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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Imogen, by William Godwin
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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
+
+
+Title: Imogen
+       A Pastoral Romance
+
+Author: William Godwin
+
+Posting Date: August 7, 2012 [EBook #9152]
+Release Date: October, 2005
+First Posted: September 8, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMOGEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David Garcia and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+IMOGEN
+
+A Pastoral Romance
+
+_From the Ancient British_
+
+By WILLIAM GODWIN
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Imogen, by William Godwin
+#3 in our series by William Godwin
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+Title: Imogen
+       A Pastoral Romance
+
+Author: William Godwin
+
+Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9152]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on September 8, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMOGEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David Garcia and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+IMOGEN
+
+A Pastoral Romance
+
+_From the Ancient British_
+
+By WILLIAM GODWIN
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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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