THE PORTRAIT OF
GUILT. In imitation of LEWIS. ___ ’TWAS night and the winds thro’ the dark forest roar’d, From
heaven’s wide cat’racts the torrents
down pour’d, And blue light’nings
flash’d on the eye; Demoniac
howlings were heard in the air, With
groans of deep anguish, and shrieks
of despair, And hoarse thunders growl’d thro’ the sky. Pale,
breathless, and trembling the dark villain
stood, His
hands and his clothes all bespotted with blood, His eyes wild with terror did stare; The
earth yawn’d around him, and sulph’rous blue, From
the flame-boiling gaps, did expose to his view A gibbet
and skeleton bare. With
horror he shrunk from a prospect so dread, The
blast swung the clanking chains over
his head, The rattling bones sung in the wind; The
lone bird of night from the abbey did cry, He
look’d o'er his shoulder intending to fly, But a spectre
stood ghastly behind. “Stop,
deep, hell-taught villain!” the ghost did exclaim, “With thy brother
of guilt here to expiate thy crime, “And atone for thy treacherous vow: “ ’Tis here thou shalt hang,
to the vultures a prey, “Till
piece-meal they tear thee and bear thee away, “And thy bones
rot unburied below.” Now
closing all round him fierce demons
did throng, In
sounds all unholy they howl’d their death-song, And the vultures
around them did scream; Now
clenching their claws in his fear-bristled hair, Loud
yelling they bore him aloft in the air, And the Murd’rer awoke—’Twas a Dream! |