirit of Arthur was roused; his eye
+gleamed with immortal fire. The aged oak, that strikes its root beneath
+the soil, so defies the blast, and so rears its head in the midst of
+the whirlwind. But oh, who can paint the distress of Evelina? Now she
+dropped her head, like the tender lily whose stalk, by some vulgar and
+careless hand has been broken; and now she was wild and ungovernable,
+like the wild beast that has been robbed of its young. For an instant
+the venerable name of religion awed her into mute submission. But when
+the fatal moment approached, not the Gods, if the Gods had descended in
+all their radiant brightness, could have restrained her any longer. The
+air was rent with her piercing cries. She spoke not. Her eyes, in
+silence turned towards heaven, distilled a plenteous shower. At length,
+swifter than the winged hawk, she flew towards the spot, and seized the
+sacred and inviolable arm of the holy Druid, which was lifted up to
+strike the final blow. “Barbarous and inhuman priest,” she cried,
+“cease your vile and impious mummery! No longer insult us with the name
+of Gods. If there be Gods, they are merciful; but thou art a savage and
+unrelenting monster. Or if some victim must expire, strike here, and I
+will thank thee. Strike, and my bosom shall heave to meet the welcome
+blow. Do any thing. But oh, spare me the killing, killing spectacle!”
+During this action the maidens approached and hurried her from the
+plain. “Go,” cried Arthur, “and let not the heart of Evelina be sad. My
+Death has nothing in it that deserves to be deplored. It is glorious
+and enviable. It shall be remembered when this frame is crumbled into
+dust. The song of the bards shall preserve it to never dying fame.” The
+inconsolable fair one had now been forced away. The intrepid shepherd
+bared his breast to the sacred knife. His nerves trembled not. His
+bosom panted not. And now behold the lovely youth, worthy to have lived
+through revolving years, sunk on the ground, and weltering in his
+blood. Yes, gallant Arthur, thou shalt possess that immortality which
+was the first wish of thy heart! My song shall embalm thy precious
+memory, thy generous, spotless fame! But, ah, it is not in the song of
+the bards to sooth the rooted sorrow of Evelina. Every morning serves
+only to renew it. Every night she bathes her couch in tears. Those
+objects, which carry pleasure to the sense of every other fair, serve
+only to renew thy unexhausted grief. The rustling shower, the pearly
+dew, the brawling brook, the cheerful green, the flower-enameled mead,
+all join to tell of the barbarous and untimely fate of Arthur. Smile no
+more, O ye meads; mock not the grief of Evelina. Let the trees again be
+leafless; let the rivers flow no longer in their empty beds. A scene
+like this suits best the settled temper of Evelina.
+
+He ceased. And his pathetic strain had awakened the sympathy of the
+universal throng. Every shepherd hung his mournful head, when the
+untimely fate of Arthur was related; every maiden dropped a generous
+tear over the sorrows of Evelina. They listened to the song, and forgot
+the poet. Their souls were rapt with alternate passions, and they
+perceived not the matchless skill by which they were excited. The lofty
+bard hurried them along with the rapidity of his conceptions, and left
+them no time for hesitation, and left them no time for reflection. He
+ceased, and the melodious sounds still hung upon their ear, and they
+still sat in the posture of eager attention. At length they recollected
+themselves; and it was no longer the low and increasing murmur of
+applause: it was the exclamation of rapture; it was the unpremeditated
+shout of astonishment.
+
+In the mean time, the reverend Llewelyn, upon whose sacred head ninety
+winters had scattered their snow, grasped the lyre, which had so often
+confessed the master’s hand. Though far advanced in the vale of years,
+there was a strength and vigour in his age, of which the degeneracy of
+modern times can have little conception. The fire was not extinguished
+in his flaming eye; it had only attained that degree of chasteness and
+solemnity, which had in it by so much the more, all that is majestic,
+and all that is celestial. His looks held commerce with his native
+skies. No vulgar passion ever visited his heaven-born mind. No vulgar
+emotion ever deformed the godlike tranquility of his soul. He had but
+one passion; it was the love of harmony. He was conscious only to one
+emotion; it was reverence for the immortal Gods. He sat like the
+anchorite upon the summit of Snowdon. The tempests raise the foaming
+ocean into one scene of horror, but he beholds it unmoved. The rains
+descend, the thunder roars, and the lightnings play beneath his feet.
+
+Llewelyn struck the lyre, and the innumerable croud was noiseless and
+silent as the chambers of death. They did not now wait for the pleasing
+tale of a luxuriant imagination, or the pathetic and melting strain of
+the mourner. They composed their spirits into the serenity of devotion.
+They called together their innocent thoughts for the worship of heaven.
+By anticipation their bosoms swelled with gratitude, and their hearts
+dilated into praise.
+
+The pious Llewelyn began his song from the rude and shapeless chaos. He
+magnified the almighty word that spoke it into form. He sung of the
+loose and fenny soil which gradually acquired firmness and density. The
+immeasurable, eternal caverns of the ocean were scooped. The waters
+rushed along, and fell with resounding, foamy violence to the depth
+below. The sun shone forth from his chamber in the east, and the earth
+wondered at the object, and smiled beneath his beams. Suddenly the
+whole face of it was adorned with a verdant, undulating robe. The
+purple violet and the yellow crocus bestrewed the ground. The stately
+oak reared its branchy head, and the trees and shrubs burst from the
+surface of the earth. Impregnated by power divine, the soil was
+prolific in other fruits than these. The clods appeared to be informed
+with a conscious spirit, and gradually assumed a thousand various
+forms. The animated earth seemed to paw the verdant mead, and to
+despise the mould from which it came. A disdainful horse, it shook its
+flowing mane, and snuffed the enlivening breeze, and stretched along
+the plain. The red-eyed wolf and the unwieldy ox burst like the mole
+the concealing continent, and threw the earth in hillocs. The stag
+upreared his branching head. The thinly scattered animals wandered
+among the unfrequented hills, and cropped the untasted herb. Meantime
+the birds, with many coloured plumage, skimmed along the unploughed
+air, and taught the silent woods and hills to echo with their song.
+
+Creatures, hymn the praises of your creator! Thou sun, prolific parent
+of a thousand various productions, by whose genial heat they are
+nurtured, and whose radiant beams give chearfulness and beauty to the
+face of nature, first of all the existences of this material universe
+acknowledge him thy superior, and while thou dispensest a thousand
+benefits to the inferior creation, ascribe thine excellencies solely to
+the great source of beauty and perfection! And when the sun has ceased
+his wondrous course, do thou, O moon, in milder lustre show to people
+of a thousand names the honours of thy maker! Thou loud and wintery
+north wind, in majestic and tremendous tone declare his lofty praise!
+Ye gentle zephyrs, whisper them to the modest, and softly breathe them
+in the ears of the lowly! Ye towering pines, and humble shrubs, ye
+fragrant flowers, and, more than all, ye broad and stately oaks, bind
+your heads, and wave your branches, and adore! Ye warbling fountains,
+warbling tune his praise! Praise him, ye beasts, in different strains!
+And let the birds, that soar on lofty wings, and scale the path of
+heaven, bear, in their various melody, the notes of adoration to the
+skies! Mortals, ye favoured sons of the eternal father, be it yours in
+articulate expressions of gratitude to interpret for the mute creation,
+and to speak a sublimer and more rational homage.
+
+Heard ye not the music of the spheres? Know ye not the melody of
+celestial voices? On yonder silver-skirted cloud I see them come. It
+turns its brilliant lining on the setting day. And these are the
+accents of their worship. “Ye sons of women, such as ye are now, such
+once were we. Through many scenes of trial, through heroic constancy,
+and ever-during patience, have we attained to this bright eminence.
+Large and mysterious are the paths of heaven, just and immaculate his
+ways. If ye listen to the siren voice of pleasure, if upon the neck of
+heedless youth you throw the reins, that base and earth-born clay which
+now you wear, shall assume despotic empire. And when you quit the
+present narrow scene, ye shall wear a form congenial to your vices. The
+fierce and lawless shall assume the figure of the unrelenting wolf. The
+unreflecting tyrant, that raised a mistaken fame from scenes of
+devastation and war, shall spurn the ground, a haughty and indignant
+horse; and in that form, shall learn, by dear experience, what were the
+sufferings and what the scourge that he inflicted on mankind. The
+sensual shall wear the shaggy vesture of the goat, or foam and whet his
+horrid tusks, a wild and untame’d boar. But virtue prepares its
+possessor for the skies. Upon the upright and the good, attendant
+angels wait. With heavenly spirits they converse. On them the dark
+machinations of witchcraft, and the sullen spirits of darkness have no
+power. Even the outward form is impressed with a beam of celestial
+lustre. By slow, but never ceasing steps, they tread the path of
+immortality and honour. Then, mortals, love, support, and cherish each
+other. Fear the Gods, and reverence their holy, white-robed servants.
+Let the sacred oak be your care. Worship the holy and everlasting
+mistletoe. And when all the objects that you now behold shall be
+involved in universal conflagration, and time shall be no more; ye
+shall mix with Gods, ye shall partake their thrones, and be crowned
+like them with never-fading laurel.”
+
+
+
+
+BOOK THE SECOND
+
+THUNDER STORM.—THE RAPE OF IMOGEN.—EDWIN ARRIVES AT THE GROTTO OF
+ELWY.—CHARACTER OF THE MAGICIAN.—THE END OF THE FIRST DAY.
+
+
+The song of Llewelyn was heard by the shepherds with reverence and mute
+attention. Their blameless hearts were lifted to the skies with the
+sentiment of gratitude; their honest bosoms overflowed with the fervour
+of devotion. They proved their sympathy with the feelings of the bard,
+not by licentious shouts and wild huzzas, but by the composure of their
+spirits, the serenity of their countenances, and the deep and
+unutterable silence which universally prevailed. And now the hoary
+minstrel rose from the little eminence, beneath the aged oak, from
+whose branches depended the ivy and the honeysuckle, on which the
+veneration of the multitude had placed him. He came into the midst of
+the plain, and the sons and the daughters of the fertile Clwyd pressed
+around him. Fervently they kissed the hem of his garment; eagerly with
+their eyes they sought to encounter the benign rays of his countenance.
+With the dignity of a magistrate, and the tenderness of a father, he
+lifted his aged arms, and poured upon them his mild benediction.
+“Children, I have met your fathers, and your fathers fathers, beneath
+the hills of Ruthyn. Such as they were, such are ye, and such ever may
+ye remain. The lily is not more spotless, the rose and the violet do
+not boast a more fragrant odour, than the incense of your prayers when
+it ascends to the footstool of the Gods. Guileless and undesigning are
+you as the yearling lamb; gentle and affectionate as the cooing dove.
+Qualities like these the Gods behold with approbation; to qualities
+like these the Gods assign their choicest blessings. My sons, there is
+a splendour that dazzles, rather than enlightens; there is a heat that
+burns rather than fructifies. Let not characters like these excite your
+ambition. Be yours the unfrequented sylvan scene. Be yours the shadowy
+and unnoticed vale of obscurity. Here are the mild and unruffled
+affections. Here are virtue, peace and happiness. _Here also are_
+GODS.”
+
+Having thus said, he dismissed the assembly, and the shepherds prepared
+to return to their respective homes. Edwin and Imogen, as they had
+come, so they returned together. The parents of the maiden had confided
+her to the care of the gallant shepherds. “She is our only child,” said
+they, “our only treasure, and our life is wrapt up in her safety. Watch
+over her like her guardian genius. Bring her again to our arms adorned
+with the cheerfulness of tranquility and innocence.” The breast of
+Edwin was dilated with the charge; he felt a gentle undulation of pride
+and conscious importance about his heart, at the honour conferred upon
+him.
+
+The setting sun now gilded the western hills. His beams played upon
+their summits, and were reflected in an irregular semi-circle of
+splendour, spotless and radiant as the robes of the fairies. The heat
+of the day was over, the atmosphere was mild, and all the objects round
+them quiet and serene. A gentle zephyr fanned the leaves; and the
+shadows of the trees, projecting to their utmost length, gave an
+additional coolness and a soberer tint to the fields through which they
+passed.
+
+The conversation of these innocent and guileless lovers was, as it
+were, in unison with the placidness of the evening. The sports, in
+which they had been engaged, had inspired them with gaiety, and the
+songs they had heard, had raised their thoughts to a sublimer pitch
+than was usual to them. They praised the miracles of the tale of
+Modred; they sympathised with the affliction of Evelina; and they spoke
+with the most unfeigned reverence of the pious and venerable Llewelyn.
+
+But the harmless chearfulness of their conversation did not last long.
+The serenity that was around them was soon interrupted, and their
+attention was diverted to external objects. Suddenly you might have
+perceived a cloud, small and dark, that rose from the bosom of the sea.
+By swift advances it became thicker and broader, till the whole heavens
+were enveloped in its dismal shade. The gentle zephyr, that anon played
+among the trees, was changed into a wind hollow and tumultuous. Its
+course was irregular. Now all was still and silent as the caverns of
+death; and again it burst forth in momentary blasts, or whirled the
+straws and fallen leaves in circling eddies. The light of day was
+shrouded and invisible. The slow and sober progress of evening was
+forestalled. The woods and the hills were embosomed in darkness. Their
+summits were no longer gilded. One by one the beams of the sun were
+withdrawn from each; and at length Snowdon itself could not be
+perceived.
+
+Our shepherd and his charge had at this moment reached the most
+extensive and unprotected part of the plain. No friendly cot was near
+to shield them from the coming storm. And now a solemn peal of thunder
+seemed to roll along over their heads. They had begun to fly, but the
+tender Imogen was terrified at the unexpected crash, and sunk, almost
+breathless, into the arms of Edwin. In the mean time, the lightnings
+seemed to fill the heavens with their shining flame. The claps of
+thunder grew louder and more frequent. They reverberated from rock to
+rock, and from hill to hill. If at any time, for a transitory interval,
+the tremendous echoes died away upon the ear, it was filled with the
+hollow roaring of the winds, and the boisterous dashing of the distant
+waves. At length the pealing rain descended. It seemed as if all the
+waters of heaven were exhausted upon their naked heads. The anxious and
+afflicted Edwin took his beauteous and insensible companion in his
+arms, and flew across the plain.
+
+But at this instant, a more extraordinary and terrifying object
+engrossed his attention. An oak, the monarch of the plain, towards
+which he bent his rapid course, was suddenly struck with the bolt of
+heaven, and blasted in his sight. Its large and spreading branches were
+withered; its leaves shrunk up and faded. In the very trunk a gaping
+and tremendous rift appeared. At the same moment two huge and craggy
+cliffs burst from the surrounding rocks, to which they had grown for
+ages, and tumbling with a hideous noise, trundled along the plain.
+
+At length a third spectacle, more horrible than the rest, presented
+itself to the affrighted eyes of Edwin. He saw a figure, larger than
+the human, that walked among the clouds, and piloted the storm. Its
+appearance was dreadful, and its shape, loose and undistinguishable,
+seemed to be blended with the encircling darkness. From its coutenance
+gleamed a barbarous smile, ten times more terrific than the frown of
+any other being. Triumph, inhuman triumph, glistened in its eye, and,
+with relentless delight, it brewed the tempest, and hurled the
+destructive lightning. Edwin gazed upon this astonishing apparition,
+and knew it for a goblin of darkness. The heart of Edwin, which no
+human terror could appal, sunk within him; his nerves trembled, and the
+objects that surrounded him, swam in confusion before his eyes. But it
+is not for virtue to tremble; it is not for conscious innocence to fear
+the power of elves and goblins. Edwin presently recollected himself,
+and a gloomy kind of tranquility assumed the empire of his heart. He
+was more watchful than ever for his beloved Imogen; he gazed with
+threefold earnestness upon the fearful spectre.
+
+A sound now invaded his ear, from the shapeless rocks behind him. They
+repeated it with all their echoes. It was hollow as the raging wind;
+and yet it was not the raging wind. It was loud as the roaring thunder;
+and yet it was not the voice of thunder. But he did not remain long in
+suspense, from whence the voice proceeded. A wolf, whom hunger had made
+superior to fear, leaped from the rock, upon the plain below. Edwin
+turned his eyes upon the horrid monster; he grasped his boarspear in
+his hand. The unconscious Imogen glided from his arms, and he advanced
+before her. He met the savage in his fury, and plunged his weapon in
+his side. He overturned the monster; he drew forth his lance reeking
+with his blood; his enemy lay convulsed in the agonies of death. But
+ere he could return, he heard the sound of a car rattling along the
+plain. The reins were of silk, and the chariot shone with burnished
+gold. Upon the top of it sat a man, tall, lusty, and youthful. His hair
+flowed about his shoulders, his eyes sparkled with untamed fierceness,
+and his brow was marked with the haughty insolence of pride. It was
+Roderic, lord of a hundred hills; but Edwin knew him not. The goblin
+descended from its eminence, and directed the course of Roderic. In a
+moment, he seized the breathless and insensible Imogen, and lifted her
+to his car. Edwin beheld the scene with grief and astonishment; his
+senses were in a manner overwhelmed with so many successive prodigies.
+But he did not long remain inactive; grief and astonishment soon gave
+way to revenge. He took his javelin, still red with the blood of the
+mountain wolf, and whirled it from his hand. Edwin was skilled to toss
+the dart; from his hand it flew unerring to its aim. Forceful it sung
+along the air; but the goblin advanced with hasty steps among the
+clouds. It touched it with its hand, and it fell harmless and pointless
+to the ground. During this action the car of Roderic disappeared. The
+goblin immediately vanished; and Edwin was left in solitude.
+
+The storm however had not yet ceased. The rain descended with all its
+former fury. The thunder roared with a strong and deafening sound. The
+lightnings flamed from pole to pole. But the lightnings flamed, and the
+thunder roared unregarded. The storm beat in vain upon the unsheltered
+head of Edwin. “Where,” cried he, with the voice of anguish and
+despair, “is my Imogen, my mistress, my wife, the charmer of my soul,
+the solace of my heart?” Saying this, he sprung away like the roe upon
+the mountains. His pace was swifter than that of the zephyr when it
+sweeps along over the unbending corn. He soon reached the avenue by
+which the chariot had disappeared from his sight. He leaped from rock
+to rock; he ascended to the summit of the cliff. His eye glanced the
+swift-flying car of Roderic; he knew him by his gilded carriage, and
+his spangled vest. But he saw him only for a moment. His aching eye
+pursued the triumphant flight in vain. “Stay, stay, base ravisher,
+inglorious coward!” he exclaimed. “If thou art a man, return and meet
+me. I will encounter thee hand to hand. I will not fear the strength of
+thy shoulders, and the haughtiness of thy crest. If in such a cause,
+with the pride of virtue on my side, with all the Gods to combat for
+me, I am yet vanquished, then be Imogen thine: then let her be
+submitted to thy despotic power, to thy brutal outrage, and I will not
+murmur.”
+
+But his words were given to the winds of heaven. Roderic fled far, far
+away. The heart of Edwin was wrung with anguish. “Ye kind and merciful
+Gods!” exclaimed he, “grant but this one prayer, and the voice of Edwin
+shall no more importune you with presumptuous vows. Blot from the book
+of fate the tedious interval. Give me to find the potent villain.
+Though he be hemmed in with guards behind guards; though his impious
+mansion strike its foundations deep to the centre, and rear its head
+above the clouds; though all the powers of hell combine on his side, I
+will search him out, I will penetrate into his most hidden recess. I
+can but die. Oh, if I am to be deprived of Imogen, how sweet, how
+solacing is the thought of death! Let me die in her cause. That were
+some comfort yet. Let me die in her presence, let her eyes witness the
+fervour of my attachment, and I will die without a groan.”
+
+Having thus poured forth the anguish of his bosom, he resumed the
+pursuit. But how could Edwin, alone, on foot, and wearied with the
+journey of the day, hope to overtake the winged steeds of Roderic? And
+indeed had his speed been tenfold greater than it was, it had been
+exerted to no purpose. As the ravisher arrived at the edge of the
+mountain, he struck into a narrow and devious path that led directly to
+his mansion. But Edwin, who had for some time lost sight of the
+chariot, took no notice of a way, covered with moss and overgrown with
+bushes; and pursued the more beaten road. Swift was his course; but the
+swifter he flew, the farther still he wandered from the object of his
+search. A rapid brook flowed across his path, which the descending
+rains had swelled into a river. Without a moment’s hesitation,
+accoutered as he was, he plunged in. Instantly he gained the opposite
+bank, and divided the air before him, like an arrow in its flight.
+
+In the mean time, the storm had ceased, the darkness was dispersed, and
+only a few thin and fleecy clouds were scattered over the blue expanse.
+The sun had for some time sunk beneath the western hills. The heavens,
+clear and serene, had assumed a deeper tint, and were spangled over
+with stars. The moon, in calm and silver lustre, lent her friendly
+light to the weary traveller. Edwin was fatigued and faint. He tried to
+give vent to his complaints; but his tongue cleaved to the roof of his
+mouth: his spirits sunk within him. No sound now reached his ears but
+the baying of the shepherds dogs, and the _drowsy tinklings_ of the
+_distant folds_. The owl, the solemn bird of night, sat buried among
+the branches of the aged oak, and with her melancholy hootings gave an
+additional serenity to the scene. At a small distance, on his right
+hand, he perceived a contiguous object that reflected the rays of the
+moon, through the willows and the hazels, and chequered the view with a
+clear and settled lustre. He approached it. It was the lake of Elwy;
+and near it he discovered that huge pile of stones, so well known to
+him, which had been reared ages since, by the holy Druids. It was upon
+this spot that they worshipped the Gods. But they had no habitation
+near it. They repaired thither at stated intervals from the woods of
+Mona, and the shores of Arvon. One only Druid lived by the banks of the
+silver flood, and watched the temple day and night, that no rude hand
+might do violence to the sanctity of the place, and no profaner mortal,
+with sacrilegious foot might enter the mysterious edifice. It was
+surrounded with a wall of oaks. The humbler shrubs filled up their
+interstices, and there was no avenue to the sacred shade, except by two
+narrow paths on either side the lake.
+
+The solemn stilness of the scene for a moment hushed the sorrows of
+Edwin into oblivion. Ah, short oblivion! scarcely had he gazed around
+him, and drank of the quietness and peace of the scene, ere those
+recent sorrows impressed his bosom with more anguish than before.
+Recollecting himself however, he trod the mead with nimble feet, and
+approached, trembling and with hesitation, to the eastern avenue. “Hear
+me, sage and generous Madoc,” cried the shepherd, with a voice that
+glided along the peaceful lake, “hear the sorrows of the most forlorn
+of all the sons of Clwyd!” The hermit, who sat at the door of his
+grotto, perceived the sound, and approached to the place from which it
+proceeded. The accent was gentle; and he feared no boisterous
+intrusion. The accent was tender and pathetic; and never was the breast
+of Madoc steeled against the voice of anguish. “Approach, my son,” he
+cried. “What disastrous event has brought thee hither, so far from thy
+peaceful home, and at this still and silent hour of night? Has any lamb
+wandered from thy fold, and art thou come hither in pursuit of it?”
+Edwin was silent. His heart seemed full almost to bursting, and he
+could not utter a word. “Hast thou wandered from thy companions and
+missed the path that led to the well-known hamlet?” “Alas,” said Edwin,
+“I had a companion once!” and he lifted up his eyes to heaven in
+speechless despair. “Has thy mistress deserted thee, or have her
+parents bestowed her on some happier swain?” “Yes,” said Edwin, “I have
+lost her, who was dear to me as the _ruddy drops that visit my sad
+heart._ But she was constant. Her parents approved of my passion, and
+consigned her to my arms.” “Has sickness then overtaken her, or has
+untimely death put a period to thy prospects, just as they began to
+bloom?” “Oh, no,” said the disconsolate shepherd, “I have encountered a
+disaster more comfortless and wasteful than sickness. I had a thousand
+times rather have received her last sigh, and closed her eyes in
+darkness!”
+
+During this conversation, they advanced along the banks of Elwy, and
+drew towards the grotto of the hermit. The hospitable Madoc brought
+some dried fruits and a few roots from his cell, and spread them before
+his guest. He took a bowl of seasoned wood, and hastening to the
+fountain, that fell with a murmuring noise down the neighing [sic]
+rock, he presented the limpid beverage. “Such,” said he, “is my humble
+fare; partake it with a contented heart, and it shall be more grateful
+to thy taste, than the high flavoured viands of a monarch.” In the mean
+time, Madoc, pleased with the benevolent pursuit, gathered some bits of
+dry wood, and setting them on fire, besought the swain to refresh
+himself from the weariness of his travel, and the inclemency of the
+storm. But the heart of Edwin was too full to partake of the provisions
+that his attentive host had prepared. The chearfulness however of the
+blazing hearth and the generous officiousness of the hermit, seemed by
+degrees to recover him from the insensibility and lethargy, that for a
+time had swallowed up all his faculties.
+
+Madoc had hitherto contemplated his guest in silence. He permitted him
+to refresh his wearied frame and to resume his dissipated spirits
+uninterrupted; he suppressed the curiosity by which he was actuated, to
+learn the story of the woes of Edwin. In the midst of his dejection, he
+perceived the symptoms of a nobility of spirit that interested him; and
+the anguish of the shepherd’s mind had not totally destroyed the traces
+of that mild affability, and that manly frankness for which he was
+esteemed.
+
+Edwin had no sooner appeared to shake off a small part of his
+melancholy, his eye no sooner sparkled with returning fire, than Madoc
+embraced the favourable omen. “My son,” said he, “you seem to be full
+of dejection and grief. Grief is not an inmate of the plain; the hours
+of the shepherd are sped in gaiety and mirth. Suspicion and design are
+stranger to his bosom. With him the voice of discord is not heard. The
+scourge of war never blasted his smiling fields; the terror of invasion
+never banished him from the peaceful cot. You too are young and
+uninured even to the misfortunes of the shepherd. No contagion has
+destroyed your flock; no wolf has broken its slender barriers: you have
+felt the anguish of no wound, and been witness to the death of no
+friend. Say then, my son, why art thou thus dejected and forlorn?”
+
+“Alas,” replied Edwin, “our equal lot undoubtedly removes us from the
+stroke of many misfortunes; but even to us adversity extends its rod. I
+have been exposed to the ravages of an invader, more fearful than the
+wolf, more detested than the conqueror. From an affliction like mine,
+no occupation, no rank, no age can exempt. Sawest thou not the
+descending storm? Did not the rain beat upon thy cavern, and the
+thunder roar among the hills?” “It did,” cried Madoc, “and I was struck
+with reverence, and worshipped the God who grasps the thunder in his
+mighty hand. Wast thou, my son, exposed to its fury?” “I was upon the
+bleak and wide extended heath. With Imogen, the fairest and most
+constant of the daughters of Clwyd, I returned from the feast of
+Ruthyn. But alas,” added the shepherd, “the storm had no terrors, when
+compared with the scenes that accompanied it. I beheld, Madoc, nor are
+the words I utter the words of shameless imposition, or coward
+credulity; I beheld a phantom, that glided along the air, and rode
+among the clouds. At his command, a wolf from the forest, with horrid
+tusks, and eyes of fire, burst upon me. I advanced towards it, that I
+might defend the fairest of her sex from its fury, and plunged my
+javelin in its heart. But, oh! while I was thus engaged, a chariot
+advanced on the opposite side! Its course was directed by the spectre.
+The rider descended on the plain, and seized the spotless, helpless
+Imogen; and never, never shall these eyes behold her more! Such, O thou
+servant of the Gods, has been my adversity. The powers of darkness have
+arrayed themselves against me. For me the storm has been brewed; all
+the arrows of heaven have been directed against my weak, defenceless
+head. For me the elements have mixed in tremendous confusion; portents
+and prodigies have been accumulated for my destruction. Oh, then,
+generous and hospitable Druid, what path is there, that is left for my
+deliverance? What chance remains for me, now that a host of invisible
+beings combats against me? Teach me, my friend, my father, what it is
+that I must do. Tell me, is there any happiness in store for Edwin, or
+must I sink, unresisting, into the arms of comfortless despair?”
+
+“My son,” cried the venerable hermit, “hope is at all times our duty,
+and despair our crime. It is not in the power of events to undermine
+the felicity of the virtuous. Goblins, and spirits of darkness, are
+permitted a certain scope in this terrestrial scene; but their power is
+bounded; beyond a certain line they cannot wander. In vain do they
+threaten innocence and truth. Innocence is a wall of brass upon which
+they can make no impression. Virtue is an adamant that is sacred and
+secure from all their efforts. He whose thoughts are full of rectitude
+and heaven, who knows no guile, may wander in safety through
+uncultivated forests, or sandy plains, that have never known the trace
+of human feet. Before him the robber is just, and the satyr tame; for
+him the monsters of the desert are disarmed of their terrors, and he
+shall lead the wild boar and the wolf in his hand. Such is the sanctity
+that heaven has bestowed on unblemished truth.”
+
+“Alas, my father,” cried Edwin, “this is the lesson that was first
+communicated to my childhood; and my infant heart bounded with the
+sacred confidence it inspired. But excuse the presumption of a
+distracted heart. This lesson, to which at another time I could have
+listened with rapture and enthusiasm, seems now too loose and general
+for a medicine to my woes. Innocence the Gods have made superior and
+invulnerable. And, oh, in what have I transgressed? Yet, my father, I
+am wounded in the tenderest part. Shall I ever recover my Imogen? Is
+she not torn from me irreversibly? How shall I engage with powers
+invisible, and supernatural? How shall I discover my unknown, human
+enemy? No, Madoc, I am lost in impenetrable darkness. For me there is
+no hope, no shadow of approaching ease.”
+
+“Be calm, my son,” rejoined the anchorite. “Arrogance and impatience
+become not the weak and uninformed children of the earth. Be calm, and
+I will administer a remedy more appropriate to your wrongs. But
+remember this is your hour of trial. If now you forget the principles
+of your youth, and the instructions of the sacred Druids, you shall
+fall from happiness, never to regain it more. But if you come forth
+pure and unblemished from the fierce assay, your Imogen shall be yours,
+the Gods shall take you into their resistless protection, and in all
+future ages, when men would cite an example of distinguished felicity,
+they shall say, as fortunate as Edwin of the vale.” Edwin bended his
+knee in mute submission.
+
+“Listen, my son,” continued the Druid. “I know your enemy, and can
+point out to you his obscure retreat.” The shepherd lifted up his eyes,
+lately so languid, that now flashed with fire. He eagerly grasped the
+hand of Madoc. “Alas,” continued the hermit, “to know him would little
+answer the purpose of thy bold and enterprising spirit. They adversary,
+as thou mayest have conjectured, is in league with the powers of
+darkness. Against them what can courage, what can adventure avail? They
+can unthread thy joints, and crumble all thy sinews. They can chain up
+thy limbs in marble. For how many perils, how many unforseen disasters
+ought he to be prepared, who dares to encounter them?”
+
+“The name of him who has ravished from thee the dearest treasure of thy
+heart, is Roderic. His mother—attend, oh Edwin, for whatever the
+incredulous may pretend, the tales related by the bards in their
+immortal songs, of ghosts, and fairies, and dire enchantment, are not
+vain and fabulous.—You have heard of the inauspicious fame and the bad
+eminence of Rodogune. She withdrew from the fields of Clwyd within the
+memory of the elder of shepherds. Various were the conjectures
+occasioned by her disappearance. Some imagined, that for the
+haughtiness of her humour, and the malignity of her disposition,
+characters that were wholly unexampled in the pastoral life, she had
+been carried away before the period limited by nature to the place of
+torment by the goblins of the abyss. Others believed that she concealed
+herself in the top of the highest mountain that was near them, and by a
+commerce with invisible, malignant beings, still exercised the same
+gloomy temper in more potent, and therefore more inauspicious harm. The
+blight that overspread the meadows, the destructive contagion that
+diffused itself among the flocks, the raging tempest that rooted up the
+oak, when the thunder roared among the hills, and the lightning flashed
+from pole to pole, they ascribed to the machinations and the sorcery of
+Rodogune. Their conjectures indeed were blind, but their notions were
+not wholly mistaken.
+
+“Rodogune was the mother of Roderic. She was deeply skilled in those
+dark and flagitious arts, which have cast a gloom upon this mortal
+scene. The intellectual powers bestowed upon her by the Gods were great
+and eminent, and were given for a far different purpose than to be
+employed in these sinister pursuits. But all conspicuous talents are
+liable, my son, to base perversion; and such was the fate of those of
+Rodogune. She delighted in the actions which her dark and criminal
+alliance with invisible powers enabled her to perform. It was her’s to
+mislead the benighted shepherd. It was Sher’s to part the happy lovers.
+For this purpose she would swell the waves, and toss the feeble bark.
+She dispensed, according to the dictates of her caprice, the mildew
+among the tender herb, and the pestilence among the folds of the
+shepherds. By the stupendous powers of enchantment, she raised from the
+bosom of a hill a wondrous edifice. The apartments were magnificent and
+stately; unlike the shepherd’s cot, and not to be conceived by the
+imagination of the rustic. Here she accumulated a thousand various
+gratifications; here she wantoned in all the secret and licentious
+desires of her heart. But her castle was not merely a scene of
+thoughtless pleasure. Within its circle she held crouds of degenerate
+shepherds, groveling through the omnipotence of her incantations in
+every brutal form. Even the spectres and the elves that disobeyed her
+authority, she held in the severest durance. She compressed their
+tender forms in the narrowest prison, or gave them to the stormy winds,
+to be whirled, _with restless violence, round about_ the ample globe.
+In a word, her mansion was one uninterrupted scene of ingenious cruelty
+and miserable despair. To be surrounded with the face of disappointment
+and agony was the happiness of Rodogune.
+
+“When first by her art she raised that edifice which is now inhabited
+by her son, she had been desirous to conceal it from the prying eyes of
+the wanderer. In order to this, though it stood upon an eminence, she
+chose an eminence that was surrounded by higher hills, and hills which,
+according to the neighbouring shepherds, were impassable. No
+adventurous step had ever since the day they were created pierced
+beyond them. It was imagined that the space they surrounded was the
+haunt of elves, and the resort of those who held commerce with evil
+spirits. The curling smoke, which of late has frequently been seen to
+ascend from their bosom, has confirmed this tradition. And in order to
+render her habitation still more impervious, Rodogune surrounded it
+with a deep grove of oaks, whose thick branches entwined together,
+permitted no passage so much as to the light of day.
+
+“Roderic was her only child, the darling of her age, and the central
+object of all her cares. At his birth the elves and the fairies were
+summoned together. They bestowed upon him every beauty of person and
+every subtlety of wit. To every weapon they made him invulnerable. And,
+without demanding from him that care and persevering study, that had
+planted wrinkles on his mother’s brow, they gave him to enjoy his
+wishes instantly and uncontroled. One only goblin was daring enough to
+pronounce a curse upon him. ‘WHEN RODERIC,’ cried he, ‘SHALL BE
+OVERREACHED IN ALL HIS SPELLS BY A SIMPLE SWAIN, UNVERSED IN THE
+VARIOUS ARTS OF SORCERY AND MAGIC: WHEN RODERIC SHALL SUE TO A SIMPLE
+MAID, WHO BY HIS CHARMS SHALL BE MADE TO HATE THE SWAIN THAT ONCE SHE
+LOVED, AND WHO YET SHALL RESIST ALL HIS PERSONAL ATTRACTIONS AND ALL
+HIS POWER; THEN SHALL HIS POWER BE AT AN END. HIS PALACES SHALL BE
+DISSOLVED, HIS RICHES SCATTERED, AND HE HIMSELF SHALL BECOME AN
+UNFITTED, NECESSITOUS, MISERABLE VAGABOND.’ Such was the mysterious
+threat; and dearly did the threatner abide it. In the mean time, an elf
+more generous, more attached to Rodogune, and more potent than the
+rest, bestowed upon the infant a mysterious ring. By means of this he
+is empowered to assume what form he pleases. By means of this it was
+hoped he would be able to subdue the most prepossessed, and melt the
+most obdurate female heart. By means of this it was hoped, he might
+evade not only the simple swain, but all the wiles of the most
+experienced and subtle adversary.
+
+“Roderic now increased in age, and began to exhibit the promises of
+that manly and graceful beauty that was destined for him. He inherited
+his mother’s haughtiness, and his wishes and his passions were never
+subjected to contradiction. A few years since that mother died, and the
+youth has been too much engaged in voluptuousness and luxury to embark
+in the malicious pursuits of Rodogune, Sensuality has been his aim, and
+pleasure has been his God. To gratify his passions has been the sole
+object of his attentions; and he has remitted no exertion that could
+enhance to him the joys of the feast and the fruition of beauty. One
+low-minded gratification has succeeded to another; pleasures of an
+elevated and intellectual kind have been strangers to his heart; and
+were it not that the subtlety of wit was a gift bestowed upon him by
+supernatural existencies, he must long ere this have sunk his mind to
+the lowest savageness and the most contemptible imbecility.”
+
+Edwin heard the tale of the Druid with the deepest attention. He was
+interested in the information it contained; he was astonished at the
+unfathomable witcheries of Rodogune; and he could not avoid the being
+apprehensive of the unexpanded powers of Roderic. But the daring and
+adventurous spirit of youth, and the anxiety that he felt for the
+critical situation of Imogen, soon overpowered and obliterated these
+impressions. The Druid finished; and he started from his seat. “Point
+me, kind and generous Madoc, to the harbour of the usurper. I will
+invade his palace. I will enter fearlessly the lime-twigs of his
+spells. I will trust in the omnipotency of innocence. Though the
+magician should be encircled with all the horrid forms that ingenious
+fear ever created, though all the grizly legions of the infernal realm
+should hem in, I will find him out, and force him to relinquish his
+prize, or drag him by his shining hair to a death, ignominious and
+accursed, as has been the conduct of his life.”
+
+The Druid assumed a sterner and a severer aspect. “How long, son of the
+valley,” cried he, “wilt thou be deaf to the voice of instruction? When
+wilt thou temper thy heedless and inconsiderate courage with the
+coolness of wisdom and the moderation of docility? But go,” added he,
+“I am to blame to endeavour to govern thy headlong spirit, or stem the
+torrent of youthful folly. Go, and endure the punishment of thy
+rashness. Encounter the magician in the midst of his spells. Expose thy
+naked and unprotected head to glut his vengeance. Over thy life indeed,
+he has no power. Deliberate guilt, not unreflecting folly, can deprive
+thee of thy right to that. But, oh, shepherd, what avails it to live in
+hopeless misery? With ease he shall shut thee up for revolving years in
+darkness tangible; he shall plunge thee deep beneath the surface of the
+mantled pool, the viscous spume shall draw over thy miserable head its
+dank and dismal shroud; or perhaps, more ingenious in mischief, he
+shall chain thee up in inactivity, a conscious statue, the silent and
+passive witness of the usurped joys that once thou fondly fanciedst thy
+own.”
+
+“Oh, pardon me, sage and venerable Madoc,” replied the shepherd. “Edwin
+did not come from the hands of nature obstinate and untractable. But
+grief agitates my spirits; anxiety and apprehension conjure up a
+thousand horrid phantoms before my distracted imagination, and I am no
+longer myself. I will however subdue my impatient resentments. I will
+listen with coolness to the voice of native sagacity and hoary
+experience. Tell me then, my father, and I will hearken with mute
+attention, nor think the lesson long,—instruct me how I shall escape
+those tremendous dangers thou hast described. Say, is there any remedy,
+canst thou communicate any potent and unconquerable amulet, that shall
+shield me from the arts of sorcery? Teach me, and my honest heart shall
+thank thee. Communicate it, and the benefit shall be consecrated in my
+memory to everlasting gratitude.”
+
+“My son,” replied Madoc, “I am indeed interested for thee. Thy heart is
+ingenuous and sincere; thy misfortune is poignant and affecting. Listen
+then to my directions. Receive and treasure up this small and sordid
+root. In its external appearance, it is worthless and despicable; but,
+Edwin, we must not judge by appearances; that which is most valuable
+often delights to shroud itself under a coarse and unattractive
+outside. In a richer climate, and under a more genial sun, it bears a
+beauteous flower, whose broad leaves expand themselves to the day, and
+are clothed with a deep and splendid purple, glossy as velvet, and
+bedropped with gold. This root is a sovereign antidote against all
+blasts, enchantments, witchcrafts, and magic. With this about thee,
+thou mayest safely enter the haunts of Roderic; thou mayest hear his
+incantations unappalled; thou mayest boldly dash from his hand his
+magic glass, and shed the envenomed beverage on the ground. Then, when
+he stands astonished at the unexpected phenomenon, wrest from him his
+potent wand. Invoke not the unhallowed spirits of the abyss; invoke the
+spotless synod of the Gods. Strike with his rod the walls of his
+palace, and they shall turn to viewless air; the monster shall be
+deprived of all his riches, and all his accumulated pleasures; and thou
+and thy Imogen, delivered from the powers of enchantment, shall be, for
+one long, uninterrupted day, happy in the enjoyment of each other.
+
+“Attend, my son, yet attend, to one more advice, upon which all thy
+advantage and all thy success in this moment of crisis hang. Engage not
+in so arduous and important an enterprise immaturely. Thou hast yet no
+reason for despair. Thou art yet beheld with favour by propitious
+heaven. But thou mayest have reason for despair. One false step may
+ruin thee. One moment of heedless inconsideration may plunge thee in
+years of calamity. One moment of complying guilt may shut upon thee the
+door of enjoyment and happiness for ever.”
+
+Such was the sorrow, and such were the consolations of Edwin. But far
+different was the situation, and far other scenes were prepared for his
+faithful shepherdess. For some time after she had been seized by
+Roderic, she had remained unconscious and supine. The terrors that had
+preceded the fatal capture, had overpowered her delicate frame, and
+sunk her into an alarming and obstinate fit of insensibility. They had
+now almost reached the palace of the magician, when she discovered the
+first symptoms of returning life. The colour gradually remounted into
+her bloodless cheeks; her hands were raised with a feeble and
+involuntary motion, and at length she lifted up her head, and opened
+her languid, unobserving eyes. “Edwin,” she cried, “my friend, my
+companion, where art thou? Where have we been? Oh, it is a long and
+tedious evening!” Saying this, she looked upon the objects around her.
+The sky was now become clear and smiling; the lowring clouds were
+dissipated, and the blue expanse was stretched without limits over
+their head. The sources of her former terror were indeed removed, but
+the objects that presented themselves were equally alarming. All was
+unexpected and all was unaccountable. Imogen had remained without
+consciousness from the very beginning of the storm, and it was during
+her insensibility that the goblin had been visible, and the magician
+descended to the plains. She found herself mounted upon a car, and
+hurried along by rapid steeds. She saw beside her a man whose face,
+whose garb, and whose whole appearance were perfectly unknown to her.
+
+“Ah,” exclaimed the maiden, in a voice of amazement apprehension,
+“where am I? What is become of my Edwin? And what art thou? What means
+all this? These are not the well-known fields; this is not the brook of
+Towey, nor these hills of Clwyd. Oh, whither, whither do we fly? This
+track leads not to the cottage of my parents, and the groves of
+Rhyddlan.” “Be not uneasy, my fair one,” answered Roderic. “We go,
+though not by the usual path, to where your friends reside. I am not
+your enemy, but a swain who esteems it his happiness to have come
+between you and your distress, and to have rescued you from the pelting
+of the storm. Suspend, my love, for a few moments your suspicions and
+your anxiety, and we shall arrive where all your doubts will be
+removed, and all I hope will be pleasure and felicitation.” While he
+thus spoke the chariot hastened to the conclusion of their journey, and
+entered the area in the front of the mansion of Roderic.
+
+The suspicions of Imogen were indeed removed, but in a manner too cruel
+for her tender frame. The terror and fatigue she had previously
+undergone had wasted her spirits, and the surprise she now experienced,
+was more than she could sustain. As the chariot entered the court, she
+cried out with a voice of horror and anguish, and sunk breathless into
+the arms of her ravisher. Though the passion he had already conceived
+for her, made this a circumstance of affliction, he yet in another view
+rejoiced, that he was able, by its intervention, to conduct his prize
+in a manner by stealth into his palace, and thus to prevent that
+struggle and those painful sensations, which she must otherwise have
+known. For could she have borne, without emotion, to see herself
+conveyed into a wretched imprisonment? Could she have submitted,
+without opposition, to be shut up, as it were, from the hope of
+revisiting those scenes, where once her careless childhood played, and
+those friends whom she valued more than life?
+
+The leading pursuit of Roderic, as it had been stated by the Druid of
+Elwy, was the love of pleasure, an attachment to sensuality, luxury and
+lust. He often spent whole days in the bosom of voluptuousness,
+reposing upon couches of down, under ceilings of gold. His senses were
+at intervals awakened, by the most exquisite music, to a variety of
+delight. He often recreated his view with beholding, from a posture of
+supineness and indolence, the frolic games, and the mazy dance.
+Sometimes, in order to diversify the scene, he would mix in the sports,
+and, by the graceful activity of his limbs, and the subtle keenness of
+his wit, would communicate relish and novelty to that which before had
+palled upon the performers. When he moved, every eye was fixed in
+admiration. When he spoke all was tranquility of attention, and every
+mouth was open to applaud. Then were set forth the luxuries of the
+feast. Every artifice was employed to provoke the appetite. The viands
+were savoury, and the fruits were blushing; the decorations were
+sumptuous, and the halls shone with a profusion of tapers, whose rays
+were reflected in a thousand directions by an innumerable multitude of
+mirrors and lustres. And now the intoxicating beverage went swiftly
+round the board. The conversation became more open and unrestrained.
+Quick were the repartees and loud the mirth. Loose, meaning glances
+were interchanged between the master of the feast and the mingled
+beauties that adorned his board. With artful inadvertence the gauze
+seemed to withdraw from their panting bosoms, and new and still newer
+charms discovered themselves to enchant the eyes and inflame the heart.
+The bed of enjoyment succeeded to the board of intemperance. Such was
+the history of the life of Roderic.
+
+But man was not born for the indolence of pleasure and the uniformity
+of fruition. No gratifications, but especially not those that address
+themselves only to the senses, and pamper this brittle, worthless
+mansion of the immortal mind, are calculated to entertain us for any
+long duration. We need something to awaken our attention, to whet our
+appetite, and to contrast our joys. Happiness in this sublunary state
+can scarcely be felt, but by a comparison with misery. It is he only
+that has escaped from sickness, that is conscious of health; it is he
+only that has shaken off the chains of misfortune, that truly rejoices.
+The wisdom of these maxims was felt by Roderic. Full of pleasures,
+surrounded with objects of delight, he was not happy. Their uniformity
+cloyed him. He had received, by supernatural endowment, an activity and
+a venturousness of spirit, that were little formed for such scenes as
+these. He was devoured with spleen. He sighed he knew not why; he was
+peevish and ill-humoured in the midst of the most assiduous attention
+and the most wakeful service. And the command he possessed over the
+elements of nature was no remedy for sensations like these.
+
+Oppressed with these feelings, Roderic was accustomed to withdraw
+himself from the pomps and luxuries that surrounded him, to fly from
+the gilded palace and the fretted roofs, and to mix in the simple and
+undebauched scenes of artless innocence that descended on every side
+from the hills he inhabited. The name of Roderic was unknown to all the
+shepherds of the vallies, and he was received by them with that
+officiousness and hospitality which they were accustomed to exercise to
+the stranger. It was his delight to give scope to his imagination by
+inventing a thousand artful tales of misfortune, by which he awakened
+the compassion, and engaged the attachment of the simple hinds. In
+order the more effectually to evade that curiosity which would have
+been fatal to his ease, he assumed every different time that he came
+among them a different form. By this contrivance, he passed unobserved,
+he partook freely of their pastimes, he made his observations
+unmolested, and was perfectly at leisure for the reflections, not
+always of the most pleasant description, that these scenes, of simple
+virtue and honest poverty, were calculated to excite. “Oh, impotence of
+power,” exclaimed he, wrapt up and secure in the disguise he assumed,
+“to what purpose art thou desired? Ambition is surely the most foolish
+and misjudging of all terrestrial passions. My condition appears
+attractive. I am surrounded with riches and splendour; no man
+approaches me but with homage and flattery; every object of
+gratification solicits my acceptance. I am not only endowed with a
+capacity of obtaining all that I can wish, and that by supernatural
+means, but I am almost constantly forestalled in my wishes. Who would
+not say, that I am blessed? Who that heard but a description of my
+state, would not envy me? O ye shepherds, happy, thrice happy, in the
+confinedness of your prospects, ye would then envy me! Instructed as I
+am, instructed by too fatal experience, with reason I envy you. Hark to
+that swain who is now leading his flock from the durance in which they
+were held till the morning peeped over the eastern hills! The little
+lambs frisk about him, thankful for the liberty they have regained, and
+he stretches out his hand for them to lick. Now he drives them along
+the extended green, and in a wild and thoughtless note carols a lively
+lay. He sings perhaps of the kind, but bashful shepherdess. His hat is
+bound about with ribbon; the memorial of her coy compliance and
+much-prized favour. How light is his heart, how chearful his gait, and
+how gay his countenance! He leads in a string a little frolic goat with
+curving horns: I suppose the prize that he bore off in singing, which
+is not yet tamed to his hand, and familiarised to his flock. What
+though his coat be frieze? What though his labour constantly return
+with the returning day? I wear the attire of kings; far from labouring
+myself, thousands labour for my convenience. And yet he is happier than
+I. Envied simplicity; venerable ignorance; plenteous poverty! How
+gladly would I quit my sumptuous palace, and my magic arts, for the
+careless, airy, and unreflecting joys of rural simplicity!”
+
+It was in a late excursion of this kind that he had beheld the
+beauteous Imogen. His eye was struck with the charms of her person, and
+the amiableness of her manners. Never had he seen a complexion so
+transparent, or an eye so expressive. Her vermeil-tinctured lips were
+new-blown roses that engrossed the sight, and seemed to solicit to be
+plucked. His heart was caught in the tangles of her hair. Such an
+unaffected bashfulness, and so modest a blush; such an harmonious and
+meaning tone of voice, that expressed in the softest accents, the most
+delicate sense and the most winning simplicity, could not but engage
+the attention of a swain so versed in the science of the fair as
+Roderic. From that distinguished moment, though he still felt
+uneasiness, it was no longer vacuity, it was no longer an uneasiness
+irrational and unaccountable. He had now an object to pursue. He was
+not now subjected to the fatigue of forming wishes for the sake of
+having them instantly gratified. When he reflected upon the present
+object of his desires, new obstacles continually started in his mind.
+Unused to encounter difficulty, he for a time imagined them
+insurmountable. Had his desires been less pressing, had his passion
+been less ardent, he would have given up the pursuit in despair. But
+urged along by an unintermitted impulse, he could think of nothing
+else, he could not abstract his attention to a foreign subject. He
+determined at least once again to behold the peerless maiden. He
+descended to the feast of Ruthyn; and though the interval had been but
+short, from the time in which he had first observed her, in the eye of
+love she seemed improved. The charms that erst had budded, were now
+full blown. Her beauties were ripened, and her attractions spread
+themselves in the face of day. Nor was this all. He beheld with a
+watchful glance her slight and silent intercourse with the gallant
+Edwin; an intercourse which no eye but that of a lover could have
+penetrated. Hence his mind became pregnant with all the hateful brood
+of dark suspicions; he was agitated with the fury of jealousy. Jealousy
+evermore blows the flame it seems formed to extinguish. The passion of
+Roderic was more violent than ever. His impatient spirit could not now
+brook the absence of a moment. Luxury charmed no longer; the couch of
+down was to him a bed of torture, and the solicitations of beauty, the
+taunts and sarcasms of infernal furies. He invoked the spirit of his
+mother; he brought together an assembly of elves and goblins. By their
+direction he formed his plan; by their instrumentality the tempest was
+immediately raised; and under the guidance of the chief of all the
+throng he descended upon his prey, like the eagle from his eminence in
+the sky.
+
+The success of his exploit has already been related. The scheme had
+indeed been too deeply laid, and too artfully digested, to admit almost
+the possibility of a miscarriage. Who but would have stood appalled,
+when the storm descended upon our lovers in the midst of the plain, and
+the thunders seemed to rock the whole circle of the neighbouring hills?
+Who could have conducted himself at once with greater prudence and
+gallantry than the youthful shepherd? Did he not display the highest
+degree of heroism and address, when he laid the gaunt and haughty wolf
+prostrate at his feet? But it was not for human skill to cope with the
+opposition of infernal spirits. Accordingly Roderic had been
+victorious. He had borne the tender maiden unresisted from the field;
+he had outstripped the ardent pursuit of Edwin with a speed swifter
+than the winds. In fine, he had conducted his lovely prize in safety to
+his enchanted castle, and had introduced her within those walls, where
+every thing human and supernatural obeyed his nod, in a state of
+unresisting passivity.
+
+Roderic, immediately upon his entrance into the castle, had committed
+the fair Imogen to the care of the attendant damsels. He charged them
+by every means to endeavour to restore her to sense and tranquility,
+and not to utter any thing in her hearing, which should have the
+smallest tendency to discompose her spirits. In obedience to orders,
+which they had never known what it was to dispute, they were so
+unwearied in their assiduities to their amiable charge, that it was not
+long before she began once again to exhibit the tokens of renewed
+perception. She raised by degrees a leaden and inexpressive eye, to the
+objects that were about her, without having as yet spirit and
+recollectedness enough to distinguish them. “My mother,” cried she, “my
+venerable Edith, I am not well. My head is quite confused and giddy. Do
+press it with your friendly hand.” A female attendant, as she uttered
+these words, drew near to obey them. “Go, go,” exclaimed Imogen, with a
+feeble tone, and at the same time putting by the officious hand, “you
+naughty girl. You are not my mother. Do not think to make me believe
+you are.”
+
+While she spoke this she began gradually to gain a more entire
+sedateness and self-command. She seemed to examine, with an eager and
+inquisitive eye, first one object, and then another by turns. The
+novelty of the whole scene appeared for an instant to engross her
+attention. Every part of the furniture was unlike that of a shepherd’s
+cot; and completely singular and unprecedented by any thing that her
+memory could suggest. But this self-deception, this abstraction from
+her feelings and her situation was of a continuance the shortest that
+can be conceived. All seemed changed with her in a moment. Her eye,
+which, from a state of languor and unexpressiveness, had assumed an air
+of intent and restless curiosity, was now full of comfortless sorrow
+and unprotected distress. “Powers that defend the innocent, support,
+guard me! Where am I? What have I been doing? What is become of me? Oh,
+Edwin, Edwin!” and she reclined her head upon the shoulder of the
+female who was nearest her.
+
+Recovering however, in a moment, the dignity that was congenial to her,
+she raised herself from this remiss and inactive posture, and seemed to
+be immersed in reflection and thought. “Yes, yes,” exclaimed she, “I
+know well enough how it is. You cannot imagine what a furious storm it
+was: and so I sunk upon the ground terrified to death: and so Edwin
+left me, and ran some where, I cannot tell where, for shelter. But sure
+it could not be so neither. He could not be so barbarous. Well but
+however somebody came and took me up, and so I am here. But what am I
+here for, and what place is this? Tell me, ye kind shepherdesses, (if
+shepherdesses you are) for indeed I am sick at heart.”
+
+The broken interrogatories of Imogen were heard with a profound
+silence. “What,” said the lovely and apprehensive maiden, “will you not
+answer me? No, not one word. Ah, then it must be bad indeed. But I have
+done nothing that should make me be afraid. I am as harmless and as
+chearly as the little red-breast that pecks out of my hand? So you will
+not hurt me, will you? No, I dare swear. You do not frown upon me. Your
+looks are quite sweet and good-natured. But then it was not kind not to
+answer me, and tell me what I asked you.” “Fair stranger,” replied one
+of the throng, “we would willingly do any thing to oblige you. But you
+are weak and ill; and it is necessary that you should not exert
+yourself, but try to sleep.”
+
+“Sleep,” replied the shepherdess, “what here in this strange place? No,
+that I shall not, I can tell you. I never slept from under the thatch
+of my father’s cottage in my life, but once, and that was at the
+wedding of my dear, obliging Rovena. But perhaps,” added she, “my
+father and mother will come to me here. So I will even try and be
+compilable, for I never was obstinate. But indeed my head is strangely
+confused; you must excuse me.”
+
+Such was the language, and such the affecting simplicity of the
+innocent and uncultivated Imogen. She, who had been used to one narrow
+round of chearful, rustic scenes, was too much perplexed to be able to
+judge of her situation. Her repeated faintings had weakened her
+spirits, and for a time disordered her understanding. She had always
+lived among the simple; she had scarcely ever been witness to any thing
+but sincerity and innocence. Suspicion therefore was the farthest in
+the world from being an inmate of her breast. Suspicion is the latest
+and most difficult lesson of the honest and uncrooked mind. Imogen
+therefore willingly retired to rest, in compliance with the soliciation
+of her attendants. She beheld no longer her ravisher, whose eye beamed
+with ungovernable desires, and whose crest swelled with pride. Every
+countenance was marked with apparent carefulness and sympathy. She was
+even pleased with their officious and friendly-seeming demeanour.
+
+Tell me, ye vain cavillers, ye haughty adversaries of the omnipotence
+of virtue, where could artful vice, where could invisible and hell-born
+seduction, have found a fitter object for their triumph? Imogen was not
+armed with the lessons of experience: Imogen was not accoutered with
+the cautiousness of cultivation and refinement. She was all open to
+every one that approached her. She carried her heart in her hand. Ye, I
+doubt not, have already reckoned upon the triumph, and counted the
+advantages. But, if I do not much mistake the divine lessons I am
+commissioned to deliver, the muse shall tell a very different story.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK THE THIRD
+
+PURPOSES OF RODERIC.—THE CARRIAGE OF IMOGEN.—HER CONTEMPT OF RICHES.
+
+
+The fatigue which Imogen had undergone in the preceding day, prepared
+her to rest during the night with more tranquility than could otherwise
+have been expected. The scenes to which she had successively been
+witness, and the objects that now surrounded her, were too novel and
+extraordinary in their character, to allow much room for the severity
+of reflection, and the coolness of meditation. Her frame was tired with
+the various exercises in which she had engaged; her mind was hurried
+and perplexed without knowing upon what to fix, or in what manner to
+account for the events that had befallen her: she therefore sunk
+presently into a sweet and profound sleep; and while every thing seemed
+preparing for her destruction, while a thousand enchantments were
+essayed, and a thousand schemes revolved in the busy mind of Roderic,
+she remained composed and unapprehensive. Innocence was the sevenfold
+shield that protected her from harm; her eyes were closed in darkness,
+and a smile of placid benignity played upon the lovely features of her
+countenance.
+
+Roderic in the mean time had retired to his chamber. His mind was
+turbid and unquiet. So restless are the waves of the ocean before the
+coming tempest. They assume a darker hue, and reflect a more cloudy
+heaven. They roll this way and that in a continual motion, and yet
+without any direction, till the loud and hoarse-echoing wind determines
+their course and carries them in mountains to the sounding shore. The
+mind of the victim was all quiet and unruffled; such is the kindly
+influence of conscious truth. The mind of the ravisher exhibited
+nothing but uneasiness and confusion; such are the boons which vice
+bestows upon her misjudging votaries.
+
+The conqueror, doubly misled by fierce and unruly passions and by his
+inauspicious commerce with the goblins of the abyss, retired not
+immediately to his couch, but walked up and down his apartments, with a
+hasty and irregular step. “Thanks to my favourable stars,” exclaimed
+he, “I am triumphant! What power can resist me? Where is the being that
+shall dare to say, that one wish of my heart shall go unfulfilled? Well
+then, I have got the fair the charming she into my power. She is shut
+up in a palace, unseen by every human eye, to which no human foot ever
+found its way but at my bidding. She is closed round with spells and
+enchantment. I can by a word deprive her every limb of motion. If I but
+wave this wand, the leaden God of sleep shall sink her in a moment in
+the arms of forgetfulness, whatever were before her anxieties and her
+wakeful terrors. In what manner then shall I, thus absolute and
+uncontroled in all I bid exist, proceed? Shall I press the unwilling
+beauty to my bosom, and riot in her hoard of charms, without waiting
+like meaner mortals to sue for the consent of her will? There is
+something noble, royal, and independent, in the thought. Beauty never
+appears so attractive as from behind a veil of tears. Oh, how I enjoy
+infancy [sic] the anger that shall flush her lovely cheek! Perhaps she
+will even kneel to me to deprecate that which an education of
+prejudices has taught her to consider as the worst of evils. Yes, my
+lovely maid, I will raise thee. Do not turn from me those scornful
+indignant eyes. I will be thy best friend. I will not hurt a hair of
+thy head. Oh, when her spotless bosom pants with disdain, how sweet to
+beat the little chiders, and by a friendly violence, which true and
+comprehensive wisdom cannot stigmatize, to teach her what is the true
+value of beauty, and for what purpose such enchanting forms as her’s
+were sent to dwell below!”
+
+Thus spoke the ravisher, and as he spoke he assumed, although alone, a
+firmer stride and a more haughty crest. Upon the instant however his
+ears were saluted with a low and continual sound, that became, by just
+degrees, stronger and more strong. The walls of his palace shook; a
+sudden and supernatural light gleamed along his apartment, and a
+spectre stood before him. Roderic lifted up his eyes, and immediately
+recognised the features of that goblin, who from the hour of his birth,
+had declared himself his adversary. He had been repeatedly used to the
+visits of this malicious spirit, who delighted to subvert all his
+schemes, and to baffle his deepest projects. This was the only
+misfortune, the sovereign of the hills had ever known; this was the
+only instance in which he had at any time been taught what it was to
+have his power controled and his nod unobeyed. He had often sought, by
+means of the confederacy he held with other spirits of the infernal
+regions, to restrain his enemy, or by punishment and suffering to make
+him rue his opposition. But the goblin he had to encounter, though not
+the most potent, was of all the rest the most crafty in his wiles, and
+the most abundant in expedients. As many times as his fellows had by
+the instigation of Roderic undertaken to encounter him, so often had
+they in the end been eluded and defeated. The contest was now given up,
+and the goblin was at liberty to haunt and threaten his impotant
+adversary as much as he pleased.
+
+“Roderic,” cried he, with a harsh and unpleasant accent, “I am come to
+humble the haughtiness of thy triumph, and to pull down thy aspiring
+thoughts. Impotent and rancorous mortal! Know, that innocence is
+defended with too strong a shield for thee to pierce! Boast not thyself
+of the immensity of thy walls, and put no confidence in the subtlety of
+thy enchantments. Before the mightiness that waits on innocence, they
+are not less impotent than the liquid wax, or the crumbling ruin.
+Learn, oh presumptuous mortal, that sacred and unyielding chastity is
+invulnerable to all the violence of men, and all the stratagems of
+goblins. I would not name to thee so salutary an advice as to dismiss
+thy innocent and unsuspicious prize, did not I know thee too obstinate
+and headstrong to listen to the voice of wisdom. Essay then thy base
+and low-minded temptations, thy corrupt and sophistical reasonings, to
+tarnish the unsullied purity of her mind, and it is well. If by such a
+wretch as thee she can be seduced from the obedience of virtue and the
+Gods, then let her fall. She were then a victim worthy of thee. But if
+thou essayest the means of tyranny and force, the attempt will be fatal
+to thee. I will in that case enjoy my vengeance; I will triumph in thy
+desolation. In the hour then of action and enterprise, remember me!”
+
+With these words the spectre vanished from his sight. Roderic was
+inflamed with anger and disgust; but he had none, upon whom to wreak
+his revenge. His heart boiled with the impotence of malice. “What,”
+cried he, “am I to be bounded and hedged in, in all my exploits? Am I
+to be curbed and thwarted in every wish of my heart? This, this was
+nearest to me. This was the first pursuit of my life in which my whole
+heart was engaged; the first time I ever felt a passion that deserved
+the name of love. But be it so: I was born with wild and impetuous
+passions only to have them frustrated; I was endowed with supernatural
+powers, and inherited all my mother’s skill, only to be the more
+signally disappointed. Still however I will not shrink, I will not
+yield an inch to my adversary. I am bid, it seems, to tempt her, and
+endeavour to stain the purity of her mind. Yes, I will tempt her. It is
+not for an artless and uninstructed shepherdess to defeat my wiles and
+baffle all my incitements. I will dazzle her senses with all the
+attractions that the globe of earth has to boast. I will wind me into
+her secret heart. Thou damned, unpropitious goblin, who seekest to
+oppose thyself to my happiness, I will but, by thy warning, gain a
+completer triumph! I will subdue her will. She shall crown my wishes
+with ripe, consenting beauty. Long shall she remain the empress of my
+heart, and partner of my bed. In her I will hope to find those simple,
+artless, and engaging charms, which in vain I have often sought in the
+band of females, that reside beneath my roof, and wait upon my nod.”
+
+Imogen, though considerably indisposed by the fatigue and terrors of
+the preceding day, shook off however that placid and refreshing sleep
+which had weighed down her eyelids, long before Roderic deserted the
+couch of luxury. Two of the female attendants belonging to the castle
+had slept in the same apartment with her, and soon, perceiving her in
+motion, followed her example, and officiously pressed around her. One
+of them took up a part of the garb of the fair shepherdess, and offered
+to assist her in adjusting it. “I thank you,” cried Imogen, with the
+utmost simplicity, “for your good-nature; but I am pretty well now; and
+every body dresses herself that is not sick.” The inartificial
+decorations of her person were quickly adjusted. The delicate
+proportion of her limbs was hid beneath a russet mantle; her fair and
+flowing tresses were disposed in a braid round her head, and she took
+her straw hat in her hand. “Well,” said she, “I am obliged to you for
+your favours. I dare say it was best for me, though at the time I
+thought otherwise. For my head ached very much, and I was so weak—It
+was wrong for me to think of going any farther.—Ah, but then, what have
+my poor father and mother done all the while? Have not they missed
+their Imogen, and wondered what was become of her, and been quite sad
+and forlorn for fear she should have come to any harm? Well, I do not
+know whether I was not right too. For their ease was of more
+consequence than mine. I cannot tell. However I will not now keep them
+in pain. So good morning to you, my dear kind friends!” And saying this
+she was tripping away.
+
+But as she drew towards the door, one of the attendants, with a gentle
+force, took hold of her hand. “Do not go yet, sweet Imogen,” cried she.
+“We want a little more of your company. We have done you all the
+service in our power, and you have not paid us for it. We will not ask
+any thing hard and unreasonable of you. Only comply with us in this one
+thing, to stay with us a few hours, and let us know a little better the
+worth of that amiable female we have endeavoured to oblige.” “Indeed,
+indeed,” replied Imogen, “I cannot. I am not used to be obstinate; and
+you are so kind and fair spoken, that it goes to my heart to refuse
+you. But I would not for the world keep my dear, good Edith in a
+moment’s suspense. But since you are so desirous of being acquainted
+with me, repair as soon and as often as you please to my father’s cot,
+that lies on the right hand side of the valley, about a mile from the
+sea, and just beside the pretty brawling brook of Towey. There I will
+treat you with the nicest apples and the richest cream. And I would
+treat you with better, if I knew of any thing better, that I might
+thank you for your goodness. Farewel!” added she, and affectionately
+pressed the hand that was still untwined with her’s.
+
+“No, Imogen, no, you must not leave us thus. Though we would have done
+a thousand times more than we have for your own sake, who are so simple
+and so good, it is yet fit that you should know, that we are not
+mistresses here, and that all we have done has been by the orders of
+the lord of this rich mansion. He will not therefore forgive us, if we
+suffer you to depart before he has seen you, and expressed for you that
+kindness which induced him to take you under his protection.”
+“Heavens!” replied the shepherdess “this is all ceremony and folly, and
+therefore cannot be of so much consequence as the peace of my father,
+and the consolation of my mother. Tell him, that I thank him, and that
+my father shall thank him too, if he will come to our hut. Tell him
+that I am sorry for my foolish weakness, that gave him so much trouble,
+and made me be so needlessly frightened, when we came to a place where
+I have met with nothing but kindness; but I could not help it. And so
+that is enough; for if my Edwin had been in his place, and had seen a
+stranger shepherdess in the distress that I was, he would surely have
+done as much.
+
+“Say so to your lord, as you call him, for I would not seem ungrateful.
+But yet I will thank you a great deal more than I do him. For what did
+he do for me? He took me, and hurried me away, and paid no attention to
+my tears and expostulations. Well, but I need not have been alarmed. So
+it seems. But I did not like his looks; they were not kind and
+good-natured, but fierce and frightful. And so as soon as he had
+brought me here, much against my will, he went away and left me. So
+much the better. And then you came and took care of me, and he desired
+you to do so. That was well enough. But I am more obliged to you for
+your kindness and assiduity, than I am to him only for thinking of it.
+And then to tell you the truth, but I ought not to say so to you who
+are his friends, there is something about him, I cannot tell what, that
+does not please me at all. He looks discontented, and fierce, as if
+there was no such thing as soothing and managing him. But why do I say
+all this? Pray now let me go, let me go to my dear, dear mother.”
+
+“Sweet Imogen,” replied the attendant, who seemed to take the lead in
+the circle, “how lovely and amiable are you even in your resentments!
+They are not with you a morose and gloomy sullenness brooding over
+imaginary wrongs, and collecting venom and malice from every corner to
+the heart. In your breast anger itself takes a milder form, and is
+gentle, generous and gay. Yet why, my Imogen, should you harbour any
+anger against your protector?”
+
+Such was the honest and artless dialogue of Imogen. The attendants
+rather endeavoured to beguile the time, by dexterously starting new
+topics of conversation, upon which Imogen delivered her plain and
+natural sentiments with the utmost sincerity, than to detain her by
+open force. At length one of them slipped out, and hastened to acquaint
+Roderic with the impatience of his prize, and to communicate to him the
+substance of those artless hints, which, in the hands of so skilful and
+potent an impostor, might be of the greatest service. Roderic
+immediately rose. But as he was desirous to decorate his person with
+the nicest skill, in order to make the most favourable impression upon
+his mistress, he ordered the attendant, with some of her companions, to
+wait upon Imogen. He commissioned them, if it were necessary, to inform
+her of the absolute impossibility of her quitting the castle, and to
+persuade her to walk in the meadows adjoining, that she might observe
+the riches of their possessor; how fertile were the soil, and how fair
+and numerous the flocks.
+
+The patience of Imogen, in the mean time, was nearly exhausted. Her
+simplicity could no longer be duped. Though unused to art, it was
+impossible for her not at length to perceive the art by which the
+conversation was lengthened, and her ardent desire to set out for the
+cottage of her father, eluded. She was just beginning to expostulate
+upon this ungenerous stratagem, when three or four of those females,
+whom Roderic had dispatched entered the apartment. “Well,” cried
+Imogen, “you have borne my message to my deliverer, now then let me
+go.” “Our lord,” replied the attendant, “is just risen. He will but
+adjust his apparel, and will immediately pay you those respects in
+person which he can by no means think of omitting.” “Alas, alas,” cried
+the shepherdess, half distressed, “what is the meaning of all this?
+What is intended by a language so foreign to the homeliness of the
+shepherd’s cot, and the admirable simplicity of pastoral life? I know
+not what title I have, a poor, unpretending virgin, to the respects of
+this lord; but surely if they meaned me well, they would be less hollow
+and absurd. Would there not be much more respect, much more civility,
+in permitting me to follow my own inclinations, without this arbitrary
+and ungrateful restraint?” “Shepherdess,” replied the attendant, “we
+are not used to dispute the orders of our master. We would oblige you
+if it were in our power. Impute not therefore to us any thing
+unfriendly; and as for Roderic, he is too good, and too amiable, not to
+be able to satisfy you about his conduct the moment he appears.” “Your
+master! and your lord!” replied Imogen, with a tone of displeasure, “I
+understand not these words. The Gods have made all their rational
+creatures equal. If they have made one strong and another weak, it is
+for the purpose of mutual benevolence and assistance, and not for that
+of despotism and oppression. Of all the shepherds of the valley, there
+is not one that claims dominion and command over another. There is
+indeed an obedience due from children to their parents, and from a wife
+to her husband. But ye cannot be his children; for he is young and
+blooming. And but one of you can be his wife; so that that cannot be
+the source of his authority. What a numerous family has this Roderic?
+Does that I wonder, make him happier than his fellows?”
+
+“Imogen,” said one of the train, “will you walk with us along the
+meadow, by the side of that hazel copse? The morning is delightful, the
+sun shines with a mild and cheering heat, the lambs frisk along the
+level green, and the birds, with their little throats, warble each a
+different strain.” The mind of Imogen was highly susceptible to the
+impression of rural beauties. She had that placid innocence, that sweet
+serenity of heart, which best prepares us to relish them. Seeing
+therefore, that she was a prisoner, and that it was in vain to struggle
+and beat her wings against the wiry inclosure, she submitted. “Ah!
+unjust, unkind associates!” exclaimed Imogen, “ye can obey the dictates
+of a man, who has no right to your obedience, and ye can turn a deaf
+ear to the voice of benevolence and justice! Set me at liberty. This
+man has no right to see me, and I will not see him. I, that have been
+used to wander as free as the inmates of the wood, or the winged
+inhabitants of air, shall I be cooped up in a petty cage, have all my
+motions dictated, and all my walks circumscribed? Indeed, indeed, I
+will not. Imogen can never submit to so ignominious a restraint. She
+will sooner die.”
+
+“Why, my lovely maiden,” replied the other, “will you think so harshly
+of our lord? He does not deserve these uncandid constructions; he is
+all gentleness and goodness. Suspend therefore your impatience for a
+moment. By and by you may represent to him your uneasiness, and he will
+grant you all the wishes of your heart. Till then, amiable girl,
+compose your spirits, and give us cause to believe, that you place that
+confidence in us, which for the world we would not deserve to forfeit.”
+
+During this conversation, they passed along a gallery, and, descending
+by a flight of stairs, proceeded through one corner of a spacious
+garden into the meadow. The mansion, as we have already said, stood
+upon a rising ground, which was inclosed on every side by a circle of
+hills, whose summits seemed to touch the clouds, and were covered with
+eternal snow. Within this wider circumference was a second formed by an
+impervious grove of oaks, which, though of no long standing, yet,
+having been produced by magical art, had appeared from the first in
+full maturity. Their vast trunks, which three men hand in hand could
+scarcely span, were marked with many a scar, and their broad branches,
+waving to the winds, inspired into the pious and the virtuous that
+religious awe, which is one of the principal lessons of the Druidical
+religion.
+
+At no great distance, and close on one side to the majestic grove, was
+a terrace, raised by the hand of art, so elevated, as to overlook the
+tops of the trees as well as the turrets of the castle, and to afford a
+complete prospect of all the grounds on this side the precipices. To
+this terrace the attendants of Imogen led their charge, and from it she
+surveyed the farms and granges of their lord. The view was diversified
+by a number of little rills, that flowed down from the mountains, and
+gave fertility and cheerfulness to the fields through which they
+passed. The inclosures were some of them covered with a fine and rich
+herbage, whose appearance was bright and verdant, and its surface
+besprinkled with cowslips, king-cups, and daisies. Others of them were
+interspersed with sheep that exhibited the face of sleekness and ease,
+their fleeces large and ponderous, and their wool of the finest and
+most admirable texture. Elsewhere you might see the cattle grazing. The
+ox dappled with a thousand spots, which nature seemed to have applied
+with a wanton and playful hand; the cow, whose udders were distended
+with milk, that appeared to call for the interposition of the maidens
+to lighten them of their store; and the lordly and majestic bull. With
+them was intermingled the horse, whose limbs seemed to be formed for
+speed and beauty. At a small distance were the stag with branching
+horns, the timid deer, and the sportive, frisking fawn. Even from the
+rugged precipices, that seemed intended by nature to lie waste and
+useless, depended the shaggy goat and the tender kid. Beside all this,
+Roderic had had communicated to him, by a supernatural afflatus, that
+wondrous art, as yet unknown in the plains of Albion, of turning up the
+soil with a share of iron, and scattering it with a small quantity of
+those grains which are most useful to man, to expect to gather, after a
+short interval, a forty-fold increase.
+
+Every thing conspired to communicate to the prospect lustre and
+attraction. The birds, with their various song, gave an air of
+populousness and animation to the grove. By the side of the rivulets
+were scattered here and there the huts of the shepherd and husbandman.
+And though these swains were not, like the happy dwellers in the
+valley, enlivened with freedom, and made careless and gay by conscious
+innocence; yet were they skilful to give clearness and melody to the
+slender reed; and the ploughman whistled as he drove afield. But that
+in the landscape which most engrossed the attention and awakened the
+curiosity of the tender Imogen, was the appearance of the fields of
+corn. It was in her eye novel, agreeable, and interesting. The harvest
+was near, and the effect of the object was at its greatest height. The
+tall and unbending stalk overtopped by far the native herbage of the
+meadow, and seemed to emulate the hawthorn and the hazel, which,
+planted in even rows, secured the precious crop from the invasion of
+the cattle. The ears were embrowned with the continual beams of the
+sun, and, oppressed with the weight of their grain, bended from the
+stalk. In a word, the whole presented to the astonished view a rich
+scene of vegetable gold. Upon this delightful object the shepherdess
+gazed with an unwearied regard. Respecting it she asked innumerable
+questions, and made a thousand enquiries; and it almost seemed as if
+her curiosity would never be satisfied. Such is the power of novelty
+over the young and inexperienced, and such the influence of the
+beautiful and transcendent beauties of nature upon the ingenuous and
+uncorrupted mind. But it was not possible for the shepherdess,
+interested as she was in the uneasiness, to which she knew that her
+parents must be a prey, long to banish from her mind the affecting
+consideration, or to divert her attention to another object, however
+agreeable, or however fascinating.
+
+She had just begun to renew her representations upon this head, when
+Roderic approached. While he was yet at a distance, he appeared
+graceful and gay, as the messenger of the God that grasps the lightning
+in his hand. His stature was above the common size. His limbs were
+formed with perfect symmetry; the fall of his shoulders was graceful,
+and the whole contour of his body was regular and pleasing. Such was
+the general effect of his shape, that though his advance was hesitating
+and respectful, it was impossible to contemplate his person without the
+ideas being suggested of velocity and swiftness. His presence and air
+had the appearance of frankness, ingenuousness, and manly confidence.
+The natural fire and haughtiness of his eye were carefully subdued, and
+he seemed, at least to a superficial view, the very model of
+good-nature and disinterested complaisance. His bright and flowing hair
+parted on his brow, and formed into a thousand ringlets, waved to the
+zephyrs as he passed along. There was something so delicate and
+enchanting in his whole figure, as to tempt you to compare it to the
+unspotted beauty of the hyacinth; at the same time that you rejoiced,
+that it was not a beauty, frail and transient, as the tender flower,
+but which promised a manly ripeness and a protracted duration.
+
+Observing that the attention of those around her was suddenly diverted
+from the intreaties she employed, Imogen turned her eye, in order to
+discover the object that now engaged them. It was immediately met by
+the graceful and amiable figure we have described. But to Imogen that
+figure presented no such comeliness and beauty. For a moment indeed,
+nature prevailed, and she could not avoid gazing, with a degree of
+complacence, upon an object, to which the Goddess seemed to have
+lavished all her treasures. But this sensation vanished, almost before
+it was formed. The mind of the shepherdess was too deeply read in the
+lessons of virtue, to acknowledge any beauty in that form, which was
+not animated with truth, and in those features, which were not
+illuminated with integrity and innocence. Notwithstanding her native
+simplicity, and the unsuspecting confidence she was inclined to repose
+in every individual of the human race, yet had the conduct of Roderic,
+as she had already confessed, displeased her too deeply for her
+immediately to assume towards him an unembarrassed and soothing
+carriage. He had seized upon her by violence in a moment of
+insensibility. He had carried her away without her consent. When she
+recovered strength enough to expostulate upon this, he endeavoured, by
+ambiguous expressions, to deceive her into an opinion, that he was
+conducting her to the cottage of her father. Supposing that, for
+reasons good and wise, he had introduced her into a strange place, she
+could not be persuaded that those reasons subsisted for detaining her
+contrary to her inclination. And independently of any individual
+circumstances, there is a native and inexplicable antipathy between
+virtue and vice. It is not in the nature of things, it is not within
+the range of possibility, that they should coalesce and unite where
+both of them exist in a decided manner, or an eminent degree. It was
+not the babble of ignorance, it was by an unalterable law of her
+nature, that Imogen had been displeased with the looks of him, who
+meaned her destruction. The animation that dwells in the features of
+virtue, is mild and friendly and lambent; but the sparkles that flash
+from the eye of enterprising guilt, are momentary, and unrelenting, and
+impetuous. The gentle and the inoffensive instantly feel how
+uncongenial they are to their dispositions, and start back from them
+with aversion and horror. Such were in some measure the sensations of
+Imogen, upon the re-appearance of her betrayer. She turned from him
+with unfeigned dislike, and was reluctantly kept in the same situation
+till he ascended the terrace. As he drew nearer, Roderic seized the
+hand of the lovely captive. In a tone of blandishment he expostulated
+with her upon her unkind behaviour and unreasonable aversion. With all
+that sophistry, that ingenious vice knows so well how to employ, he
+endeavoured to evince that his conduct had been regulated by kindness,
+rectitude and humanity. In the mean time the retinue withdrew to a
+small distance. Imogen insisted upon not being left wholly alone with
+her ravisher.
+
+Able to perplex but not to subvert the understanding of his prize,
+Roderic addressed her with the language of love. Naturally eloquent,
+all that he now said was accompanied with that ineffable sweetness, and
+that soft insinuation, that must have shaken the integrity of Imogen,
+had her heart been less constant, and her bosom less glowed with the
+enthusiasm of virtue. Her betrayer was conscious to a real, though a
+degenerate flame, and was not reduced to feign an ardour he did not
+feel. Recollecting however the pure manners, and the delicate and
+ingenuous language to which Imogen had been inured among the
+inhabitants of Clwyd, the subtle sorcerer did not permit an expression
+to escape him, that could offend the chastest ear, or alarm the most
+suspicious virtue. His love, ardent as it appeared, seemed to be
+entirely under the government of the strictest propriety, and the most
+unfeigned rectitude. He knew that the inspirations of integrity and the
+lessons of education were not to be eradicated at once; and he
+attempted not to gain the acquiescence of his captive by gross and
+unsuitable allurements, unconcealed with the gilding of dexterity and
+speciousness.
+
+But his eloquence and his address were equally vain. In spite of the
+beauty of his person and the urbanity of his manners, the shepherdess
+received his declarations with coldness and aversion. She assured him
+of the impossibility of his success, that she felt for him emotions
+very different from those of partiality, and that her heart was
+prepossessed for a more amiable swain. With that sweet simplicity, that
+accompanied all she did, she endeavoured to dissuade him from the
+pursuit of a hopeless and unreasonable passion; she enumerated to him
+all the sources of enjoyment with which he was surrounded; she
+intreated him not in the wantonness of opulence to disturb her humble
+and narrow felicity; and she besought him in the most pathetic and
+earnest language to dismiss her to freedom, contentment and her
+parents.
+
+The more she exerted herself to bend his resolution, and the more scope
+she gave to the unstudied expression of her artless sentiments, the
+more inextricably was the magician caught, and the more firm and
+inexorable was his purpose. Perceiving however that he had little to
+hope from the most skilful detail of the pleas of passion, he turned
+the attention of the shepherdess to a different topic. “Behold Imogen,”
+cried he, “the richness of the landscape on our right hand! The spot in
+my eye is farthest from the castle, and divided from the rest of the
+prospect with a tall hedge of poplars and alders. It is full of the
+finest grass, and its soil is rich and luxuriant. It is scattered with
+fleckered cows and dappled fawns. In the hither part of it is a field
+of the choicest wheat, whose stalks are so rank and pregnant, that the
+timid hare and the untamed fox can scarcely force themselves a path
+among them. Beside it is an inclosure of barley with strong and pointed
+spikes; and another of oats, whose grain, uneared, spreads broader to
+the eye. How beautiful the scene! I will not ask you, fairest of your
+sex, to give your confidence to unauthorised words. I will afford the
+most unquestionable demonstration of the veracity of my declarations.
+All these, lovely Imogen, shall be yours: yours exclusively, to be
+disposed of at your pleasure, without the interference or control of
+any. All my other possessions shall not belong to myself more than to
+you. You shall be the mistress of my heart, and the associate of my
+counsels. All my business shall be your gratification, all my pleasure
+your happiness. Forget then, dearest maiden, the poverty of your former
+condition, and the connections you formed in an hour of ignorance and
+obscurity. From this moment let a new era and better prospects
+commence. Enjoy that wealth, which can no where so well be bestowed;
+and those gratifications, which so obviously belong to that delicate
+and enchanting form.”
+
+The proposal of Roderic called forth more than ever the spirit and the
+resentment of Imogen. She did not feel herself in the slightest degree
+attracted by the magnificence of his offers. She knew of no use for
+superfluous riches. She felt no wants unsupplied, and no wishes
+ungratified. What motive is there in the whole region of human
+perceptions, that can excite the contented mind to the pursuit of
+affluence? “And dost thou think,” said the fair one, with a gesture of
+disdain that made her look ten times more amiable, “to seduce me with
+baits like these? Know, mistaken man, that I am happy. I spin the
+finest wool of our flocks, and drain the distended udders of our cows.
+I superintend the dairies; the butter and the cheese are the produce of
+my industry. In these employments my time is spent in chearfulness and
+pleasure. Surrounded with our little possessions, I am conscious to no
+deficiency; in the midst of my parents and friends, I desire not to
+look beyond the narrow circle of the neighbouring hills. If you feel
+those wants, which I do not so much as understand, enjoy your fond
+mistake. Possess those riches which I will not envy you. Wander from
+luxury to luxury unquestioned; I shall be sufficiently happy in the
+narrow gratifications that nature has placed within my reach. The gifts
+you offer me have no splendour in my eye, and I could not thank you for
+them though offered with ever so much disinterestedness. The only gift
+it is in your power to make is liberty. Allow me to partake of that
+bounty, which nature has bestowed upon the choristers of the grove, to
+wander where I will. Under a thousand of those privations that would
+render the child of luxury inconsolable, I would support myself;
+freedom and independence are the only boons which the whole course of
+my life has taught me to cherish.”
+
+“Your ignorance,” rejoined Roderic, “is amiable, though unfortunate.
+But your merit is too great not to deserve to be informed. Knowledge,
+my lovely maiden, is always regarded as a desirable acquisition by the
+prudent and the judicious. To what purpose was a mind so capacious,
+competent to the greatest improvements, and formed to comprehend
+subjects of the most extensive compass, or the sublimest reach,
+bestowed upon us, if it be not employed in the pursuits of science and
+experience? Your abilities, my Imogen, appear to be of the very first
+description. How much then will you be to be blamed, if you do not
+embrace this opportunity of improvement and instruction? Beauty, though
+unseen, is not less excellent; and prudence, though unpossessed, is of
+value inestimable. The poor man may be contented, because he knows not
+the use of riches; but, in spite of this contentment, it were wise to
+enlarge our sphere of sensation, and to extend the sources of
+happiness.
+
+“If however you still maintain that lovely perverseness, decide if you
+please upon your own fate, but let filial piety hinder you from
+determining too hastily respecting that of your parents and your
+friends. Consider what a new and unbounded scope will be afforded you,
+by the participation of my riches, for the exercise of benevolent and
+generous propensities. Your parents are now declining fast under the
+weight of years and infirmity. It is in your power to make their bed of
+down, and to enliven the ground they have yet to traverse with flowers.
+It is yours to wrest the sheers from the hand of the weary and
+over-laboured ancient, and to remove the distaff from the knees of your
+venerable mother. Think, gentle shepherdess, before it be too late, of
+the heart-felt pleasures that await the power to do good, when attended
+with a virtuous inclination. When you wipe away the tear from the cheek
+of distress, when you light up a smile in the eye of misery, think you,
+that none of the comfort you administer will flow back in generous and
+refreshing streams to your own heart? Are these exertions that Imogen
+ought to contemplate with indifference? Is this a power that Imogen can
+reject without deliberation?”
+
+Imogen stood for a moment in a sweet and ingenuous state of suspense.
+She had a native and indefeasible reverence for every thing that had
+the remotest analogy to virtue, and she could not answer a proposal
+that came recommended to her by that name with unhesitating
+promptitude. She was too good and modest to assume an air of decision
+where she did not feel it; she was too simple and unaffected, to
+disguise that hesitation to which she was really conscious. “How false
+and treacherous,” exclaimed she, “are your reasonings! Among the
+virtuous inhabitants of the plain, every one seeks to influence another
+by motives which are of weight with himself, and utters the sentiments
+of his own heart. Where have you learned the disingenuous and faithless
+arts you employ? To what purpose have you cultivated them, and whose
+good opinion do you flatter yourself they will obtain for you? False,
+perfidious Roderic! the more I see of you, the more I fear and despise
+you.
+
+“You would recommend to me your temptations under the colour of
+knowlege. Has knowlege any charms for the debauched and luxurious? You
+tell me we ought to enlarge our sphere of sensation, and to extend the
+sources of happiness. Wisdom indeed, and mental improvements are
+desirable. But the sage Druids have always taught me, that the mind is
+the nobler part, that the body is to be kept in subjection, and that it
+is not our business to seek its gratification beyond the bounds of
+necessity and temperance. If I allowed myself to think that I wanted
+more than I have, might not the possession of that more extend my
+desires, till, from humble and bounded, they became insatiable? Were I
+to dismiss those industrious pursuits by means of which my time now
+glides so pleasantly, how am I sure that indolence and vacancy would
+make me happier?
+
+“To succour indeed the necessitous, and particularly my parents and
+relations, is a consideration of more value. But ah, Roderic! though
+you talk it so well, I am afraid it is a consideration foreign to your
+character. For my parents, they are as yet healthful and active; and
+while they continue so, they wish, no more than myself for repose and
+indolence. If ever they become incapable of industry, their little
+flock will still contribute to their support. They are too much
+respected, for the neighbouring shepherds not to watch over it in turn
+out of pure love. And, I hope, as I will then exert myself with double
+vigour, that the Gods will bless us, and we shall do very well. As to
+general distress, heaven is too propitious to us, to permit the
+inhabitants of the valley to be overwhelmed by it. And I shall always
+have milk from my flocks, and a cheese from my store, to set before the
+hungry and necessitous.
+
+“But were these advantages more valuable than they are, it would not be
+my duty to purchase them so dear. What, shall I desert all the
+connections it has been the business of my life to form, and that happy
+state of simplicity I love so much? Shall I shake off the mutual vows I
+have exchanged with the most amiable and generous of the swains, and
+join myself to one, whose person I cannot love, and whose character I
+cannot approve? No, Roderic, enjoy that happiness, if it deserve the
+name of happiness, that is congenial to your inclination. Forget the
+worthless and unreasonable passion, you pretend to have conceived, in
+the multitude of gratifications that are within your reach. Envy not me
+my straw-defended roof, my little flock, and my faithful shepherd. I
+will never exchange them for all the temptations that the world can
+furnish.”
+
+
+
+
+BOOK THE FOURTH
+
+SONG IN HONOUR OF THE FAIR SEX.—HYPOCRISY OF THE MAGICIAN.—THE TRIUMPH
+OF IMOGEN.—DESPAIR AND CONSOLATION OF RODERIC.
+
+
+So much was Roderic discouraged by the apparent spirit and firmness of
+these declarations, that at the conclusion of them he abruptly quitted
+his captive, and released her for a moment from his unjust
+persecutions. His pride however was too strongly piqued, and his
+passions too much alarmed to permit her a real respite. “Where ever,”
+cried he, as he trod with hasty and irregular steps the level
+green,—“where ever were found such simplicity, and so much strength of
+judgment, and gaiety of wit in union? Is it possible for the extreme of
+simplicity and the perfection of intellect to meet together? These
+surely are paradoxes, that not all the goblins of the abyss can solve,
+and which, had they been related instead of seen, must have appeared to
+constitute an absurd and impossible fiction.
+
+“Well then it is in vain to attack the inexorable fair one with
+allurements that address themselves only to the understanding. She is
+too well fortified with the prejudices of education, and the principles
+of an imaginary virtue, to be reduced by an assault like this. The
+pride of her virtue is alarmed, the little train of her sophistries are
+awakened, and with that artless rhetoric, of the value of which she is
+doubtless sensible, she set[s] all her enemies at defiance. My future
+enticements shall therefore address themselves to her senses. Thus
+approaching her, it is impossible that success should not follow my
+undertaking. Even the most wary, circumspect, and suspicious, might
+thus be overcome. But she is innocence itself. She apprehends no
+danger, she suspects no ambuscade. Young and unexperienced, and the
+little experience she has attained, derived only from scenes of
+pastoral simplicity, she knows not the meaning of insincerity and
+treachery; she dreads not the serpent that lurks beneath the flower.”
+
+Having determined the plan of his machinations, and given the necessary
+orders, he privately signified to the attendants, that they should
+propose to their lovely charge to direct her course once again to the
+mansion; and as she perceived that Roderic still continued upon a
+distant part of the lawn; and as she saw no means of present escape
+from her confinement, she consented to do as they desired.
+
+They now entered the mansion, and passing through several splendid
+apartments, at length reached a large and magnificent saloon. It was
+hung with tapestry, upon which were represented the figures of Sappho
+sweeping the lyre; of the Spartan mother bending over the body, and
+counting the wounds of her son; of Penelope in the midst of her
+maidens, carefully unravelling the funeral web of her husband; of
+Lucretia inflicting upon herself a glorious and voluntary death; and of
+Arria teaching her husband in what manner a Roman should expire. These
+stories had been miraculously communicated to Roderic, and were now
+explained by the attendants to the wondering Imogen. At the same time a
+band of music, that was placed at the lower end of the hall, struck at
+once their various instruments, and, without any previous preparation,
+began the lofty chorus. At the upper end of the saloon stood a throne
+of ivory, hung round with trappings of gold, and placed upon a floor of
+marble, of which a numerous flight of steps, also of marble, composed
+the ascent. The hangings were of crimson velvet, and the canopy of the
+richest purple. With the musicians were intermingled a number of
+supernatural beings under the command of Roderic. Their voices were
+melodious beyond all example of human power; they were by turns lofty
+and majestic, and by turns tender and melting; and the strain was
+divine.
+
+“Such are the honours of the tender sex; and who can speak their
+praise? The lily is not so fair, the rose is not so attractive, the
+violet and the jessamine have not so elegant a simplicity. By their
+charms, by their eloquence, and by their merit, they have assumed an
+empire over the bolder sex. How auspicious is the empire! They hold
+them in silken chains. They govern, not by harsh decrees, and rigorous
+penalties; but by smiles and soft compliances, and winning,
+irresistible persuasion. The rewards they bestow are sweet, and
+ravishing, and indescribable.
+
+“What were man without the fair? A wild beast of the forest; a rough
+and untamed savage; a hungry lion bursting from his den. Without them,
+they are gloomy, morose, unfeeling, and unsociable. To them they owe
+every civilization, and every improvement. Did Amphion, from the rude
+and shapeless stones, raise by his power a regular edifice, houses,
+palaces, and cities? Did Orpheus by his lay humanize the rugged beasts
+and teach the forests to listen? No, these are wild, unmeaning fables.
+It was woman, charming woman, that led unpolished man forth from the
+forests and the dens, and taught him to bend before thy shrine,
+humanity! See how the face of nature changes! Where late the slough
+mantled, or the serpent hissed among the briars and the reeds, all is
+pasture and fertility. The cottages arise. The shepherds assume the
+guise of gentleness and simplicity. They attire themselves with care,
+they braid the garland, and they tune the pipe. Wherefore do they braid
+the garland? Why are their manners soft and blandishing? And why do the
+hills re-echo the notes of the slender reed? It is to win thy graces,
+woman, charming woman!
+
+“When nature formed a man, she formed a creature rational, and erect;
+ten times more noble than the birds of the air, and the beasts of the
+field. But when she formed a woman—it was then first, that she outdid
+herself, and improved her own design. What are the broad and nervous
+shoulders, what the compacted figure, and the vigorous step, when
+contrasted with the well-turned limbs, the slender waist, the graceful
+shoulders, and the soft and panting bosom? What are the manly front,
+the stern, commanding eye, and the down-clad cheek, if we compare them
+with the smooth, transparent complexion, the soft, faint blushes, and
+the pretty, dimpled mouth? What are the strong, slow reason, the deep,
+unfathomed science, and the grave and solemn wisdom, if they are
+brought into competition with the sprightly sense, the penetrating wit,
+and the inexhaustible invention? Does the stronger sex boast of its
+learning, its deep researches, its sagacious discoveries? and have they
+a coolness, a self-command, a never baffled prudence like that which
+woman has exhibited? Do they pique themselves upon their courage, their
+gallantry, and their adventure? Where shall we find among them a
+patience, a mildness, a fortitude, a heroism, equal to that of the
+fair?
+
+“Virtue has dwelt beneath the sun. Themis has left her throne on the
+right hand of Jove, and descended to the globe of earth. We have seen
+examples of disinterested rectitude, of inviolable truth, of sublime
+and heaven-born benevolence. They are written in the roll of fame; they
+are handed down from age to age. They are the song of the poet, and the
+favourite theme of the servants of the Gods. By whom were they
+exhibited, or with whom did they originate? With woman, charming woman?
+Well have justice and rectitude been represented under a female form,
+for without the softer sex, all had been anarchy and confusion; every
+man had preyed upon his neighbour; men, like beasts, had devoured each
+other, and virtue fled affrighted to her native skies. This is the
+source of all that is good and all that is excellent; of all that is
+beautiful and all that is sublime: woman, charming woman!”
+
+At this place the chorus ceased for a moment, and the attendants
+observing, that Imogen was standing, intreated her to seat herself. She
+was rendered weak and languid by the unexperienced anxieties and
+terrors she had undergone, and she did not refuse their request. There
+was no seat in the centre of the hall, or nearer than the sumptuous
+throne that was placed at the upper end. Thither therefore they led
+her. Imogen had been unused to the distinctions of rank and precedence.
+Among the shepherds of the valley, every one, except the bards and the
+priests, seated himself promiscuously; none sought to take the upper
+hand of his neighbour; age was not distinguished by priority of place;
+and youth thought not of ceding the _pas_. The shepherdess, as she
+advanced towards the chair, paused for an instant, impressed with that
+blaze of magnificence which is equally formed to strike every human
+eye. She looked round her with an air of timidity and suspense, and
+then going forward, ascended the steps and placed herself in the
+throne. At this action, as at a signal, the song recommenced.
+
+“Simplicity, child of nature, daughter of the plains, with thee alone
+the queen of beauty dwells! What is it that adorns and enhances all the
+wild and uncultivated scenes of nature? It is plainness and artless
+simplicity. What is it that renders lovely and amiable her most
+favourite productions in the animal creation: the tender lamb, the
+cooing dove, and the vocal nightingale? It is simplicity; it is, that
+all their gestures wear the guise, and their voice speaks the artless,
+and unaffected language of nature. What is is that renders venerable
+the characters of mankind; that ennobles the song of the bards; that
+gives lustre and attraction to immortal, never-fading virtue? It is
+simplicity, unaffected simplicity. Of the last and crowning work of
+nature, woman, the form is grace; the visage is beauty; the eye
+sparkles with intelligence, and smiles with soft and winning graces;
+the tongue is clothed with persuasion and eloquence. But what are
+these? A body without a soul, a combination of soft and harmonious
+names without a meaning; a multitude of rich inestimable gifts, heaped
+together in rude and inartificial confusion without the powers of
+enchantment and attraction. What is it that can animate the mass, that
+can give force and value to the whole, and reduce the shapeless chaos
+into form? It is simplicity, unaffected simplicity. Without thee, child
+of nature, daughter of the plains, beauty were no more. With thee she
+dwells, and in thy mansion can she only dwell. Then be the palm
+reserved for thee, and given to thee alone, simplicity, unaffected
+simplicity!”
+
+At these words, two supernatural figures appeared below the canopy of
+the throne. They had the form of children; their figures appeared so
+soft and waxen, that you would imagine they might be indented by the
+smallest touch; upon their countenances sat the lively and unexpressive
+smile, the sports, and the graces; and their shoulders were furnished
+with wings of the softest plumage, variegated with all the colours of
+the bow of heaven. In their hands they bore a coronet, at once rich
+with jewels, and light and inconsiderable in its weight. The circle was
+of gold, and studded with diamonds. With the diamonds were intermingled
+every precious gem, the topaz, the jasper, the emerald, the chrysolite,
+and the sapphire. The head was of Persian silk, and dyed with Tyrian
+purple. This coronet they placed upon the head of Imogen, and then
+descending to the footstool of the throne, bowed upon her feet. The
+song immediately recommenced.
+
+“Imogen is under the guardianship of simplicity, her favourite pupil.
+Pollute not the ear of Imogen with the praises of beauty. What though
+her eye be full of amiableness and eloquence; what though her cheeks
+rival the peach, and her lips the coral; what though her bosom be soft
+as wax and fairer than the face of honour; what though her tresses are
+brighter than the shooting star? These are the bounties of nature;
+these are the gifts of heaven, in which she claims no merit; these are
+not the praises of Imogen. But this is her praise, that the graces
+dwell upon her lips; that her words are attired with the garb of sense
+and fancy; and that all her conduct is governed by the largest prudence
+and the nicest discretion. Heard you the sound of merriment and
+applause? They were the gay and unlaboured sallies of the wit of Imogen
+that called them forth. Saw you the look of wonder and astonishment,
+and the gaze of involuntary approbation and reverence? They were
+excited by the modesty, the circumspection, and the virtue of Imogen.
+And yet Imogen is artless, unaffected and innocent; her wit is
+unconscious of itself, and her virtue the unstudied dictate of nature.
+Imogen is under the guardianship of simplicity, her favourite pupil. Be
+hers then the crown that simplicity alone can deserve. Simplicity
+descends not in person to the surface of the earth; her abode is among
+the Gods. But Imogen is her representative, her perfect resemblance.
+Should simplicity descend upon the earth, she would not know herself;
+she would be astonished to behold another divinity, equally beautiful,
+equally excellent. The divinity is Imogen. Be hers then the crown, that
+simplicity alone can deserve.”
+
+This was a trying moment to the lovely and generous Imogen. Praise is
+congenial to every human sense; the voice of praise is ever grateful to
+the ear of virtue. The glory of the shepherd indeed lies within a
+narrow compass. But let immortality be named, and the heart of man is
+naturally attracted: it is impossible that the good and generous bosom
+should not long for such a prize. Nor was this all. Imogen, though
+loved and honoured by the borderers of Towey, had been little used to
+studied commendation and laboured applause. Pastoral simplicity does
+not deal in these; and though it seek to oblige, its endeavours are
+unostentatious and silent. Beside, her reverence for song was radical
+and deep. It had been instilled into her from her earliest infancy;
+from earliest infancy she had considered poetry as the vehicle of
+divine and eternal truth. How strange and tremendous an advantage must
+he gain over the ear of simplicity, who can present his fascinations
+under the garb of all that is sacred and all that is honourable?
+
+The song had begun with celebrating a theme, that must for ever be
+congenial to every female breast. The heart of the shepherdess had
+instinctively vibrated to the praises of simplicity. Even the
+commendations bestowed upon herself were not improper, or
+indiscriminate; they had distinguished between the inanity of personal
+charms, and the value of prudence, the beauty of innocence and the
+merit of virtue. Even the honours she had received were attributed to
+these, and not to the other. Were they not therefore such as virtue
+would aspire to, and discretion accept?
+
+Alas, Imogen, be not deceived with airy shadows! The reasoning may be
+plausible, but it is no better than sophistry. Thou must be taught,
+fair and unsuspecting virgin, under a beautiful outside to apprehend
+deceit; and to guard against the thorn which closely environs the
+flower. Thou must learn, loveliest of thy sex, to dread the poison of
+flattery. It is more venemous than the adder, it is more destructive
+than hebenon or madragora. It annihilates every respectable quality in
+the very act of extolling it; it undermines all that adorns and
+elevates the human character. Even now that thou listenest to it, and
+drinkest in, without apprehension, its opiate sounds, thou art too near
+to the sacrifice of those very excellencies it pretends to admire. For
+the head of Imogen was made giddy by the applauses she heard; drunk
+with admiration, she was no longer conscious of the things around her,
+or of herself; she sunk vanquished and supine, and was supported by one
+of the attendants.
+
+At this moment Roderic came forth from an adjoining apartment, and
+caught in his arms the vanquished beauty. In the mean time the
+attendants, the musicians, and the supernatural beings disappeared, and
+she was left alone with her betrayer.
+
+Roderic surveyed his victim with an eye of avidity and triumph. His
+eager curiosity wandered over her hoard of charms; and his brutal
+passion was soothed with the contemplation of her disorder. Already in
+imagination, he had possessed himself of a decisive advantage over so
+apparent a weakness; and his breast was steeled against the emotions of
+pity.
+
+Imogen cast around her a languid and passive regard, and was in a
+moment roused from her supineness by the sight of Roderic. Her subtle
+adversary did not however allow her time for complete recollection,
+before he discovered an apparent revolution in his sentiments and
+language. He had heard, he said, the supernatural and celestial chorus,
+and been caught in the extremest degree by the praises of innocence and
+the triumph of virtue. He now felt the vanity and folly of those
+pursuits in which he had been so deeply immersed, and was determined to
+abjure the littleness of pride, and the emptiness of sensual
+gratification. He did not now address his destined prize with the
+commendations of beauty. He bestowed upon her with profusion the
+epithets of discretion, integrity, and heroism; and poured into her ear
+the insidious flattery, that was most soothing to her temper. Full, as
+he pretended, of the infant purposes of virtue, he besought his captive
+in the most importunate manner, to remain with him for a time, to
+confirm his wavering rectitude, to instruct him in duty, and thus to
+gain one human being to the standard of integrity, and to render so
+extensive possessions subservient to the happiness of mankind. All this
+he expressed with that ardour, which is congenial to the simplicity of
+truth; and with that enthusiasm, which in all instances accompanies
+recent conviction.
+
+Imogen was totally uninured to the contemplation of hypocrisy, and
+immediately yielded the most unreserved credit to these professions.
+Her joy was extreme at the change in the dispositions of Roderic, and
+her admiration of the irresistible charms of rectitude pious and
+profound. The praises bestowed upon her seemed distinguishing and
+sincere, and she drank them in with the most visible complacency. She
+expressed however an ingenuous diffidence of her capacity for the task
+of an instructor, and she intreated at any rate to be permitted to
+withdraw for a short time to dry up the tears of her disconsolate
+parents.
+
+These difficulties were too obvious to create any embarrassment to so
+consummate a deceiver. He described the danger of that vicious mistrust
+of our powers, that is the enemy of all generous and heroic action. He
+reminded his captive how recent were his purposes, and how many
+unforeseen incidents might be crowded into so eventful a moment. There
+were goblins, he said, ever ready to seduce the wanderer from his
+wished return; and he had been too much their prey not to have every
+thing to dread from the subtlety of their machinations. On the other
+hand, no character was suspended on the longer or shorter duration of
+the uneasiness of the parents of Imogen; and the joyful surprise they
+would ere long experience, might abundantly compensate for any
+temporary anxiety and solicitude. He told her of the worship and
+reverence that were due to the immortal Gods. Could she imagine that
+the scene that had just passed was produced for the mere honour and
+gratification of a virtuous character, than for the instruction of the
+ignorant, and the restoration of the wandering? Shall she be thus
+honoured, and shall this be her gratitude?
+
+Though the web of the sophistry woven by her betrayer might seem
+inextricable, though Imogen had no sentiments more predominant than the
+love of virtue, and the fear of the Gods, yet her heart involuntarily
+resisted his persuasions, and she felt the yearnings of affection still
+active in her bosom towards those, to whom she owed her existence.
+
+“And cannot you,” cried the lovely maiden, “attend me in the short
+absense I demand? That would prevent every danger, and supersede every
+objection.” “Ah, shepherdess,” replied the magician, “this reluctance,
+these studied expedients imply diffidence and disobedience. But
+diffidence is much unworthy of the heart of Imogen. Your life has been
+marked with one tenour of piety. Do not then begin to disobey. Do not
+sully the unspotted whiteness of your character.”
+
+“This,” rejoined Imogen, “is too much. This is mere savageness of
+virtue. Why in the act of persuading me do you bestow upon me those
+laboured commendations, which the very persuasions you employ are
+intended to prove that I little deserve? Is it necessary, Roderic, that
+your manners should be so strange and unaccountable, as to supply food
+for eternal jealousy and suspicion? And what must be that conduct, that
+inspires jealousy into a heart unguarded as mine? I talk of suspicion,
+but I scarcely know the meaning of the term. And yet there is in your
+carriage something precise, plausible and composed, that I have seldom
+observed in any other man. Oh, shepherd! you know not what you do, when
+you awake all these ideas in a maiden’s breast, when you thus confound
+things that heaven and earth put asunder.”
+
+“Ungenerous Imogen,” replied the magician, “wherefore this? Do I claim
+any thing more of you than rectitude demands, and your own bosom will
+another day approve? Am I not your better genius to guard you against
+the errors that might be prompted by too tender a heart? Beside, does
+the conduct of beings of a higher order depend upon my nod? Can I
+control the spheres, and call down celestial essences from their bright
+abodes? And will they be rendered subservient to the purposes of
+treachery and guilt?”
+
+“Roderic here break we off our conference. Sure I am that your conduct
+is not dictated by a regard for my ease or my welfare. How unworthy
+then, as well as how unjust is the pretence? With respect to the
+supernatural scenes I have beheld, the question is more difficult. Of
+such I have heard from the mouth of the consecrated priests, but never
+till this day did I see them. At present however my mind is too much
+distracted, to be able to decide. I have already gone far enough; as
+far as my heart will permit me. I must now retire.’
+
+“One thing however I will add. From the resolutions you at first
+professed, and the impressions you appeared to feel, I had conceived
+the most sanguine hopes, and the sincerest pleasure. These are all now
+vanished. I cannot account for this. But your conduct is now as
+mysterious to my comprehension, as it was before disgusting to my
+judgment. I am bewildered in a maze of uncertainty. I am lost in
+unwelcome obscurity. May your resolutions and designs be better than my
+hopes! But ah, Roderic, for how much have you to answer, how deep must
+be your guilt, if all this be mummery, dissimulation, and hypocrisy!”
+
+The magician perceived that it was in vain to urge the stratagem any
+further, and he retired from the presence of the shepherdess in
+silence. If he had been able to distract her ingenuous mind between
+contending duties, he had not however succeeded in his principal
+object, that of undermining her virtue, and lessening her attachment to
+her parents and her lover. If Imogen were perplexed and confounded,
+Roderic was scarcely more happy. He looked back upon the scene with
+mortification and astonishment. It was difficult for him to determine
+where it had digressed from the auspicious appearances it had at first
+exhibited, and yet he found himself in the conclusion of it wide, very
+wide indeed, of the success of which he had aimed.
+
+“To what purpose,” exclaimed he, with a voice of anguish and rage,
+“have I inherited the most inexhaustible riches? To what purpose is the
+command which I boast over the goblins of the abyss, if one weak,
+simple, and uninstructed woman shall thus defy my arts? I call the
+hills my own. I mount upon the turrets of my castle, and as far as my
+eye can survey, the bending corn and the grazing herds belong to me. My
+palace is adorned with all that can sooth the wearied frame, or gratify
+the luxurious desire. Couches of purple, and services of gold, the most
+exquisite viands, and the blandishments of enticing beauty, charms of
+which the ruggedness of pastoral life has not so much as the idea, all
+these are circled within my walls. Beyond all this, I command myriads
+of spirits, invisible, and reputedly omnipotent. If I but stamp my
+foot, if I but wave this wand, they fly swifter than the wings of
+thought to my presence. One look of favour inspires them with
+tranquility and exultation; one frown of displeasure terrifies them
+into despair. I dispatch them far as the corners of the moon. At my
+bidding they engage in the most toilsome enterprises, and undertake the
+labour of revolving years. Oh impotence of power! oh mockery of state!
+what end can ye now serve but to teach me to be miserable? Power, the
+hands of which are chained and fettered in links of iron; state, which
+is bestowed only like a paper crown to adorn the brows of a baby, are
+the most cruel aggravations of disappointment, the most fearful insults
+upon the weak. But shall I always obey the imperious mandate?”
+
+“Yes, Roderic, thou shalt obey,” exclaimed the inimical goblin, who at
+this moment burst through a condensed cloud, that had arisen
+unperceived in one corner of the apartment, and appeared before him.
+“In vain dost thou struggle with the links of destiny. In vain dost
+thou exert thyself to escape from the fillets that on every side
+surround thee. The greater and the more obstinate are thy efforts, the
+more closely art thou bound, and the more inextricably engaged. This is
+the situation in which I wished to see thee. Every pang it wrings from
+thy heart, every exclamation it forces from thy tongue, is solace to my
+thoughts, and music to my ears. And wert thou vain and weak enough to
+imagine, that riches would purchase thee every pleasure, that riches
+would furnish an inexhaustible source of enjoyment? Of all mortal
+possessions they are the most useless, mischievous, and baleful. The
+Gods, when the Gods are willing to perfect a character of depravity, in
+order to make vice consummately detestable, or to administer an
+exemplary punishment to distinguished wickedness, bestow upon that man,
+as the last of curses, and the most refined of tortures, extensive
+possessions and unbounded riches. Indulge to the mistaken pride which
+these inspire, and wrap thyself up in the littleness of thy heart.—But
+no, rise above them. Suffer thy desires to wander into a larger and
+more dangerous field. Run with open eyes into the mouth of that
+destruction that gapes to devour thee! Why shouldst thou attend to the
+voice of destiny, to the immutable laws of the Gods, and the curse that
+is suspended over thee? Be a man. Bravely defy all that is most
+venerable, and all that is most unchangeable. Oh how I long for thy
+ruin! How my heart pants for the illustrious hour in which thy _palaces
+shall be crumbled down to the dust of the balance, thy riches
+scattered, and thyself become an unpitied, necessitous, miserable
+vagabond_! In the mean time, remember, that riches like thine are not
+bestowed with u[n]reserving hand, that commerce is not permitted with
+the shadows of darkness, without some trifling fall to ill amid this
+immensity of uniform happiness. For this end I am commissioned from
+time to time to appear before thee in the midst of thy triumph, and to
+mingle with thy exultations the boding voice of prophetic woe.”
+
+Roderic did not listen to these bitter sarcasms without exhibiting
+every mark of fury and impatience. At length he commanded the spectre
+to depart, with a voice so fierce and stern as to terrify him into
+submission. For though the authority of the magician was not formidable
+enough to make him desist from persecuting him, yet the penalties he
+had frequently been able to inflict, inspired the goblin in spite of
+himself, with the fear of so potent an adversary. Still choaked however
+with agony and resentment, Roderic waved his wand, and summoned his
+favourite instrument and the prime minister of his pleasures, the
+goblin Medoro, to his presence. The moment he appeared the magician was
+relieved from that violent gust of passion, which had held him
+motionless, a statue of horror, and throwing himself upon his couch, he
+burst into a flood of tears.
+
+Medoro was the goblin that had appeared to Edwin in his return from the
+feast of the bards, and had brewed the fatal storm that had preceded
+the rape of Imogen. The figure of the spectre was uncouth, and his
+countenance was full of savage and shapeless deformity. Nor did his
+appearance bely his character. To all other beings, whether of the
+terrestrial or the invisible world, his temper was hard, impracticable
+and remorseless. To Rodogune alone, a similitude of minds, and a
+congenial ferocity of heart had attached him; and the attachment had
+descended to her son; though not equally destitute of every agreeable
+and every plausible quality. He therefore beheld the affliction of
+Roderic with sympathy and compassion.
+
+“Wherefore,” cried Medoro, modulating a voice, that nature had made up
+of dissonance and horror, into the most gentle and soothing accent of
+which it was capable, and hanging over his couch, “wherefore this
+sorrow? What is it that has seemed to mar a happiness so enviable? Art
+thou not possessed”—“Talk not to me of possessions,” exclaimed Roderic,
+with a tone of frenzy, and starting from his posture, “I give them to
+the winds. I banish them from my thoughts for ever. Oh that the earth
+would open and swallow them up! Oh that unburdened from them all, I
+were free as the children of the vallies, and careless as the shepherd
+that carols to the rising day. I had not then been thus entangled in
+misfortune, thus every way closed in to remediless despair. I had not
+then been a monument of impotence and misery for the world to gaze at.
+Ye are all combined against me! Under a specious, smiling countenance
+you all conceal a heart of gall. But your hypocrisy and your mummery
+shall serve you to little purpose. Point me, this instant point me, to
+a path for the gratification of my wishes, or dearly shall you rue the
+shallowness of your invention and the treachery of your professions.”
+
+Medoro was astonished at the vehemence of the passion of Roderic,
+unusual even in a youth who had never been refused demands the most
+unreasonable, and who had been inured to see all the powers of nature
+bend to his will. “Is this,” cried he, “a return for services so
+unwearied and sincere as mine? Foolish and ungrateful youth! Rut I will
+point you to a remedy. Had you not been blinded with fury and
+impatience, you would have seen that your situation was not yet
+irremediable, by means the most obviously in your power. Did I not at
+your birth bestow upon you a ring, that communicates to the wearer the
+power of assuming what form he please? I gave it, in order to elude the
+curse of the malignant goblin, to subdue the most obdurate female, and
+to evade the most subtle adversary. The uses in which thou hast
+hitherto employed it have been idle and capricious, governed by whim,
+and dictated by the sallies of a sportive fancy. It is now first that
+an opportunity is offered to turn it to those purposes for which it was
+more immediately destined. Dost thou not now address an obdurate maid?
+Is she not full of constancy and attachment for another? What avails it
+then to a heart, simple and unvitiated as hers, to offer the bribe of
+riches, and to lavish the incense of flattery and adulation. Attack her
+in her love. Appear to her in the form of him to whom she is most
+ardently attached. If Imogen is vulnerable, this is the quarter from
+which she must be approached. Thus far Roderic thou mayest try thy
+power; but if by this avenue thou canst not surprise her heart and
+overpower her virtue, be then wise. Recollect thy courage, strengthen
+thy resolution, and shake off for ever a capricious inclination, which
+interrupts the tenour of a life that might otherwise wear the uniform
+colour of happiness.”
+
+The information of a new measure for the furthering his darling
+pursuit, was a communication of the most reviving kind to the heart of
+Roderic. The gloom and petulance that had collected upon his
+countenance were dissipated in a moment. His cheek caught anew the
+flush of expectation; his eye sparkled anew with the insolence of
+victory. His gratitude to the propitious Medoro was now as immoderate
+as his displeasure had lately been unreasonable. He walked along the
+apartments with the stride of exultation and triumph. He forgot the
+pathetic exclamations he had lately uttered upon the impotence of
+power, and he was full of congratulation in the possession of that
+which he had treated with contempt. The moral lessons which it was his
+destiny to have from time to time poured into an unwilling ear were
+erased for ever. He exclaimed upon his own stupidity and want of
+invention, and he remembered not that vehemence of passion, which had
+distracted his understanding, and drawn a cloud over all his ideas. It
+was not instantly that he could assume a sufficient degree of
+collectedness and composure to put into execution the scheme with which
+he was so highly delighted. Presently however the ebriety of unexpected
+hope dissipated, and he prepared for that scene which was to be
+regarded as the summit of his power, and the irrevocable crisis of his
+fate.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK THE FIFTH
+
+THE GARDEN OF RODOGUNE DESCRIBED.—THE HOPES AND DANGER OF IMOGEN.—HER
+INCONSOLABLE DISTRESS.
+
+
+Imogen, immediately after the interview that had so deeply perplexed
+her, returning to her apartment, had shut herself up in solitude. Her
+reflections were gloomy and unpleasing; the new obscurity that hung
+about them had not contributed to lighten their pressure. But though
+she was melancholy, her melancholy was of a different hue from that of
+her ravisher. If virtue can ever be deprived of those glorious
+distinctions that exclusively belong to her, it must be when she is
+precluded from the illuminations of duty, and is no longer able to
+discern the path in which she ought to tread. But even here, where
+distinction seems most annihilated, it yet remains. The cruel
+sensations of Imogen were not aggravated by despair, but heightened by
+hope. Through them all she was sustained by the consciousness of her
+rectitude. The chearfulness of innocence supported her under every
+calamity.
+
+She had not long remained alone before she was summoned to partake of
+that plainer repast, which in the economy of Roderic usually occupied
+the middle of the day, and preceded the sumptuous and splendid
+entertainment of the evening, by which the soul was instigated to
+prolong the indulgence of the table, and to throw the reins upon the
+neck of enjoyment. But Imogen, whose thoughts were dark, and whose mind
+brooded over a thousand sad ideas, was desirous of that solitude, which
+in the simplicity of pastoral life is ever at hand. She could not away
+with the freedom of society, and the levity of mirth. It was painful to
+her to have any witnesses of her new sensations, and she wished to
+remove herself for ever from the inspection of the officious and the
+inquisitive. In compliance with her humour a few viands were served to
+her in her own apartment. She was induced by the entreaties of her
+attendant, to call up a momentary smile upon her countenance, and to
+endeavour to partake of the refreshment that was offered her. But the
+effort was vain. It was the sunshine of an April day; her repast in
+spite of her was bedewed with tears, and she ate the bread of sorrow.
+
+As soon as it was concluded, she was invited to a short excursion in
+the garden of the mansion. Unused to refusal, the natural mildness of
+her temper inclined to comply. She saw the necessity of not yielding
+herself up to passive and unresisting melancholy. The natural serenity
+of innocence did not yet permit her to be insensible to the attractions
+of enjoyment; and the transient view she had had of the garden, as she
+passed to the terrace, led her to expect from it, something that might
+sooth her pensive thoughts, and something that might divert her
+affliction.
+
+The garden of Rodogune was an inclosure in a bottom glade, at the
+entrance of which, though nigh to the castle, and upon a lower ground,
+you wholly lost sight of the mansion, and every external object. But
+though these were excluded, the sorceress by her art had also excluded
+the appearance of limits and boundaries. The scene was not terminated
+by walls and espaliers, but by the entrance on either side of a wild,
+meandring wood. The side by which you were introduced was protected by
+trees of the thickest foliage; and the gate was masqued with a clump of
+hazels and alders, which permitted only two narrow passages on either
+side. The eye was shut in, but the imagination was permitted to range
+in perfect freedom. Nor was this seeming confinement calculated to
+disgust; on the contrary you willingly believed that every charm and
+every grace was shut up in the circle, and you trembled lest the
+smallest outlet should take off from the richness of the scene. In
+entering you were struck with a sensation of coolness, that impervious
+shades, a bright and animated verdure, flowers scattered here and there
+in agreeable disorder, the prattling of the stream, and the song of a
+thousand birds, impressed as strongly upon the imagination, as the
+senses. But this did not appear the result of art. Every thing had the
+face of uncultivated luxuriance, and impenetrable solitude. You could
+not believe that you were not the first mortal that had ever found his
+way into the enchanting desert.
+
+The scene however had been solely produced by the skill of Rodogune.
+Erewhile the grass had appeared dry and parched; a few solitary and
+leafless trees had been scattered up and down; there was no gaiety of
+colours to relieve the eye; and not one drop of water to give freshness
+to the prospect. But with the operations of magic Rodogune had
+delighted to supersede the parsimony of nature. She caused the tree and
+the shrub to spring forth in the richest abundance; the sturdiness of
+whose trunks, or the deepness of their verdure, cheated the eye with
+the semblance of the ripening hand of time. She sprinkled the turf,
+short, fine, and vivid, with flowers both native and exotic. She called
+forth a thousand fountains to enrich the scene. Sometimes they crept
+beneath the turf in almost imperceptible threads; sometimes they ran
+beside the alleys, or crossed them in sportive wantonness; and
+sometimes you might see them in broader and more limpid currents
+rolling over a smooth and spotted bed. Now they rose from the soil in
+foamy violence, and fell upon the chalk and pebbly ground beneath; and
+anon they formed themselves into the deeper bason [sic], whose calm and
+even surface reflected back the reeds and shrubs that were planted
+round. There was nothing strait and nothing level; the rule and the
+line had never entered the delicious spot; the irregularities of the
+soil, and the fantastic, gradual windings of the alleys, were
+calculated to give length to the passage, and immensity to the scene.
+
+From time to time you encountered tufts of trees closely planted, and
+that cast as brown a shade as the thickest forest. These were partly
+composed of wood of the most pliant texture, the extremities of whose
+branches, bending to the earth, took root a second time in her bosom.
+Elsewhere the rasberry [sic], the rose, the lilac, and a thousand
+flowering shrubs, appeared in thickets without either regularity or
+symmetry, and contributed at once to adorn, and to give an air of
+rudeness and wildness to the prospect. Round the body of the trees,
+planted some at their root, and some upon the different parts of the
+trunk, crept the withy, the snakeweed, the ivy, and the hop, and
+intermingled with them the jessamine and the honeysuckle, in the most
+unbounded profusion. Their tendrils hung from the branches, and waved
+to the wind; and suggested to you the appearance of garlands scattered
+from tree to tree by the nymphs of the grove. All was inexpressible
+luxuriance, and a thousand different shades of verdure were placed, one
+upon another, in regular confusion, and attractive disorder. An
+exuberance of this sort was calculated in a vulgar scene to have
+checked the fertility of the plants, and to have given a sickly and
+withered appearance to their productions; but it was not so in the
+garden of Rodogune. There the cherry and the grape, the downy peach and
+the purple plum were half discovered amid the foliage of the hop, and
+the clusters of the woodbine. Beneath the delicious shade you wandered
+over beds of moss, undeformed with barren sands and intrusive weeds,
+and smooth as the level face of ocean when all the winds of heaven
+sleep.
+
+Nor was this all. Inanimate and vegetable nature (and the observation
+had not escaped the penetration of Rodogune) adorn and arrange it as
+you will, infallibly suggests an idea of solitude, that communicates
+sadness to the mind. Accordingly your path was here beguiled with the
+warbling of a thousand birds, the full-toned blackbird, the mellow
+thrush, and the pensive nightingale. The sorceress had invited them to
+her retreat, by innumerable assiduities and innumerable conveniences of
+food and residence, and had suffered no rude intrusion to disturb the
+sacredness of their haunts. Unused to molestation in all their
+pursuits, they now showed no terror of human approach, but flew, and
+hopped, and sung, and played among the branches and along the ground,
+in thoughtless security and wanton defiance.
+
+For a few moments Imogen was immersed in the contemplation of the
+beauties of the place, and its delightful coolness and mingled
+fragrance were balm and softness to her wounded soul. The domestic who
+accompanied her, perceived her propensity to reflection and fell back
+to a small distance. The shepherdess, as soon as she found herself
+disengaged and alone, revolved with the utmost displeasure her present
+situation. “How happy,” cried she, “are the virgins of the vale! To
+them every hour is winged with tranquility and pleasure. They laugh at
+sorrow; they trill the wild, unfettered lay, or wander, chearful and
+happy, with the faithful swain beneath the woodland shade. They fear no
+coming mischief; they know not the very meaning of an enemy. Innocent
+themselves, they apprehend not guilt and treachery in those around
+them. Nor have they reason. Simplicity and frankness are the unvaried
+character of the natives of the plain. Liberty, immortal, unvalued
+liberty, is the daughter of the mountains. We suspected not that
+deceit, insidiousness, and slavery were to be found beneath the sun.
+Ah, why was I selected from the rest to learn the fatal lesson!
+Unwished, unfortunate distinction! Was I, who am simple and undisguised
+as the light of day, who know not how to conceal one sentiment of my
+heart, or arm myself with the shield of vigilance and incredulity, was
+I fitted by nature for a scene like this? In the mean time have not the
+Gods encouraged me by the most splendid appearance, and the most
+animating praises? I would not impeach their venerable counsels. But
+was this a time for applauses so seducing? How greatly have they
+perplexed, and how deeply distressed me! In what manner, alas! are they
+to be obeyed, and what am I to think of the professions of my ravisher?
+But, no; I dare not permit my purpose to be thus suspended. My danger
+here is too imminent. The deliverance of my own honour and the felicity
+of my parents are motives too sacred, not to annihilate every ambiguity
+and every doubt. Oh, that I could escape at once! Oh, that like the
+tender bird, that hops before me in my path, I could flit away along
+the trackless air! Why should the little birds that carol among the
+trees be the only beings in the domains of Roderic, that know the
+sweets of liberty? But it will not be. Still, still I am under the eye
+and guardianship of heaven. Wise are the ways of heaven, and I submit
+myself with reverence. Only do ye, propitious Gods, support, sustain,
+deliver me! Never was frail and trembling mortal less prepared to
+encounter with machination, and to brave unheard of dangers. How
+fearful are those I have already encountered; and how much have I to
+apprehend from what may yet remain! But if I am weak, the omnipotent
+support to which I look is strong. I will not give way to impious
+despondence. It has delivered, and it may yet deliver me.”
+
+By such virtuous and ingenuous reflections the shepherdess endeavoured
+to solace her distress, and to fortify her courage. Now by revolving
+her dangers she sought to prepare for their encounter; and now she
+dismissed the recollection as too depressing and too melancholy. The
+confinedness of the prospect, though rich infinitely beyond any thing
+she had yet seen, and though not naturally calculated to fatigue and
+disgust, was destructive of all its beauty in the eyes of Imogen. It
+presented to her too just an image of the thraldom, which was the
+subject of all her complaints. She desired to fling her eye through a
+wider prospect; and though unable even from the loftiest ground to
+discover the happy valley, she coveted the slender gratification of
+beholding the utmost boundaries of the magic circle, and extending her
+view as near as possible to her beloved home. She therefore advanced
+farther in the garden, and presently arrived at a clear and open brow,
+where a beautiful alcove was erected to catch the point of view, from
+which the surrounding objects appeared in the greatest variety, and
+with the happiest effect. She entered; and the domestic that attended
+her remained in a distant part of the garden.
+
+Scarcely had Imogen seated herself, before she discovered, by a casual
+glance over the prospect, and at some distance, a youth, who seemed to
+advance with hasty steps towards the castle. At first she was tempted
+to turn away her eye with carelessness and inattention. There was
+however something in his figure, that led her, by a kind of fascination
+for which she could not account, to cast upon him a second glance and a
+third. He drew nearer. He leaped with an active bound over the fence
+that separated him from the garden. It was the form of Edwin. His hair
+hung carelessly about his shoulders. His shepherd’s pipe was slung in
+his belt. His clear and manly cheeks glowed with the warmth of the day,
+and the anxiety of love. He entered the alcove.
+
+Had a ghost risen before Imogen, surrounded with all the horrors of the
+abyss, she could not have been struck with greater astonishment. As he
+advanced, she gazed in silence. She could not utter a word. Her very
+breath seemed suppressed. At length he entered, and for a moment she
+had voice enough to utter her surprise. “Gracious powers!” exclaimed
+she—“is it possible?—what is it that I see?—Edwin, beloved Edwin!”—and
+she sunk breathless upon her seat. The fictitious shepherd approached
+her, folded her in his arms, and with repeated, burning kisses, which
+he had never before ventured to ravish from his disdainful captive,
+restored her to life and perception. The confusion of Imogen did not
+allow her to animadvert upon his freedoms. She had the utmost
+confidence in the person whose form he wore, and the guileless
+simplicity of pastoral life is accustomed to permit many undesigning
+liberties, and is slow to take the alarm, or to suspect a sinister
+purpose.
+
+Roderic, anxious and timid respecting the success of his adventure, was
+backward to enter into conversation. Imogen, on the other hand, charmed
+with so unexpected an appearance, and presaging from it the most
+auspicious consequences, full of her situation and sufferings, and
+having a thousand things that pressed at once to be told, was eager and
+impatient to communicate them to her faithful shepherd. She was also
+desirous of learning by what undiscoverable means, by what happy
+fortune, he had been conducted to this impervious retreat, and at so
+critical a juncture. “Edwin,—my gallant Edwin,—how came you
+hither?—Sure it was some propitious power,—some unseen angel,—that
+conducted you.—Oh, my friend,—I have been
+miserable,—perplexed—tortured—but it is now no more—I will not think of
+it—Thanks to the immortal Gods, I have no occasion—no room—but for
+gratitude.—Edwin—what have you done—and how did you escape the
+tempest?—Was it not a fearful storm?—But I ask you a thousand
+questions—and you do not answer me.—You seem abashed—uncertain—what is
+the meaning of this?—Did you not come to succour my distress?—Was it
+not pity for your poor—forlorn—desolate Imogen—that directed your
+steps?”
+
+“Yes, loveliest of thy sex,” replied her betrayer. “I flew upon the
+wings of love. I was brought along by a celestial, impulsive guidance,
+which I followed I knew not why. Oh how gracious the condescension, how
+happy the obedience, how grateful the interview! Yes, Imogen, I was in
+despair. I was terrified at the concurring prodigies by which we were
+separated, and I feared never, never to behold that beauteous form
+again. Come then and let me clasp thee to my bosom. Oh, thou art
+sweeter than the incense-breathing rose, and brighter than the lily of
+the vale!”
+
+For a moment, the affectionate and unsuspicious shepherdess received
+his caresses with complacence and pleasure. Suddenly however she
+recollected herself; instinctively and without reflection she repulsed
+the undue warmth of his attentions. “This,” cried she, “is no time for
+fond indulgence, and careless dalliance—Fate is on the wing.—Our
+situation is arduous—and we are in the midst of enemies.—Every thing
+that surrounds us is full of danger—all is deceit and
+treachery—appearances are insidious—all is frightful suspense and
+headlong precipice.—The plotter of my ruin is as potent as he is—Ah!
+every hour is big with calamity and destruction—every moment that we
+stay here is in the last degree hazardous and decisive.—My keepers may
+be alarmed—Those eyes that never close may be summoned to attention—we
+may be hemmed in—prevented—Oh, Edwin, how fearful is this place—and how
+unhoped—how joyful to me—must be an escape.—I thought this hated seat
+had been impervious and impassable—Hark!—Did you not hear the sound of
+feet?—No—every thing is still—Let us go this way—Say, by what path did
+you come—Let us hasten our flight—let us make no delay—not look
+behind.”
+
+“Yes, Imogen,” replied Roderic, detaining her, “we will escape—But
+this, my lovely maiden, is not the time—I am not yet prepared—We may
+remain here in security—already the shades of evening begin to draw.
+Every thing is now busy and active. We cannot pass from hence without
+observation. In the silence of the night the attempt will be more
+practicable. And you, Imogen, are a heroine. The Gods will watch over
+us. Silence and darkness have nothing in them at which innocence should
+be terrified. Till then let us reconcile ourselves to our situation.
+Let us endeavour, by secrecy and stilness, not to attract to us the
+attention of the enemies with which we are surrounded. Let us banish
+from them curiosity and suspicion. And let us trust in the Gods,
+propitious to rectitude, that they will look down with favour upon a
+design prompted by virtue and urged by oppression.”
+
+“Alas, Edwin,” replied the shepherdess “it is with regret that I
+consent to remain one moment longer in this fatal spot. But I will
+submit to your direction, I will confide in your prudence; I will trust
+in your fidelity, and your zeal, for the deliverance I so ardently
+desire. Here however we cannot long remain undiscovered.—My absence
+will be suspicious.—I will return once again to the hated mansion.—You,
+my swain, must conceal yourself in the mazes of this friendly
+wilderness. It shall not be long ere I come to you again.—With motives
+like mine to inspire ingenuity, I shall easily find a way to elude the
+strictest guard, and escape from the closest thraldom.—Say, my
+Edwin!—this stratagem shall suffice,—and you shall lead me in safety
+under the friendly cover of the night to liberty and innocence!”
+
+“Yes,” exclaimed Roderic, suddenly recollecting himself, “you may be
+assured that by me nothing shall be omitted, that can further your
+escape from this detested prison. The perils I have already incurred
+may well convince you of this. It has been through the most fearful
+dangers, ready every moment to be overwhelmed with omnipotent mischief,
+that I have reached you. I have approached by the most devious and
+undiscovered paths. Though the greatest hazards are to be encountered
+in the cause of innocence and honour, the conduct we should pursue is
+therefore ambiguous, and our success involved in uncertainty and
+darkness. Oh Imogen, I may now behold thee for the last time. The
+moment we sally from this retreat, I may be discovered by that enemy
+from whom we have so much to fear. I may be confined to all the
+wantonness of inventive torture, and that beauteous form, and the
+smiles of that bewitching countenance may be torn from these longing
+eyes for ever. But here, my shepherdess, we are safe. We may here
+secure ourselves from sudden intrusion, and a thousand means of
+concealment are here in our power. This Imogen is the moment of our
+ascendancy, this little period is all our own. In a short time the
+precious hours will be elapsed, the invaluable instants will be run
+out. Oh, my love, fairest, most angelic of thy sex, while they are yet
+ours, let us improve them.”—He ceased; and his countenance glistened
+with the anticipations of enjoyment, and his eyes emitted the sparkles
+of lust.
+
+But the imagination of Imogen was not sullied with the impressions of
+indecency, and the baseness of looser desires. She understood not the
+innuendos of Roderic, and she remarked not with an eager and
+inquisitive eye the distraction of his visage. She replied therefore
+only to the more obvious tendency of what he said. “And is this, Edwin,
+all the consolation you bring me? Ah how poor, how heartless, and how
+cold! If we accomplish not that flight upon which my hopes and wishes
+are suspended, what utility and what pleasure can we derive from this
+interview? It will then only be a bitter aggravation of all my trials,
+and all my miseries. If a prospect so unexpected and desirable
+terminate in no advantage, for what purpose was it opened before me? It
+will but render my sensations more poignant, and give a new refinement
+to the exquisiteness of despair.
+
+“But no, my Edwin, let us not give way to despondence. The Gods, my
+generous swain, the same Gods that give luxuriance and felicity to the
+plain, and that have guided you through every hazard to this impervious
+spot, will assuredly deliver us. Remember the lessons of the
+heaven-taught Druids. There is an innate dignity and omnipotence in
+virtue. She may be surrounded with variety of woes, but none of them
+shall approach her. The darts of calamity may assail her on every side,
+but she is invulnerable to them all. Before her majesty, the fierceness
+of all the tenants of the wood is disarmed, and the more untamed
+brutality of savage man is awed into mute obedience. She may not indeed
+put on the insolence of pride, and the fool-hardiness of presumption.
+But wherever her duty calls, she may proceed fearless and unhurt. She
+may be attacked, but she cannot be wounded: she may be surprised, but
+she cannot be enslaved: she may be obscured for a moment, but it shall
+only be to burst forth again more illustrious than ever.
+
+“But you, Edwin, are much better acquainted with these things, and more
+able to instruct than I. They were ever the favourite subject of your
+attention. I have seen you with rooted eye fixed for hours in listening
+admiration of the sublime dictates of the hoary Llewelyn.—It is little
+to learn, to understand, and to admire. A barren and ineffectual
+enthusiasm for the speculations of truth, was never respectable and was
+never venerable. Now, my swain, is the moment in which these sacred
+lessons are to be called into action, and in which, beyond all others,
+reputation is to be asserted and character fixed. Leave not then to me
+the business of inciting and animating you. Be you my leader and
+protector.”
+
+“Alas, my charming mistress,” replied her admirer, “I would to God it
+were in my power to inspire you with hope and fill you with courage. I
+confess that while peril was at a distance, and I sat secure in the
+tranquil vale, I received without distinction the doctrines of the
+Druids, and bowed assent to their sacred lessons. But practice, my
+Imogen, and the scenes of danger differ beyond conception from the
+ideas we form of them in the calmness of repose. Something must be
+allowed to the unruffled solitude of these sacred men, and something to
+the sublime of poetry. Surely it is no part of comprehensive prudence
+to banish the idea of those hazards that must be encountered, and to
+refuse to survey the snares and the difficulties with which our path is
+surrounded. Remember, my fair one, the malignant suspiciousness of your
+jailer, and the comfortless darkness of the night.”—
+
+“Oh Edwin, and is this the strain in which you were wont to talk? Why
+are you thus altered, and what means this inauspicious
+quick-sightedness and alarm? We should indeed survey and prepare for
+danger, but we should never suffer it to overwhelm us. The cause of
+integrity should never be despaired of. What avails the suspicions of
+my keeper? The ever wakeful eye of heaven can make them slumber. Why
+should we reck the gloom and loneliness of the night? Virtue is the
+ever-burning lamp of the sacred groves. No darkness can cast a shadow
+on her beams. Though the sun and moon were hurled below the bosom of
+the circling ocean, virtue could see to perform her purposes, and
+execute her great designs. Alas, my swain, my voice is weak, and
+broken, and powerless. But willingly would I breathe a soul to animate
+your timidity. Oh Edwin,” and she folded him in her alabaster arms to
+her heaving, anxious bosom, “let me not exhort you in vain! It is but
+for a little while, it is but for one short effort, and if the powers
+above smile propitious on our purpose, we are happy for ever! Think how
+great and beautiful is our adventure. Comfortless and desponding as I
+am now, ready to sink without life and animation at your feet, I may be
+in a few hours happier than ever.—Oh Edwin, lead on!—Can you
+hesitate?—Would it were in my power to reward the virtue I would excite
+as it deserves to be rewarded. But the Gods will reward you, Edwin.”—
+
+As she uttered these words, her action was unspeakably graceful, her
+countenance was full of persuasion, and her voice was soft, and
+eloquent, and fascinating. Roderic gazed upon her with insatiate
+curiosity, and drank her accents with a greedy ear. For a moment,
+charmed with the loftiness of her discourse and the heroism of her
+soul, he was half persuaded to relent, and abjure his diabolical
+purpose. It was only by summoning up all the fierceness of his temper,
+all the impatience of his passions, and all the mistaken haughtiness
+and inflexibility of his purpose, that he could resist the artless
+enchantment. During the internal struggle, his countenance by no means
+answered to the simplicity of pastoral sentiments. It was now fierce,
+and now unprotected and despairing. Anon it was pale with envy, and
+anon it was flushed with the triumph of brutal passion. Transitions
+like these could not pass unobserved. Imogen beheld them with anxiety
+and astonishment, but suspicion was too foreign in her breast, to be
+thus excited.
+
+“Imogen,” cried the traitor, “it is in your power to reward the noblest
+acts of heroism that human courage can perform. Who in the midst of all
+the exultation and applause that triumphant rectitude can inspire,
+could look to a nobler prize than the condescension of your smiles and
+the heaven of your embraces? No, too amiable shepherdess, it is not for
+myself I fear; witness every action of my life; witness all those
+dangers that I have this moment unhesitatingly encountered, that I
+might fly to your arms. But, oh, when your safety is brought to hazard,
+I feel that I am indeed a coward. Think, my fair one, of the dangers
+that surround us. Let us calmly revolve, before we immediately meet
+them. No sooner shall we set our foot beyond this threshold, than they
+will commence. Tyranny is ever full of apprehensions and environed with
+guards. Along the gallery, and through the protracted hall, centinels
+are placed with every setting sun. Could you escape their observations,
+an hundred bolts, and an hundred massive chains secure the hinges of
+the impious mansion. Beyond it all will be dark, and the solitude
+inviolate. But suppose we meet again,—by what path to cross the wide
+extended glade, and to reach the only avenue that can lead us safely
+through this horrid cincture, will then be undiscoverable. Amid the
+untamed forest and untrod precipices that lie beyond, all the beasts
+most inimical to man reside. There the hills re-echo the tremendous
+roarings of the boar; the serpents hiss among the thickets; and the
+gaunt and hungry wolf roams for prey. Oh, Imogen, how fearful is the
+picture! And can your tender frame, and your timid spirits support the
+reality?”
+
+Imogen had now preserved the character of heroism and fortitude for a
+considerable time. All the energies of her soul had been exerted to
+encounter the trials and surmount the difficulties which she felt to be
+unavoidable. When the beloved form of Edwin had appeared before her,
+she relaxed in some degree from the caution and vigilance she had
+hitherto preserved. It is the very nature of joyful surprize to unbend
+as it were the strings of the mind, and to throw wide the doors of
+unguarded confidence. Before, she had felt herself alone; she saw no
+resource but in her own virtue, and could lean upon no pillar but her
+own resolution. Now she had trusted to meet with an external support;
+she had poured out her heart into the bosom of him in whom she
+confided, and she looked to him for prudence, for suggestion and
+courage. But, instead of support, she had found debility, and instead
+of assistance the resources of her own mind were dried up, and her
+native fortitude was overwhelmed and depressed. She turned pale at the
+recital of Roderic, her knees trembled, her eyes forgot their wonted
+lustre, and she was immersed in the supineness and imbecility of
+despair.
+
+“Edwin!”—she cried, with a tone of perturbation; but her utterance
+failed her. Her voice was low, hoarse, and inaudible. The fictitious
+shepherd supported her in his arms. Her distress was a new
+gratification and stimulus to her betrayer. “Edwin, ah, wherefore this
+fearful recital? Did you come here for no other purpose than to sink me
+ten times deeper in despair? Alas, I had conceived far other
+expectations, and far other hopes fluttered in my anxious bosom, when I
+first beheld your well known form. I said I have been hitherto constant
+and determined, though unsupported and melancholy. I shall now be
+triumphant. I shall experience that heaven-descended favour, which ever
+attends the upright. Edwin, my firm, heroic Edwin, will perform what I
+wished, and finish what I began. And, oh, generous and amiable
+shepherd, is it thus that my presages are fulfilled? No, I cannot, will
+not bear it. If the courage of Edwin fail, I will show him what he
+ought to be. If you dare not lead, think whether you dare follow
+whither I guide. You shall see what an injured and oppressed woman can
+do. Feeble and tender as we are formed by nature, you shall see that we
+are capable of some fortitude and some exertion.” As she said this she
+had risen, and was advancing towards the door. But recollecting herself
+with a sudden pang, “Alas,” cried she, “whither do I go?—What am I
+doing?—What shall I do?—Oh, Edwin!” and, falling at his feet, she
+embraced his knees, “do not, do no [sic] not desert me in this sad,
+tremendous moment!”
+
+“I will not, my Imogen, I will never desert you. One fate shall attend
+us both. And if you are called to calamity, to torture, and to death,
+Edwin will not be supine and inactive.” “Oh, now,” cried she, her eyes
+moistened with rapture, “I recognize my noble and gallant swain. Come
+then, and let us fly. If we must encounter peril and disaster, what
+avails it to suspend the trial for a few niggard hours? This, my
+friend, my guardian,—this is the time—Now the master dragon
+sleeps—Roderic is now unconscious and distant—and I fear him too much
+to apprehend any thing from a meaner adversary—Let us fly—let us
+escape—let our speed outstrip the rapid winds!”
+
+During their conversation, the heavens had been covered with clouds,
+and the rain descended with violence. But the change had not been
+noticed by Imogen. “Well then, my fair one, we will depart. What though
+the wind whistles along the heath, and the rain patters among the elms?
+We will defy their fury. Let us go! But, ah, my Imogen, look there! The
+hinds are flying across the plain for shelter; and see! two of them
+approach to the clump of trees directly before us on the outside of the
+garden. No, shepherdess, it is in vain that we resolve, and in vain
+that we struggle: we cannot escape.”
+
+The mind of Imogen was now wrought up to the extremest distress. Her
+heart was wrung with anguish. She was ready to charge the immortals
+with conspiring against her, had not her piety forbad it. She saw the
+reality of what Roderic stated, and yet she was ready to charge him
+with raising eternal obstacles. She cast upon him a look of despair and
+agony. But she did not read in the countenance of the imaginary
+shepherd congenial sentiments. “Methinks,” said she, with a voice full
+of reproachful blandishment, and inimitable sweetness, “methinks it is
+not with the tenderness of sympathy, that you tell me we must desist.
+Sure it is only the mist of tears through which I behold you, that
+makes me see the suppressed emotion of pleasure in your countenance.
+No, it is not in the heart of Edwin to harbour for a moment the
+sentiments of barbarity and insult—But if we cannot now escape—if the
+dangers to which we must submit may be diminished by delay—indeed,
+Edwin, something must be attempted—at least let us now fix upon a plan,
+and determine what to do. Let not delay relax the spirit of enterprise,
+or shake the firmness of our purpose.”
+
+“And what plan,” cried the pretended shepherd, “can we form? I have
+already trod the intricate and dangerous road, and there is nothing
+better for us than to tread my footsteps back again. The day is
+particularly unfavourable, as it is accompanied with activity and
+business. We must therefore wait for the night. Then we must watch our
+opportunities, and embrace the favourable interval. Imogen, I feel not
+for myself. I do not throw away a thought upon my own safety, and I am
+ready to submit to every evil for your service and your defence. But
+yet, my gentle, noble-minded shepherdess, I cannot promise any very
+flattering probability of success. Indeed my hopes are not sanguine.
+The difficulties that are before us appear to me insurmountable. One
+mountain peeps through the breaches of another, and they are like a
+wall built by the hand of nature, and reaching to the skies.
+Penmaenmawr is heaped upon Snowdon, and Plinlimmon nods upon the summit
+of Penmaenmawr. It is only by the intervention of a miracle that we can
+ever revisit the dear, lamented fields of Clwyd. Let us then, my
+Imogen, compose ourselves to the sedateness of despair. Let us
+surrender the success of our future efforts to fate. And let us
+endeavor to solace the short and only certain interval that we yet can
+call our own, by the recollection of our virtuous loves.”
+
+“Alas,” cried Imogen, “I understand not in what the sedateness of
+despair consists. In the prospect of every horrid mischief, mischief
+that threatens not merely my personal happiness or mortal existence,
+but which bears a malignant aspect upon the dignity of honour and the
+peace of integrity, I cannot calmly recollect our virtuous loves, or
+derive from that recollection sedateness and composure. Edwin, your
+language is dissonant, and the thoughts you seek to inspire, jarring
+and incompatible. If you must tell me to despair, at least point me to
+some nobler source of consolation, than the coldness of memory; at
+least let us prepare for the fate that awaits us in a manner decent,
+manly, and heroic.”
+
+“Yes, too amiable shepherdess, if I were worthy to advise, I would
+recommend a more generous source of consolation, and teach you to
+prepare for futurity in a manner worthy of the simplicity of your
+heart; and worthy of that disinterested affection we have ever borne to
+each other. Think of those sacred ties that have united us. Think of
+the soft and gentle commerce of mutual glances; the chaste and innocent
+communication with which we have so often beguiled the noontide hour;
+the intercourse of pleasures, of sentiments, of feelings that we have
+held; the mingling of the soul. Did not heaven design us for each
+other? Is not, by a long probation of simplicity and innocence, the
+possession of each other become a mutual purchase? An impious and
+arbitrary tyrant has torn us asunder. But do the Gods smile upon his
+hated purpose? Does he not rather act in opposition to their decrees,
+and in defiance of their authority?”
+
+The magician paused. “Alas,” replied the shepherdess, “what is it you
+mean? Whither would you lead me? I understand you not. These indeed
+were motives for fortitude and exertion, but what consolation can they
+impart to the desponding heart?” “I will tell you,” replied her
+seducer, folding her slender waist with one of his arms as he spoke.
+“Since the Gods are on our side, since heaven and earth approve our
+honest attachment, let us sit here and laugh at the tyrant. While he
+doubles his guards, and employs all his vigilance, let us mock his
+impotent efforts.”
+
+“Ah,” replied the shepherdess, her eye moistened with despair, and
+beaming with unapprehensiveness, “how strange and impracticable an
+advice do you suggest! Full of terror, full of despair, you bid me
+laugh at fear. Threatened by a tyrant whose power is irresistible, and
+whose arts you yourself assure me are not to be evaded, you would have
+me mock at those arts, and this dreaded power. Is not his power
+triumphant? Is not all his vigilance crowned with a fatal success? Are
+we not his miserable, trembling, death-expecting victims? Can we leave
+this apartment, can we almost move our hand, or utter our voice, for
+solicitude and terror? Oh Edwin, in what mould must that heart have
+been cast, what must be its hard and unsusceptible texture, that can
+laugh at sorrow, and be full of the sensations of joy, though
+surrounded with all the engines of wretchedness?”
+
+“Imogen, your fears are too great, your anxieties exaggerate the
+indigence of our condition. Though we are prisoners, yet even the
+misfortunes of a prison have their compensations. The activity of the
+immaterial mind, will not indeed submit long without reluctance to
+confinement and restraint. But we have not yet experienced lassitude
+and disgust.” “Alas, Edwin, how strange and foreign are thoughts like
+these! Whither do they tend? What would you infer from them?”
+
+“This my love I would infer. That within one little cincture we are yet
+absolute. No prying eye can penetrate here. Of our words, of our
+actions, during a few remaining hours, we can dispose without
+controul.”
+
+“Ah,” exclaimed the shepherdess, struck with a sudden suspicion of the
+treacherous purpose, and starting from her betrayer, “ah, Edwin, yet,
+yet explain yourself! A thousand horrid thoughts—a thousand dire and
+shapeless phantoms—But Edwin,—sure—is plain, and artless, and
+innocent.—What boots it that we can dispose of our words and actions
+within this cincture?—Will that enable us to escape?—No, no, no,
+no.—Escape you say is hopeless—What is it you mean?—Say—explain
+yourself—Oh, Edwin!”—
+
+“Be not alarmed,” cried the remorseless villain. “Listen, yet listen
+with calmness to the suggestions of my deliberate mind. Imogen, you are
+too beautiful—I have beheld you too long—I have admired you with too
+fierce an ardour. The Gods—the Gods have joined us. It is guilt and
+malignity alone that oppose their purpose.—Let us beat them
+down—trample them under our feet—employ worthily the moment that yet
+remains.”—
+
+As the magician pronounced these words, he advanced towards his
+captive, and endeavoured to seize her in his arms. But she thrust him
+from her with the warmest indignation; and contemplating him with an
+eye of infinite disdain, “Base unworthy swain!”—she cried—“Insidious
+traitor!—abhorred destroyer!—And is it thus that you would approach
+me?—Is it thus that you would creep into the weakness of my heart?—But
+fly—I know you not—One mark of compassion I will yet exhibit, which you
+little deserve—Fly—I will not deliver you into the hands of your rival,
+whom yet my soul does not so much loath and abhor—Fly—Live to be
+pointed at as an example of degeneracy—Live to blush for and repent of
+that crime, which, Edwin!—cannot be expiated.”
+
+Roderic had advanced too far to be thus deterred. He did not wish to
+manage the character under which he appeared. His passions by this
+interview, more private, and in which his captive had beheld him with
+an eye of greater complacency than ever, were inflamed to the extremest
+degree. The charms of Imogen had been in turn heightened with joy, and
+mellowed with distress. Even the conscious dignity, and haughty air she
+now assumed, gave new attractions to her form, and new grace to her
+manner. Her muscles trembled with horror and disdain. Her eloquent
+blood wrought distinctly in her veins, and spoke in a tone, not more
+dignified than enchanting. Her whole figure had a life, an expression,
+a loveliness, that it is impossible to conceive.
+
+Roderic rushed forward unappalled, and unsubdued. He had already seized
+his unwilling victim. In vain she resisted his violence; in vain she
+strove to escape from her betrayer. “For pity’s sake—for mercy’s
+sake—for the sake of all our past endearments—spare me!—relent—and
+spare me—spare me!—” For a time she struggled; but her tender frame was
+soon overcome by the strength of her destroyer. She became cold and
+insensible in his arms.
+
+At this moment a flood of splendid lightning filled the apartment. The
+air was rent with the hoarse and deafening roar of the thunder, the
+door flew open, and the form of that spectre that he most abhorred
+stood before Roderic. “Go on,” cried the phantom, “complete thy heroic
+purpose. Scorn the tremendous sounds that now appal thee. They are but
+the prelude of that scene that shall shortly feast my eyes. Perceivest
+thou not the earth to tremble beneath thy feet? Hearest thou not the
+walls of thy hated mansion cracking to their ruin? Confusion is at
+hand. _Chaos is come again._ Go on then, Roderic. Complete thy heroic
+purpose.” The spectre vanished, and all was uninterrupted silence.
+
+The whole mind of Roderic was transformed from what it was. For the
+impotence of lust, and the cruelty of inexorable triumph, he felt the
+terrors of annihilation, and all the cold, damp tremblings of despair.
+But the victory of innocence was not yet complete.
+
+Imogen had sunk for a moment under the horrors that threatened her, but
+she had not been so far impercipient as not to hear the murmuring of
+the thunder, and to see the gleam of the lightning. The form however
+that terrified Roderic, and the voice that addressed him, were
+perceived by him alone.
+
+The shepherdess opened her eyes, and beheld the degenerate ravisher
+pale, aghast, and trembling. “It is well, Edwin. The Gods have declared
+themselves. The Gods have suspended their thunder over the head of the
+apostate. Rut, oh Edwin, could I have imagined it! Desolate and
+oppressed as I have been, could I have supposed, that that form was
+destined to fill up the measure of my woes! I once beheld it as the
+harbinger of happiness, as the temple of integrity and innocence. Oh,
+how wretched you have made me! How you have shaken all my most rooted
+opinions of the residence of virtue among mankind! Am I alone, and
+unsupported in her cause? How forlorn and solitary do I seem to myself!
+I suffered—once I suffered the thought of Edwin to mix with the love of
+rectitude, and the obedience of heaven. They all together confirmed me
+in the path I had chalked out for myself. Mistake not these reproaches
+for the weakness of returning passion. And yet, Edwin, though I loath,
+I pity you! Go, and repent! Go, and blot from the records of your
+memory the cold insinuation, the aggravated guilt that you have this
+day practised! Go, and let me never, never see you more!”
+
+As she uttered these words, congratulation, reproach, wretchedness,
+abhorrence and pity succeeded each other in her countenance. Rut they
+were all accompanied with an ineffable dignity, and an angelic purity.
+The savage and the satyr might have beheld, and been awed into
+reverence. Roderic slunk away, guilty, mortified, and confounded. And
+such was the success of this other attempt upon the virtue of Imogen.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK THE SIXTH
+
+IMOGEN ENDEAVOURS TO SUBDUE THE ATTENDANTS OF RODERIC.—THE SUPPER OF
+THE HALL.—JOURNEY AND ARRIVAL OF EDWIN.—SUBTLETY OF THE MAGICIAN.—HE IS
+DEFEATED.—END OF THE SECOND DAY.
+
+
+The magician, overwhelmed and confounded with uninterrupted
+disappointment, was now ready to give himself up to despair. “I have
+approached the inflexible fair one,” cried he, “by every avenue that
+leads to the female heart. And what is the amount of the advantages I
+have gained? I tempted her with riches. But riches she considered with
+disdain; they had nothing analogous to the temper of her mind, and her
+uncultivated simplicity regarded them as superfluous and cumbersome. I
+taught her to listen to the voice of flattery; I clothed it in all that
+is plausible and insinuating; but to no purpose. She was still upon her
+guard; all her suspicions were awake; and her integrity and her
+innocence were as vigilant as ever. Incapable of effecting any thing
+under that form she had learned to detest, I laid it aside. I assumed a
+form most prepossessing and most amiable in her eyes. Surely if her
+breast had not been as cold as the snow that clothes the summit of
+Snowdon; if her virtue had not been impregnable as the groves of Mona,
+a stratagem, omnipotent and impenetrable as this, must have succeeded.
+She beheld the figure of him she loved, and this was calculated in a
+moment of distress to draw forth all her softness. She beheld the
+person of him in whom she had been wont to find all integrity, and
+place all confidence, and this might have induced her to apprehend no
+danger. And yet with how much tender passion, with how distressful an
+indignation, with what tumultuous sorrow did she witness his supposed
+crime? What then must I do? What yet remains? I love her with a more
+frantic and irresistible passion than ever. I cannot abstain from
+her.—I cannot dismiss her.—I cannot forget her. Oh Imogen, too lovely,
+all-attractive Imogen, for you I stand upon the very brink of fate! Nor
+is this all. Soon should I leap the gulph, soon should forget every
+prudent and colder prospect in the tumult of my soul, did not that
+cursed spectre ever shoot across my path to dash my transports, and to
+mar my enjoyments. Which way shall I turn? To leave her, that is
+impossible. To possess her by open force and manly violence, that my
+fate forbids. My understanding is bewildered, and my invention is
+lost.—Medoro!”—
+
+Medoro received the well known signal, and stood before Roderic. He
+waited not to be addressed, he read the purposes of the heart of the
+magician. “Roderic,” cried he, “this moment is the crisis of you[r]
+destiny. The occasion, to which the curse pronounced upon you by the
+inimical spectre refers, has already in part taken place. YOU HAVE SUED
+TO A SIMPLE MAID, WHO BY YOUR CHARMS HAS BEEN TAUGHT TO HATE THE SWAIN
+THAT ONCE SHE LOVED. It only remains that she should persevere in the
+resistance she has hitherto made, and that A SIMPLE SWAIN, perhaps her
+favoured Edwin, should defy your enchantments. Think then of the
+precipice on which you stand. Yet, yet return, while it is in your
+power. One step in advance beyond those you have already taken may be
+irretrievable. Alas, Roderic, it is thus that I advise! but I foresee
+that my advice will be neglected. The Gods permit to the invisible
+inhabitants of air, when strongly invoked by a mortal voice, to assist
+their vices and teach adroitness to their passions; but they do not
+permit an invocation like this to receive for its reward the lesson of
+moderation, and the attainment of happiness.
+
+“Go on then, Roderic, in the path upon which you are inflexibly
+determined. You succeeded not in the stratagem of flattery; but it
+served to take off the keenness of the aversion of Imogen. She
+contemplates you now with somewhat less of horror, and with a virtuous
+and ingenuous fear of uncandidness and injustice upon your account.
+Neither have you succeeded in that deeper stratagem and less penetrable
+deceit, the assumption of the form of him she loved. It has however
+served to weaken her prepossessions, and relax the chains of her
+attachment. She is now the better prepared to receive openly and
+impartially the addresses of a stranger swain. Thus even your
+miscarriages have furthered your design. Thus may a wise general
+convert his defeats into the means of victory. Think not however again
+to approach her in the coolness of reason, and the sobriety of the
+judgment. Hope not by temptation, by flattery, by prejudice, to shake
+the immutable character of her mind. There is yet one way unessayed.
+You must advance, if you would form the slightest expectations of
+victory, by secret and invisible steps. Her virtue must be surrounded,
+entangled and enmeshed, or ever her suspicions be awakened, or her
+integrity alarmed. This can be effected only by the instrumentality of
+pleasure. Pleasure has risen triumphant over many a heart that riches
+could not conquer, and that ambition could not subdue. What though she
+has resisted temptation under the most alluring form, when her thoughts
+were collected and all around was silence?—Let the board of luxury be
+spread. Let the choicest dainties be heaped together in unbounded
+profusion. Let the most skilful musicians awake the softest
+instruments. Let neatness, and elegance, and beauty exhibit their
+proudest charms. Let every path that leads to delight, let every
+gratification that inebriates the soul be discovered. If at that moment
+temptation approach, even a meaner and less potent temptation may then
+succeed. The night advances with hasty feet. Night is the season of
+dissipation and luxury. Be this the hour of experiment, and let the
+apprehensive mind of Imogen be first assiduously lulled to repose.
+Here, Roderic, you must rest your remaining hopes. There is not another
+instrument can be discovered, to disarm and vanquish the human mind. If
+here you fail, the Gods have decreed it—they will be obeyed—Imogen must
+be dismissed from the enchanted halls of Rodogune.”
+
+With these words the goblin disappeared. The warning he had uttered
+passed unheeded, but the magician immediately prepared to employ this
+last of stratagems. Summoning the train of attendants of either sex
+that resided in the castle, he directed them some to make ready the
+intended feast, and some to repair to the apartment of Imogen. The
+preparations of the enchanted castle were not like those of a vulgar
+entertainment. Every thing was accelerated by invisible agents. The
+intervention of the retinue of Roderic was scarcely admitted. The most
+savoury viands, the most high flavoured ragouts, and the most delicious
+wines presented themselves spontaneously to the expecting attendant.
+The hall was illuminated with a thousand lustres that depended like
+stars from the concave roof, and were multiplied by the reflection of
+innumerable mirrors. The whole was arranged with inconceivable
+expedition.
+
+In the mean time a few of the more distinguished attendants of her own
+sex repaired to the presence of Imogen. They found her feeble,
+spiritless and disconsolate. “Come,” exclaimed their leader, in an
+accent of persuasion; “comply, my lovely girl, let not us alone have
+reason to complain of your unfriendliness and inflexibility.”
+
+Imogen was fatigued and she wished not for repose. Grief and
+persecution had in a former instance inspired her with the love of
+solitude. But her feelings were now of another kind. The disgrace and
+ingratitude of Edwin had wounded her in the tenderest point, and she
+could not think of it but with inexpressible anguish. She was for the
+first time afraid of her own reflections, and desirous to fly from
+herself. “Yes,” exclaimed she, “and I would go, if you will promise me
+that it shall not be to the presence of Roderic. The castle and the
+fields, the freshness of the morning air and the gloom of a dungeon,
+are equal to me, provided I must be kept back from the arms of my
+beloved parents, and their anxious and tender spirits must still be
+held in suspence. But indeed I must not, I will not, be continually
+dragged to the presence of the man I hate. It is ungenerous,
+unreasonable, and indecent. What is the meaning of all this compulsion?
+Why am I kept here so much against my will? Why am I dragged from place
+to place, and from object to object? Surely all this cannot be mere
+caprice and tyranny. There must be in it some dark and guilty meaning
+that I cannot comprehend. Oh shepherdesses! if ye had any friendship,
+if any pity dwelt within your bosoms, ye would surely assist me to
+escape this hated confinement. Point but the way, show me but the
+smallest hole, by which I might get away to ease and liberty, and I
+would thank you a thousand times. You, who appear the leader of the
+throng, your brow is smooth, your eyes are gentle and serene, and the
+bloom of youth still dwells upon your face. Oh,” added the apprehensive
+Imogen, and she threw herself upon her knees—“do not bely the stamp of
+benevolence and clemency that nature has planted there. Think if you
+had parents as I have, whose happiness, whose existence, are suspended
+upon mine, if you abbhorred, and detested, and feared your jailor as I
+do, what would be your feelings then, and how you would wish to be
+treated by a person in your situation. Grant me only the poor and
+scanty boon, that you would then conceive your right. Dismiss me, I
+intreat you. I cannot bear my situation. My former days have all been
+sunshine, my former companions have all been kindness. I have not been
+educated to encounter persecution, and misfortunes, and horrors. I
+cannot encounter them. I cannot survive it.”
+
+As she pronounced these words, she sunk, feeble, languid, and
+breathless, upon the knees of the attendant. They hastened to raise
+her. They soothed her ingenuous affliction, and assured her that she
+should not be intruded upon by him of whom she had formed so groundless
+apprehensions. Since then she was invited to partake of a slight
+refreshment accompanied only by persons of her own sex, she did not
+long hesitate, and was easily persuaded to acquiesce. The
+unostentatious kindness of the invitation, and the modesty of the
+entertainment she expected, dissipated her fears. It was from solitude
+that she now wished to escape; and it was to that simple and temperate
+relaxation that she had experienced among the inhabitants of Clwyd, to
+which she was desirous to repair.
+
+She was conducted towards a saloon, which had less indeed of a
+sumptuous and royal appearance, but was more beautiful, more gay, more
+voluptuous, and more extatic than that which had been the scene of the
+temptation of the morning. The profuseness of the illuminations outdid
+the brightness of the meridian sun. The table was spread in a manner to
+engage the eye and allure the appetite. Every vessel that was placed
+upon it was of massive silver. And in different corners of the
+apartment heaps of the most fragrant incense were burning in urns of
+gold. The viands were of a nature the most stimulating and delicious;
+and the wines were bright and sparkling and gay. As Imogen approached,
+a stream of music burst upon her ear of a kind which hitherto she had
+never witnessed. It was not the sonorous and swelling notes of praise;
+it was not the enthusiastic rapture of the younger bards; it was not
+the elevated and celestial sounds that she had been used to hear from
+the lyre of Llewelyn. But if it was not so swelling and sublime, it was
+soft, and melodious, and insinuating, and overpowering beyond all
+conception. You could not listen to it without feeling all the strings
+of your frame relaxed, and the nobler powers of your soul lulled into a
+pleasing slumber. It was madness all. The ear that heard it could not
+cease to attend. The mind that listened to it was no longer master of
+itself.
+
+Imogen entered the hall, and was received by a train of nymphs, some of
+them more beautiful than any she had yet seen, and all attired with
+every refinement of elegance and grace. Their hair was in part braided
+round their bright and polished foreheads, and in part it hung in wavy
+and careless ringlets about their slender necks, and heaving bosoms.
+Their forms were veiled in loose and flowing folds of silk of the
+finest texture, and whiter than the driven snow. The robes were not
+embroidered with gold and silver; they were not studded with emeralds
+and diamonds; but were adorned on every side with chaplets of the
+fairest and freshest flowers. Their heads were crowned with garlands of
+amaranth and roses. Though their conduct were tainted with
+lasciviousness, and their minds were full of looser thoughts, yet, awed
+by the virtuous dignity of Imogen, they suppressed the air of dissolute
+frolic, and taught by the guileful lessons of their lord, endeavoured
+to assume the manners of chaste and harmless joy.
+
+The shepherdess, struck with the objects which so unexpectedly
+presented themselves to her eyes and her ears, started back with
+involuntary astonishment. “Is this,” cried she, “the artless feast, and
+this the simple fare of which you invited me to partake?” “Imogen,”
+replied the principal nymph, “we were willing to do you honour, and the
+preparation we have made is slight compared with that which the roof
+can afford. We considered your fatigue and your extraordinary
+abstinence, and we were willing to compensate them by pleasant food,
+and a grateful refreshment.”
+
+“And is such the grateful refreshment, and such the simple and
+unaffected relaxation that your minds suggested? Alas, were I to
+approach this board, it would be to me a business and not an amusement,
+an exertion and not a relief. A feast like this is an object foreign
+and unpleasing to my eyes. The feasts of the valley are chesnuts, and
+cheeses, and apples. Our drink is the water of the limpid brook, or the
+fair and foaming beverage that our flocks afford. Such are the
+enjoyments of sobriety; such are the gratifications of innocence.
+Virgins, I am not weary of the simplicity of the pastoral life. I hug
+it to my bosom closer, more fondly than ever.”
+
+“Amiable, spotless maiden! we admire your opinions, and we love your
+person. But virtue is not allied to rigour and austerity. Its
+boundaries are unconstrained, and graceful, and sweeping. It is a robe
+which sits easily on those who are formed to wear it. It gives no
+awkwardness to their manner, and puts no force upon their actions.
+Partake then, my Imogen, in those refreshments we have prepared for
+your gratification. If this be not duty, it is not crime. It is a
+venial and a harmless indulgence. Do not then mortify friends that have
+sought to please you, and refuse your attention to the assiduities we
+have demonstrated.”
+
+“No, my gentle shepherdess, it is in vain you plead. I would willingly
+qualify my refusal; but I must withdraw. The more you press me, the
+farther it is necessary for me to recede. In the morning of this very
+day, I was simple, and incautious, and complying. But now I have
+experienced so many wiles and escaped so many snares, that this heart,
+formerly so gentle and susceptible, is cased in triple steel. I can
+shut my eyes upon the most splendid attractions. I can turn a deaf ear
+to enticements the most alluring, and sounds the most insinuating. This
+is the lesson—I thank him for it—that your lord has taught me. You must
+not then detain me. I must be permitted to retire.” And saying this she
+withdrew with trembling speed. In vain they insisted, in vain they
+pursued. Imogen escaped like a bird from the fowler, nor looked behind.
+Imogen was deaf to their expostulations, and indurate and callous as
+adamant to their persuasions.
+
+The disappointment of Roderic, when he learned of this miscarriage of
+his great and final attempt was extreme. He coursed up and down the
+saloon with all the impatience of a wild boar pierced by the spear of
+the hunter, or a wolf from whom they have torn away her young. He
+vented his fury upon things inanimate. He tore his hair, and beat his
+breast, with tumultuous agony. He imprecated with a hoarse and furious
+voice a thousand curses upon those attendants who had permitted his
+captive to escape. Through the spacious hall, where every thing a
+moment before had worn the face of laboured gaiety and studied smiles,
+all was now desolation, and disquiet, and uproar. And urged as the
+magician had been by successive provocations, he was ready to overstep
+every limit he might once have respected, and to proceed to the most
+fatal extremities.
+
+In this situation, and as Roderic was hastening with a determined
+resolution to follow to the apartment of Imogen, information was
+suddenly brought to him, that a young stranger, tall and graceful in
+his form, and of a frank and noble countenance, had by some unknown
+means penetrated beyond the precipices with which the enchanted castle
+was surrounded, and in spite of the resistance of the retinue of the
+magician had entered the mansion. The dark and guilty heart of Roderic
+immediately whispered him—“It is Edwin.—It is well.—I thank the Gods
+that they do not hold this aspiring soul in a long and dreary suspence!
+Let the destinies overtake me. I am prepared to receive them. Death, or
+any of the thousand ills that fortune stores for them she hates, could
+not come in a more welcome hour.—Oh Imogen, lovely, adorable Imogen,
+how vain has been my authority, how vain the space of my command! Let
+then my palaces tumble into ruin—Let that wand which once I boasted,
+shivered in a thousand fragments, be cast to all the winds of heaven! I
+will glory in desolation and forlornness. I will wrap myself in my
+poverty. I will retire to some horrid cave in the midst of the untamed
+desart, and shagged with horrid shades, that outgloom the blackness of
+the infernal regions. There I will ruminate upon my past felicity.
+There I will tell over enjoyments never to return. I will make myself a
+little universe, and a new and unheard of satisfaction in the darkness
+of my reflections, and the depth of my despair.
+
+“And yet surely, surely the Gods have treated me severely, and measured
+out to me a hard and merciless fate. What are all the felicities I talk
+of, and have prized so much? Oh, they were seasoned, each of them, with
+a bitter infusion! Little, little indeed have I tasted of a pure and
+unmixed happiness. In my choicest delights, I have felt a vacancy. They
+have become irksome and tedious. I have fled from myself; I have fled
+from the magnificence of my retinue, to find variety. And yet how
+dearly am I to pay for a few gratifications which were in fact no
+better than specious allurements to destruction, and flowers that
+slightly covered the pit of ruin! In the bloom of manhood, in the full
+career of youth to be cast forth an UNPITIED, NECESSITOUS, MISERABLE
+VAGABOND! All but this I could have borne without a sigh. Were I
+threatened with death, in this opening scene of life, I could submit
+with cheerfulness. But to drag along a protracted misery, to be shut
+out from hope, and yet ever awake to every cruel reflection and every
+bitter remorse—This is too much!”
+
+From this dream of unmanly lamentations Roderic was with difficulty
+recovered by the assiduities of the attendants. At length incited by
+their expostulations to the collectedness of reflection and the
+fortitude of exertion, he determined, with that quickness of invention
+with which he had been endowed at his birth, upon a plan to elude, if
+possible, the perseverance of Edwin, and the menaces of his fate.
+Recollecting that his person was not unknown to the swain, he
+communicated his instructions to those who were about him, and withdrew
+himself into a private apartment.
+
+It was Edwin. The instructions of the Druid of Elwy had relieved him
+from the insupportable burden that had begun to oppress his mind.
+Persuaded by him he had submitted to seek the refreshment of sleep. But
+sleep shed not her poppies upon his busy, anxious head. His mind was
+crouded with a thousand fearful phantoms. A child of the valley, he was
+a stranger to misfortune and misery. Upon the favoured sons of nature
+calamity makes her deepest impression, and an impression least capable
+of being erased. And yet Edwin was full of courage and adventure; he
+asked no larger boon than to be permitted to face his rival. But his
+inquietude was the offspring of love; and his wariness and caution
+originated in the docility of his mind, and his anxious attachment to
+innocence and spotless rectitude.
+
+Having passed the watches of the night in uneasy and inexhaustible
+reflections, he sprung from his couch as soon as the first dawn of day
+proclaimed the approaching sun, and took a hasty leave of the
+hospitable hermit. Issuing from the grotto, he bent his steps, in
+obedience to the direction of Madoc, to that secret path, which had
+never before been discovered by any mortal unassisted by the goblins of
+the abyss. Before he reached it the golden sun had begun to decline
+from his meridian height. He passed along the winding way beneath the
+impending precipices, which formed a dark and sullen vault over his
+head. Ever and anon large pieces of stone, broken from their native
+mass, and tumbling among the craggy caverns, saluted his ear. Now and
+then he heard a bubbling fountain bursting from the rock, which
+presently fell with a loud and dashing noise along the declivity, and
+was lost in the pebbles below. The only light by which his steps were
+guided, was that which fell in partial and scanty streams through the
+fissures of the mountain, and served to discover little more than the
+shapelessness of the rocks, and the uncultivated horrors of the scene.
+
+Through these Edwin passed unappalled. His heart was naturally firm and
+intrepid, and he now cased himself round with the armour of untainted
+innocence and unsullied truth. It was not long before he came forth
+from this scene of desolation to that beautiful and cultivated prospect
+which had already enchanted the heart of Imogen. To him it had
+advantages which in the former case it could not boast. He could
+contrast its gaiety and brightness with the obscure and dismal scene
+from which he had escaped. Nor was he struck only by the verdure of the
+prospect, and the vividness of its colours, he also beheld the
+inclosure, not, as his amiable mistress had done, from a terrace
+adjoining to the mansion; but from the last point of the rock from
+which he was ready to descend. The mansion therefore was his principal
+point of view from this situation. It stood upon a bold and upright
+brow that beetled over the plain below. The ascent was by a large and
+spacious flight of marble steps. Its architecture was grand, and
+simple, and commanding. It was supported by pillars of the Ionic order.
+They were constructed of ivory and jet, and their capitals were
+overlaid with the purest gold. An object like this to one who had never
+before seen any nobler edifice than a shepherd’s cot, or the throne of
+turf upon which the bards were elevated at the feast of the Gods, was
+surprising, and admirable, and sublime in the highest degree.
+
+“And this,” exclaimed the gallant shepherd, “is the residence prepared
+for infamy and lust. The sun pours upon it his light with as large a
+hand, the herbage, the flowers and the fruits as fully partake of the
+bounteous care of nature, as the vales of simplicity and the fields of
+innocence. How venerable and alluring is the edifice I behold! Does not
+peace dwell within, and are not the hours of its possessor winged with
+happiness? Had my youth been spent among the beasts of the forests, had
+not my ears drank in the sacred instructions of the godlike Druids, I
+might have thought so. But, no. In vain in the extensive empire that
+the arts of sorcery and magic afford, shall felicity be sought. What
+avails all this splendour? and to what purpose this mighty profusion?
+All the possessions that I can boast, are my little flock, my wattled
+cottage, and my slender pipe. And yet I carol as jocound a lay, my
+heart is as light and frolic, and the tranquility of self-acquittal
+spreads her wings as wide over my bosom, as they could were I lord of a
+hundred hills, and called all the streamlets of the valley my own. The
+magician possesses a large hoard of beauty, and he can wander from fair
+to fair with unlimited and fearless licence. All merciful and benign
+beings, who dwell above this azure concave, give me my Imogen! Restore
+her safe and unhurt to these longing, faithful arms! Let not this
+arbitrary and imperious tyrant, who grasps wide the fairest productions
+of thy creation with a hundred hands,—let him not wrest from me my
+solitary lamb,—let him not seize for ever upon that companion, in whom
+the most expansive and romantic wishes of my heart had learned to be
+satisfied.”
+
+Such were the beautiful and virtuous sentiments of Edwin, as he beheld
+the empire of his rival from the head of the rock, and as he crossed
+the glade that still divided him from the object of all his exertions.
+From the eminence upon which he had paused for a few contemplative
+moments, the distance had appeared narrow and trifling. But the equal
+height of the ground upon which he stood, and of that which afforded a
+situation for the palaces of Roderic, had deceived him. When he looked
+towards the scene that was to form the termination of his journey, the
+glade below escaped from his sight. But when he descended to the plain,
+it was otherwise. One swell of the surface he had to traverse succeeded
+another; and the irregularity of the ground caused him sometimes to be
+lost, in a manner, in the length of the way, and took from him the
+consolation of being able so much as to perceive the object of his
+destination. As he passed the hills, and climbed each successive
+ascent, a murmur rose in his bosom; his impatience grew more and more
+ungovernable, and the eagerness of his pursuit taught him to imagine,
+that his little labour would never be done.
+
+Every performance however of human exertion has its period; and Edwin
+had at length surmounted the greater part of the distance, and now
+gained a larger and more distinct view of the castle. But by this time
+the sun was ready to hide himself in the ocean, and his last rays now
+gleamed along the valley, and played in the party-coloured clouds.
+Meanwhile a dark spot, which had for some time blotted the brightness
+of the surrounding azure, expanded itself. The shades gathered, the
+light of the sun was hid, and the blackness of the night forestaled.
+The wind roared among the mountains, and its terrors were increased by
+the hollow bellowings of the beasts they harboured. The shower began;
+it descended with fury, and Edwin had scarcely time to gain the
+protection of an impervious thicket that crowned the lawn. Here he
+stood and ruminated. The solemnity of the scene accorded with the
+importance of his undertaking. The pause was friendly. He composed his
+understanding, and recollected the lessons of the hospitable hermit. He
+fortified himself in the habits of virtue; and, with a manly and
+conscious humility, recommended this crisis of his innocence to the
+protection of heaven.
+
+The shower ceased, but the darkness continued. He had too well marked
+however the bent of his journey during the continuance of the day, to
+permit this to be any considerable obstacle. In the mean time it
+doubled and rendered more affecting the stilness of the night. Nothing
+was to be heard but the low whispers of the falling breeze, and the
+murmurs of the prowling wolf that now languished and died away upon the
+ear. This was the moment in which magic lords it supreme, in which the
+goblin breaks forth from his confinement, and ranges unlimited in the
+nether globe; and in which all that is regular and all that is
+beautiful give place to the hunger of the savage brute, and the
+witcheries of the sorcerer. But Roderic was otherwise engaged. His
+heart was employed in inventing guile, and was lulled into
+unapprehensive security. But Edwin was heroic. His bosom swelled with
+the most generous purposes; and he trusted unwaveringly in that
+guardianship that is every where present, and that eye that never
+slumbers.
+
+He entered the walls of the enchanted castle. The novelty of the
+appearance of a stranger within the circle of those mountains, which no
+vulgar mortal had yet penetrated, the dignity of his appearance, and
+the boldness of his manner, at first distracted the attendants from the
+performance of that, which might have seemed most natural in their
+situation, and awed them into passiveness. He still wore that flowing
+and graceful garb, which was appropriated by the inhabitants of Clwyd
+to the celebration of public solemnities. He had passed through the
+midst of the shower, and yet one thread of his garment was not
+moistened with the impetuousness of its descent. His face wore a more
+beautiful and roseat glow than was native to its complexion. His eye
+was full of animation and expressiveness. Expectation, and hope, and
+dignity, and resolution had their entire effect in his appearance. “It
+is a celestial spirit!” cried they. “It is a messenger from the unseen
+regions!” and they sought in his person for the insignia that might
+confirm and establish their conjecture.
+
+But such was not the imagination of Roderic. The master-guilt to which
+he was conscious, was ever ready to take the alarm upon any unexpected
+event; and he had immediately conjectured, by a kind of instinctive
+impression, who was this new and unwelcome guest. However unguarded and
+unprepared had been his retinue, they had recollected themselves
+sufficiently to detain Edwin in the avenue of the mansion, till they
+had received the orders of their lord. These were immediately
+communicated; and the magician withdrew himself till the proper period
+should arrive for his appearance to the swain.
+
+Edwin, when he had entered the palace of Roderic, had been desirous, if
+it were possible, to push forward to the presence of his rival, without
+making any previous enquiries, or admitting of a moment’s pause. The
+frequency however of the domestics had disappointed his purpose, and he
+was detained by them in spite of his efforts. “What means,” cried he,
+“this violence? I must enter here. I will not be delayed. My purpose
+admits not of trifling and parley. To me every moment is big with
+fate.” He said. For Edwin disdained the employment of falsehood and
+disguise. He lifted the javelin in his hand, but his heart was too full
+of gentleness and humanity rashly to employ the instrument of death.
+His tone however was resolute, and his gesture commanding, and the
+astonished attendants were uncertain in what manner to conduct
+themselves.
+
+At this instant a domestic, who had received the instructions of his
+lord, entered the court. He had the appearance of superior dignity; and
+removing the attendants who pressed with rudeness upon the shepherd, he
+enquired of him the cause of his intrusion. “Lead me,” cried Edwin, “to
+the lord of your mansion. My business is important and pressing, and
+will not admit of being communicated to any other ear. Whence this
+difficulty? Innocence does not withdraw from the observation of those
+who are desirous to approach it; and a manly courage is not
+apprehensive of an enemy.”
+
+“Young stranger,” replied the domestic, “you are misinformed. This
+mansion knows not a lord. It belongs solely to proprietors of the
+softer sex, whom fortune has indulged as you perceive with every thing
+that is calculated to give new relish to the pursuits of life, and
+beguile the lazy foot of time. It is our boast and our honour to serve
+these damsels. And could my report add one ray to their lustre, I would
+tell you, that they are fair as the peep of the morning, and more
+fragrant than beds of violets and roses. It is their command, that
+humanity should be extended by all around them, not only to man, but to
+the humblest and weakest animals. Though you have entered their
+residence by mistake, we shall but fulfil the service they expect in
+furnishing you with every assistance and every accommodation in our
+power. If you are hungry, come in and partake of the liberal plenty the
+castle affords. If you thirst, we will cheerfully offer you the
+capacious goblet and the richest wines. If you are fatigued with the
+travel of the day, or have wandered from your path and are benighted in
+your journey, enter their mansion. The accommodations are large, and
+they are all free for the use of the poor, the necessitous, the
+unfortunate and the miserable.”
+
+Edwin listened with astonishment to the narration. He was not used to
+the address of falshood; and strongly warned as he had previously been
+of the iniquity of the train, the ingenuousness of his mind induced him
+at first without reflection to yield an easy credit to the story that
+was told him. It was related with fluency, plausibility, and gravity;
+and it was accompanied with a manner seemingly artless and humane,
+which it was scarcely possible for one unhackneyed in the stratagems of
+deceit to distrust and contradict.
+
+“Surely,” replied Edwin, “I cannot be wholly mistaken. At least has
+there not a young shepherdess just arrived here, tall, tender and
+beautiful, and whose flaxen tresses are more bright than gold, and more
+abundant than the blossoms in the spring?”
+
+Before the officious domestic could reply to his enquiries, two of the
+nymphs, who had been attired for the feast of Imogen, came into the
+outer apartment in which the shepherd was, and advanced toward him.
+“These are my mistresses,” cried the attendant. Edwin approached them
+with respect, and repeated his former enquiries. They were the most
+beautiful of the train of Roderic. They were clad in garments of the
+whitest silk, and profusely adorned with chaplets of flowers. Their
+appearance therefore was calculated to give them, in a shepherd’s eye,
+an air of sweetness and simplicity that could not easily be resisted.
+
+One of them was tall and majestic, and the other low, and of a shape
+and figure the most alluring. This appeared to be like a blossom in
+May, whose colours discovered to the attentive observer all their
+attractions, without being expanded to the careless eye: And that might
+be supposed to be a few summers farther advanced to a delicious
+maturity. The majesty of the one had nothing in it of the gross, the
+indelicate, and the forbidding; and the softness of the other was
+attempered with inexpressible propriety and grace. Both of them were
+gentle and affable. But the affability of the former took the name of
+benignity and condescension, and the affability of the latter was full
+of harmless gaiety, and a cheerful and unpretending spirit of society.
+
+“We cannot,” replied the elder, “attend to your enquiries here. The
+apartment is comfortless and inhospitable. You appear fatigued. And we
+pretend not, young stranger, merely to contribute what is in our power
+to relieve the uneasiness of your mind, we would also refresh your
+wearied frame. Come in then, and we will afford you every satisfaction
+we are able. Enter the mansion, and partake of the plenty the Gods have
+bestowed upon us, and which we desire not to engross to ourselves.”
+During these words Edwin surveyed his fair entertainers with wonder and
+admiration. But enchanting as they were, they found not the avenue to
+his heart. There Imogen reigned alone, and could not admit of a rival.
+Even though upon a slighter occasion, and at less important moment, the
+purity of his mind, that virtue so much esteemed among the swains,
+could have been tainted, yet now that his undertaking whispered him,
+“Imogen alone is fair!” now that he feared for her safety, and hoped
+every moment to arrive at the dreaded, pleasing period of his anxiety,
+he could but be constant and be faithful. He recollected the sage
+instructions of the Druid of Elwy: and his resolutions were unshaken as
+the roots of Snowdon.
+
+He accepted their invitation. Immediately, as upon a signal, an hundred
+flambeaux lighted the area and lined the passage to the saloon of
+pleasure. The nymphs placed themselves on each side of the shepherd,
+and in this manner they passed along. If Imogen had been struck with
+the profuseness of the illumination, the richness of the plate, the
+sumptuousness of the viands and the wines, and the fragrant clouds of
+incense that filled the apartment, how much more were they calculated
+to astonish the soul of Edwin! He had comparatively passed through no
+previous scenes; he had not been led on step by step; and the
+voluptuousness of the objects that now presented themselves before him
+had been unknown and unexpected. The train of the subordinate
+attendants of the magician filled the apartment with beauty and with
+grace, and seemed to pay the most unreserved obedience to the nymphs
+that at first addressed him.
+
+But before the shepherd had time to examine the objects that surrounded
+him, the musicians awaked their instruments, and all his faculties were
+engrossed with soft melody and enchanting sounds. The instrumental
+performance was illustrated and completed with a multitude of
+harmonious voices, and those who sang were each of them of the softer
+sex.
+
+“What are the possessions most eagerly courted among mankind? Which are
+the divinities by mortals most assiduously adored? This goodly universe
+was intended for the seat of pleasure, unmixed pleasure. But a
+sportive, malicious divinity sent among men a gaudy phantom, an empty
+bubble, and called the shadow Honour. In pursuit of a fancied
+distinction and a sounding name, the children of the earth have
+deserted all that is bland and all that is delicious. Labour, naked,
+deformed, and offensive, they willingly embrace. They brave hardship
+and severity. They laugh at danger. From hence they derive the virtue
+of resolution, the merit of self-denial, and the excellence of
+mortification.
+
+“But heaven did not open wide its hand, and scatter delight through
+every corner of the universe, without intending that they should be
+enjoyed. Enjoyment, indulgence, and felicity are not crimes.
+Abstinence, self-denial and mortification have only a specious mien and
+a fictitious merit. Did all mankind obey their fallacious dictates, the
+unlimited bounties of nature would become a burden to the earth, and
+fill it with pestilence and contagion. The soil would be oppressed with
+her own fertility; the herds would overmultitude their lords; and the
+crouded air would be darkened with the plumes of its numerous
+inhabitants. The very gems that now lie buried in the bosom of the
+ocean, would then bespangle its surface, and the dumb tenants of the
+watery tracts, inured to their blaze, would learn to leave the caverns
+of the sea and gaze upon the sun.
+
+“Mortals, open your hearts to the divinity of pleasure! Why should he
+be in love with labour, who has a capacious hoard of choice delights
+within his reach? Why should we fly from a present good that we
+possess, to a future that we do not comprehend? Is this the praise we
+owe the bounteous Gods? Can neglect and indifference to their gifts be
+gratitude? This were to serve them like a timorous and trembling slave
+beneath the eye of an austere and capricious tyrant; and not with that
+generosity, that enthusiasm, that liberal self-confidence, which are
+worthy of a father, a patron and a friend.
+
+“Ye that are wise, ye that are favoured of propitious heaven, drink
+deep of the cup of pleasure. The sun has now withdrawn his splendid
+lustre, and his flaring beams. The period of exercise is past, and the
+lids of prying curiosity is [are] closed. Night is the season of feast
+and the season of gaiety. In the graver hours of activity and industry,
+sobriety may be proper. It may then be fit to listen to the dictates of
+prudence, and pay some attention to the prejudices of mankind. The
+sternness of age and the austerity of censoriousness are now silent.
+Now pleasure wears a freer garb; and the manners of enjoyment are more
+frank and unrestrained. The thinness of indiscretion and the airy forms
+of inadvertence are lost and annihilated amid the shadows of the night.
+
+“Now the numerous inhabitants of the waters come forth from their oozy
+beds and play and flounce in the beams of the moon. Round the luminary
+of the night the stars lead up the mystic dance, and compose the music
+of the spheres. The deities of the woods and the deities of the rivers
+come out from their secret haunts, and keep their pastimes
+unapprehensive of human intrusion. The elves and the fairies repair to
+their sports, and trip along the velvet green with many-twinkling feet.
+Let us imitate their amiable alacrity and their cheerful amusements.
+
+“What has sleep to do with the secrecy and silence of the night? It is
+the hour of pleasure unrestrained and free. It is the hour in which the
+empire of beauty is complete, and those mysteries are disclosed which
+the profaner eye of day must never behold. Ye that are wise, ye that
+are favoured of propitious heaven, drink deep of the cup of pleasure!
+The festive board is spread before you; the flowing bowl is proffered
+for your acceptance. Beauty, the crown of enjoyment, the last
+perfection of society, is within your reach. Be wise and taste. Partake
+of the munificence the Gods vouchsafe.”
+
+As the song proceeded the two nymphs, who had first appeared to Edwin,
+and since attended him with the extremest officiousness, endeavoured by
+every artful blandishment to engage his attention, and rivet his
+partiality. They exerted themselves to suppress the grossness,
+inelegance and sensuality to which they had commonly been habituated,
+and to cover the looseness of the passions with the veil of simplicity,
+delicacy, and softness. As the music ceased, the master of the
+spectacle came forth from his retreat. But his figure was no longer
+that which bespoke the magician, and which Edwin had already seen. He
+appeared in the form of a youth of that age in which the frolic
+insignificance of childhood gives place to the eagerness, the
+enthusiasm and the engaging manners of blooming manhood. His habit was
+that of a cupbearer. His robes were of azure silk, and floated in
+graceful folds as he passed along. The beauty of his person was worthy
+of the synod of the Gods. His features had all the softness of woman
+without effeminacy; and in his eye there sat a lambent fire which
+bespoke the man, without roughness, and without ferocity. In one hand
+he bore a crystal goblet full of every potent enchantment, and which
+rendered him who drank for ever a slave to the most menial offices and
+the most wanton caprices of his seducer. In the other hand he held
+loosely, and as if it had been intended merely to give a completeness
+to his figure and a gracefulness to his step, that irresistible wand by
+which the majesty of man had often been degraded, and the reluctant
+spirit had been conjured up from the caverns of the abyss. The goblet
+he delivered to the elder nymph, who presented it, with inimitable
+grace and a bewitching condescension, to the gallant shepherd.
+
+Edwin had the fortitude of a hero, but he had also the feelings of a
+man. He could not but be struck with the beauty of the nymphs, he could
+not but be surprised with the profuseness of the entertainment, and the
+richness of the preparations. The soul of Edwin was full of harmony. It
+had been one of his earliest and most ruling passions. No shepherd
+excelled him in the skill of the pipe, no shepherd with a sweeter or
+more sonorous voice could carol the rustic lay. Even the figure assumed
+by Roderic, his garb, his step, his gesture had something in them of
+angelic and celestial without the blaze of divinity, and without the
+awfulness that surrounds the godlike existencies, that sometimes
+condescend to visit this sublunary scene. The shepherd took into his
+hand the fatal bowl.
+
+In the midst however of all that was attractive, and all that was
+unknown, Edwin had not forgotten the business that had brought him
+hither and the lessons of Madoc. The visage of Imogen, ever present to
+his soul, suggested these salutary reflections. By her assistance he
+strengthened all his resolutions, and gave vigour to the heroism of his
+mind. Through the memory of Imogen he derived a body, and communicated
+a visible form to the precepts of rectitude; and virtue wore all those
+charms that had the most uncontroled empire in his bosom. Half way to
+his lips he raised the cup of vice, and inexorable fate sat smiling on
+the brim. He paused; he hesitated. By an irresistible impulse of
+goodness he withdrew the fatal draught. He shed the noxious composition
+upon the ground, and hurled from him with indignation the vessel in
+which it had been contained.
+
+Roderic beheld the scene with deep emotion, and was agitated by turns
+with a thousand passions. He saw the issue with confusion, despondence
+and fury. The roseat smiles of the cupbearer vanished; and, without the
+notice and consent of his mind, his limbs resumed their wonted form,
+and his features confirmed the suspicions of the shepherd, that he was
+now confronted with his mortal enemy. Thrice the magician invoked the
+spirit of his mother, and thrice he conjured the goblins, the most
+potent that ever mix in the mortal scene. He lifted the wand in his
+hand. It was the fiery ordeal that summons human character to the
+severest trial. It was the _judgment of God_ in which the lots are
+devoutly committed to the disposal of heaven, and the enthroned
+Divinity, guided by his omniscience of the innocence of the brave, or
+the guilt of the presumptuous, points the barbed spear, and gives a
+triple edge to the shining steel. If the shepherd had one base and
+earth-born particle in his frame, if his soul confessed one sordid and
+sensual desire, now was the time in which for his prospects to be
+annihilated and his reputation blotted for ever, and the state and
+empire of his rival to be fixed beyond the power of human machinations
+to shake or subvert it. “Presumptuous swain!” cried the sorcerer, “what
+folly, what unmeaning rashness has brought you within the circle of my
+incantations? Know that from them no mortal has escaped; that by them
+every swain, whom adventurousness, ignorance, or stratagem has
+introduced within these limits, has been impelled to assume the savage
+form, and to herd with the most detestable of brutes. Let then thy
+foolhardiness pay the penalty which my voice has ever annexed to it.
+Hence to thy fellows! Go, and let their hated form bely the reason thou
+shalt still retain, and thy own voice affright thee, when thou shalt
+groan under irremediable misery!”
+
+The incantation that had never yet failed of its hated purpose was
+pronounced in vain. Edwin had heard it unappalled. He wore the amulet
+of Madoc. He opposed to it the unconquered shield of spotless
+innocence. Even in the midst of the lordly despotism and the imperious
+haughtiness of his rival, he had been conscious to the triumph which
+nothing but the calmness of fortitude and the serenity of virtue can
+inspire. He was mindful of the precepts of the Druid. While Roderic was
+overwhelmed with disappointment and despair, he seized the wand of the
+magician, and with irresistible vigour wrenched it from his hand. He
+struck it with violence upon the ground, and it burst into a thousand
+shivers. The castle rocked over his head. Those caverns, which for
+revolving years had served to hide the iniquity and the cruelty of
+their possessor, disclosed their secret horrors. The whole stupendous
+pile seemed rushing to the ground. A flood of lightning streamed across
+the scene. A peal of thunder, deafening and tremendous, followed it.
+All now was vacancy. Not a trace of those costly scenes and that
+magnificent architecture remained. The heaven over-canopied the head of
+Edwin. The clouds were dissipated. The light of innumerable stars gave
+grandeur to the scene. And the silver moon communicated a milder
+lustre, and created a softer shade. Roderic and his train, full of
+pusillanimity and consternation, had fled from the direful scene, and
+vanished like shadows at the rising of the sun.
+
+No mortal, but our lovers, had ever entered the enchanted mansion
+without having their characters disgraced, and their hearts thronged
+with all those hateful and dissolute passions, which distinguished the
+band of Roderic. No mortal was there, but our lovers, of the numerous
+inhabitants of this bad edifice, who had not shrunk from the earthquake
+and the solemnities that accompanied its sub-version. Edwin and Imogen
+were alone. The shepherdess had listened to all the horrors of the
+scene with a gloomy kind of satisfaction. “What new wonders,” cried
+she, “are now to be disclosed? What purpose are they intended to
+answer! The amendment, or the destruction of my betrayer? But it is
+well. Though the elements mix in inextricable confusion, though the
+earth be destroyed, yet has innocence no cause to fear. Alas, though I
+myself should be buried in the ruin, why should I apprehend, or why
+lament it? I was happy; untaintedly, uninterruptedly happy. But I am
+miserable. I am confined here in a loathsome, detested prison. Even my
+conduct is shut up with difficulties, and my bosom disquieted with the
+conflict of seeming duties. Even Edwin, the swain to whom my heart was
+united, and from whose memory my integrity derived new strength is
+corrupted, depraved and base. Let then destruction come. I will not
+lament the being cut off in the bloom of youth. I will not shed one
+tear, or feel one fond regret, but for the calamity and disappointment
+of my parents.”
+
+But however the despair of Imogen armed her courage against the
+concussions of nature, she yet felt that delicacy of constitution which
+characterises the most lovely of her sex, and that amiable timidity
+which often accompanies the most invincible fortitude. When the thunder
+roared with so fearful violence, when the mansion burst in ruins over
+her head, she stood, trembling and breathless, at the tumult around
+her. Her safety was the first object of the attention of Edwin; and
+when she recovered her recollection she found herself in the arms of
+her lover. “_My fair one, my Imogen_,” cried he, “have I recovered you
+through so many obstacles, and in the midst of so numerous dangers? Oh,
+how must our affection, the purest, brightest, that ever lighted a
+human breast, be endeared by our mutual calamities! But virtue is ever
+triumphant, virtue is never deserted of the watchful care of heaven. My
+trials, my lovely shepherdess, have been feeble indeed, when compared
+with yours. Your integrity is unrivalled, and your innocence has
+surpassed all that the bards have sung in their immortal lays. Come
+then, oh, dearer, far dearer than ever to this constant heart, come to
+my arms! Let delay be banished. Let the veil of virgin bashfulness be
+laid aside. And let us repair together to the presence of your parents
+to ask an united blessing.”
+
+While Edwin thus poured forth the raptures of his heart, Imogen turned
+towards him a languid eye, full of soft and silent reproach. She
+retired from him with involuntary horror. “No, shepherd,” cried she,
+and waved her hand with graceful indignation. “Like you I approve the
+justice of the Gods in the banishment of Roderic. But I think that
+justice would have been more complete, had it included in its
+vindictive appearance the punishment of the base, degenerate Edwin.
+Unworthy Edwin, to how vile and earth born sentiments has your heart
+been conscious! But go. Hence from my sight! The very spectacle of that
+form which I had learned to love is mildew and contagion to my eyes.
+Oh, Edwin, for your sake I will distrust every attractive form and
+every ingenuous appearance. The separation, my swain, is hard. The arts
+of Roderic came not near my soul, but your baseness has fixed an
+indelible wound. But think not—cherish not the fond mistake—that I will
+ever forget your ungenerousness in the hour of my distress and
+forlornness, or receive that serpent to my heart again.”
+
+As she pronounced these words, she hastened to fly from her imaginary
+enemy. Edwin detained her by a gentle violence. With much intreaty and
+a thousand soft blandishments, he wrung from her the story of her
+indignation. He related to her the tale of Madoc, and told her of the
+magic arts of his rival. He fully explained the scene of the pretended
+repentance of Roderic, and the seduction he had attempted to practise
+under the form of Edwin. As she listened to the wondrous story, Imogen
+trembled at the unknown dangers with which she had been environed, and
+admired more than ever the omnipotence of that virtue which had been
+able to lead her safely through them all. The conviction she received
+of the rectitude and fidelity of Edwin was to her, like the calm breath
+of zephyr, which succeeds the tremendous storm upon the surface of the
+ocean; and like that sovereign balm, which the sage Druids pour into
+the wounds of the shepherd, and restore him at once to salubrity and
+vigour. The amiable pair repaired with speed, and arrived with the dawn
+of the sun to the cottage of Imogen. At the sight of them the venerable
+Edith reared her drooping, desponding head, and the cheeks of the hoary
+father were bedewed with the tears of transport. Such were the trials
+of our lovers, and of correspondent worth was the reward they received.
+Long did they dwell together in the vale of Clwyd, with that simplicity
+and attachment which no scenes but those of pastoral life can know.
+Their happiness was more sensible than that of the swains around them
+in that they had known a reverse of fortune. And their virtue was the
+purer and the more benevolent, in that they had passed through the
+fields of trial; and that only through the ordeal of temptation, and an
+approved fortitude, they had arrived to the unmixed felicity, and the
+uninterrupted enjoyment they at length possessed.
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Imogen, by William Godwin
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