the true spirit of poetry, and the sudden burst at the beginning of the second may be considered one of the most splendid passages in the Poem.

XXI.

Bound, overwhelmed, by torture's heaviest chains,
What bloody phantoms in night's utmost plains
Beneath those burning rocks for ever lie?-
The murderers those..
••••a mournful company;⚫
Their darker doom apportioned to their crime,
Most odious tenants of that odious clime,
Trembling each moment at some foe's attacks,
Sharp on their hand they feel the falling axe;-
Their hand revives.... new wounds, with new alarm,
Again divide it from the quivering arm.

....

XXII.

Up stands the horrid hair of shrieking Cain!. His brow yet blushes with the bloody stain:

Where is thy brother, Cain?.... Reply!'....that sound In icy fetters every sense has bound.

....

The murderer shudders at his brother's sight!

Abel before him floats in clouds of light;
Abel again he seeks in quenchless strife,
And aims, infuriate, at his second life':
The glorious shade, escaping from his aim,

Tortures his heart with envy's heightened flame." Vol. I. P. 249.
Among the ancient, Atreus, Thyestes, Clytemnestra, Orestes,
"occupy the station allotted to the murderous band. Then Ro¬
mulus, Alexander, Augustus. The reader may perhaps be as-
tonished at the place assigned to the latter: But

"The blissful reign of many a year of rest,
By noblest bards, in rays of glory drest,
Bids the triumvirs' foulness be forgiven,

But murder ne'er escapes the wrath of Heaven !??

Both the Bruti are here also to be found. Among the mò. derns Clothaire, Chilperic, Fredegonde, and Athalia. Many scriptural characters are also here introduced, Saul, Doeg, Abimilech, Herod. Next follow Galerius, Diocles, Alaric, Attila. The following stanza is finely conceived by the poet, and admirably expressed by his translator.

XXXV.

"These ravenous tigers, whose abhorred offence
Martyred fair youth and virgin innocence,

Cry out for ever from the eaves of woe,

Disturb the black immensity below;→→

-Fixed by a lake of blood, in horror stand,
Where the red waves resounding rush to land,
Strike restless on their sides, and fiercely pour
Down their pale forms in floods of streaming gore."

Vol. I. P. 256 Nor must we omit the sublime description of Iscariot. XXXVII.

"The deicide apostle crowns the band,

Who sold his Saviour to the murderer's hand;
Led the blind Hebrew to the garden's shade,
And with a kiss the Lord of life betrayed,
Satan admires and gazes on his son !

Their matchless guilt, their punishment is one;
Both from a rank almost divine they fell,
Both in their bosoms bear the whole of Hell.

XXXVIII.

"On a rock's point extended Judas lies:
With savage shouts of triumph o'er him flies
A livid phantom, that with fleshless fangs
Holds down the wretch, and still renews his pangs...
Blood-dripping hands and teeth his entrails tear,
And throw the smoking remnants into air;
In vain he rages, and in vain blasphemes,
And shakes the rocks with agonizing screams;
Lured by his cries, and glorying in his pain,

Remorse, pale spectre, seeks her prey again!" Vol. I. P. 257.

In the tenth Canto Satan up-springs to the earth, and directs his flight to the forest of Eresbourg, in Germany, where human victims are sacrificed before the shrine of Irmensul, The description of the sacrifice is both grand and animated. While Rodmir hopes to spare the Christian victims, Satan causes the statue of Irmensul to shake, upon which omen a general slaughter ensues. The troops march onward, breathing vengeance against France and Rome. In the mean time the troops of Chailes who had forced the passage of the Alps, enter Milan, while the scattered Lombards retreat to Pavia; they are pursued by Charles, who prepares for an assault upon the city. Satan now assumes the form of Timantius, an ambassador from Didier, and from Armelia, whom he represents to have died with grief, and in her last moments to have entreated that Charles, for her sake would spare her father and the Lombards. The stratagem succeeds, and Charles retreats for a while to Milan. Satan now directs the ship of Laurentia, the widow of Carloman, the younger brother of Charles, to the coast of Spain, Laurentia and her children are brought captives to the coast of

Marsilius,

Marsilius, the Moorish prince, who is persuaded by Longin to place the child of Laurentia on his paternal throne of Austrasia, which Charles had accepted to his prejudice. Laurentia at first refuses, but soon after yields to the designs of Marsilius, and accepts the offer of his assistance. Charlemagne is now made acquainted with the treachery of the false Timantius, and with the invasion of France by Didier, and the victory of the Saxons. The vow of the monarch is finely expressed.

XLII.

"Though ceaseless war should still my life infest,
And rouse against me all the raging West,
Didier shall fall!....By Him, the living God,
I swear to break the Lombard's impious rod,
And tread his lawless banner in the dust..
Free from the thraldom of a guilty lust,

I ask nor peace, nor respite, nor repose,

But fighting, one by one, Heaven's countless foes,
My voice, my sword, shall prop the Christian cause,
And spread throughout the world my God's eternal laws.”

ter.

Vol. I. P. 336.

Charles in the beginning of the thirteenth Canto returns to France to embody new troops, which flock in from every quarThe rebellion of Gaiffre of Aquitania is next described, who arrives at Oria time enough to witness the parental honours paid by Laurentia to the body of the brave Roland. oraison funebre of the priest is worthy of attention.

XXXVI.

How frail is human bliss!

How brief the honours of a world like this!
Roland, the terror of the embattled plain,
Against whose sword war's ramparts rose in vain;
Roland, the pride of arms, the knightly flower,
Whose countless labours, whose unequalled power,
With fabulous renown have filled the earth,

Falls in his prime!....where now his valorous worth,
His conquering strength? the fame to Roland given,
What is its weight before the King of Heaven.

XXXVII.

Light as the scattered blossom of the heath,
That summer chases with her evening breath,
The phrenzied passions, and the power of man,
And crested pride, that triumphs for a span,
Before eternal Justice disappear!
Let transitory glory's bright career

The

Our

Our dazzled eyes and daring hearts mislead..,
In the great balance it is dust indeed!
Virtue alone in Heaven receives the crown,
Denied to empty and unjust renown,

XXXVIII.

"For Roland's aid the trembling widow flew;
The helpless orphan his protection knew ;

Prayers from the weak for Roland were preferred....
The weak, whose voice on earth is faintly heard,
But whose complaining tongue is borne on high,
And pleases Him who reigns eternally.
Roland still triumphed o'er our inipious foe;
And, if his sins a cloud around him throw,

The hero's faith, his numerous virtues rise,

To plead for grace and mercy from the skies." Vol. II. P. 21. The first stanzas of the thirteenth canto, describing the slaughter of the Germans at the bridge of Strasbourg, by the sudden attack of Charlemagne, are a magnificent specimen of the milttary epic, and reflect the highest credit upon Mr. Hodgson's powers of animated versification. The meeting of the two great armies of Wilikind and Charles is compared to the clashing of two clouds charged with electric fire; as the simile does equal credit to the poet and to the translator, we shall present it ta

our readers.

"Thus, charged with thunder, through the troubled sky,
Two blackening clouds against each other fly;

While Boreas, struggling with the southern breeze,
Uplifts the indignant bosom of the seas:
Bursting at once, with rage beyond control,
The clouds, the waves, in like confusion roll,
And one dread impulse shakes both sea and air...
O'er the dark scene fast-flashing lightnings glare,
And the bright bolt upon the dazzled ground
Descends, while thundering echoes crash around."
Vol. II. P. 52.

In the furious combat Armelia, disguised in armour, enters the field, and displays a more than masculine courage; but in vain, the Pagan host are routed, and the Paladins, headed by Charles, pursue their victory.

" On every

XXXV.

side the Paladins advance:
With powerful arm the monarch hurls, his lance;
Around his horse a mighty circle grows,

Of shattered weapons, and expiring foes:

He

He seems above the force of man to rise,
And tower gigantic in his soldiers' eyes...

He fights with Pagans; Heaven defends her son;

Irmensul shudders, and the field is won." Vol. II. P. 68.

་

In the sixteenth Canto we return to Dr. Butler, who has given us a highly spirited and poetical version of the oak and funeral pile of Irmensul. The following description of the Druids is admirably expressed.

XIII,

"Gliding like spectres from their dark recess,
To Ormez' side the white-robed Druids press,
Their long loose garments glimmer on the sight,
Now dimly viewed, now lost in dusky night.
Clearer anon în opening space they seem,
Shown by the cold moon's melancholy beam,
Such are the phantom shapes at evening tide
Which fancy scatters o'er the mountains' side,
And marks their floating forms, their waving shrouds,
Sink in their vales, or mingle with the clouds."

Vol. II. P. S1.

The Saxon monarch had at the last sacrifice to Irmensul reserved Ulric the son of an ancient captive, who had once been his friend in the bloody hands of the Druids; to this act of inpiety is ascribed the present defeat of the Saxon army; the youth is brought again to the sacrifice. He would again rescue the young victim from the flames, but is prevented by the body of the Druids and Ormez their chief. The Monarch, enraged with their unrelenting barbarity, determines to relinquish the bloody rites of Paganism, and to embrace the Christian faith. A vision from above during his sleep confirms him in his purpose. The Virgin appears before him, and impresses the cross upon his breast.

XXXV.

"She spoke, and on the monarch's front imprest
The sacred cross, the Christian's emblem blést.
Thrice flash the beams of glory on his sight,
And fill the tent with radiant floods of light.
Peopling the vast pavilion, to his eyes
The sceptred forms of shadowy kings arise.

Duly their ranks were placed, and 'midst them reared
The Christian's glorious sign, the cross, appeared;
But the last rank in lowering darkness shewed
Dim crowns and broken sceptres red with blood..

XXXVI.

"Daughter august of Heaven, O, speak," he cries,
"Whence may this scene of awful wonders rise?

What