Thus while he spoke, the virgin from the ground
Upftarted fresh, already clos'd the wound,
And unconcern'd for all the felt before,
Precipitates her flight along the fhore:
The hell-hounds, as ungorg'd with flesh and blood,
Pursue their prey, and seek their wonted food:
The fiend remounts his courfer, mends his pace;
And all the vifion vanish'd from the place.
Long stood the noble youth oppress'd with awe
And stupid at the wondrous things he faw, a
Surpaffing common faith, tranfgreffing nature's law:
He would have been afleep, and wifh'd to wake,
But dreams, he knew, no long impreffion make,
Tho' strong at firft; if vifion, to what end,
But fuch as muft his future ftate portend?
His love the damfel, and himself the fiend.
But yet reflecting that it could not be
From heav'n, which cannot impious acts decree,
Refolv'd within himself to fhun the fnare,
Which hell for his deftruction did prepare;
And as his better genius fhould direct,
From an ill cause to draw a good effect.
Infpir'd from heav'n he homeward took his way,
Nor pall'd his new defign with long delay:
But of his train a trusty servant fent
To call his friends together at his tent.
They came, and ufual falutations paid,
With words premeditated thus he faid:
What you have often counsell'd, to remove
My vain purfuit of unregarded love;
By thrift my finking fortune to repair,
Tho' late yet is at last become my care:
My heart shall be my own; my vaft
expence
Reduc'd to bounds, by timely providence;
This only I require; invite for me
Honoria, with her father's family,
Her friends, and mine, the cause I fhall display,
On Friday next; for that's th' appointed day.
Well pleas'd were all his friends, the task was light,
The father, mother, daughter, they invite;
Hardly the dame was drawn to this repaft;
But yet refolv'd, because it was the last.
The day was come, the guests invited came,
And, with the reft, th' inexorable dame :
A feast prepar'd with riotous expence,
Much coft, more care, and most magnificence.
The place ordain'd was in that haunted grove,
Where the revenging ghoft purfu'd his love:
The tables in a proud pavilion spread,
With flow'rs below; and tiffue overhead:
The reft in rank, Honoria chief in place,
Was artfully contriv'd to fet her face
To front the thicket, and behold the chace.
The feaft was ferv'd, the time fo well forecaft,
That juft when the defert and fruits were plac'd,
The fiend's alarm began; the hollow found
Sung in the leaves, the foreft fhook around,
Air blacken'd, roll'd the thunder, groan'd the ground.
Nor long before the loud laments arise,
Of one diftrefs'd, and maftiffs mingled cries;
And first the dame came rushing thro' the wood,
And next the famish'd hounds that fought their food,
And grip'd her flanks, and oft effay'd their jaws in
blood.
Laft came the felon, on his fable fleed,
Arm'd with his naked fword, and urg'd his dogs to speed. She ran, and cry'd, her flight directly bent,
(A guest unbidden) to the fatal tent,
The fcene of death, and place ordain'd for punishment. Loud was the noise, aghaft was ev'ry guest,'
The women fhriek'd, the men forfook the feaft;
The hounds at nearer diftance hoarily bay'd;
The hunter close purfu'd the vifionary maid,
She rent the heav'n with loud laments, imploring aid.
The galants to protect the lady's right,
Their fauchions brandish'd at the grilly spright;
High on his ftirrups he provok'd the fight.
Then on the crowd he cast a furious look,
And wither'd all their ftrength before he spoke:
Back on your lives, let be, faid he, my prey,
And let my vengeance take the destin'd way:
Vain are your arms, and vainer your defence,
Against th' eternal doom of Providence :
Mine is th' ungrateful maid by heav'n defign'd:
Mercy she would not give, nor mercy shall she find.
At this the former tale again he told
With thund'ring tone, and dreadful to behold:
Sunk were their hearts with horror of the crime,
Nor needed to be warn'd a fecond time,
But bore each other back: fome knew the face,
And all had heard the much lamented cafe
Of him who fell for love, and this the fatal place.
And now th' infernal minister advanc'd,
Seiz'd the due victim, and with fury lanch'd
Her back, and piercing thro' her inmoft heart,
Drew backward as before th' offending part.
The reeking entrails next he tore away,
And to his meagre maftiffs made a prey.
The pale affiftants on each other star'd,
With gaping mouths for iffuing words prepar'd;
The ftill-born founds upon the palate hung,
And dy'd imperfect on the fault'ring tongue.
The fright was general; but the female band
(A helpless train) in more confufion stand:
With horror fhudd'ring, on a heap they run,
Sick at the fight of hateful juftice done;
For confcience rung th' alarm, and made the cafe their own.
So fpread upon a lake with upward eye,
A plump of fowl behold their foe on high;
They close their trembling troop; and all attend
On whom the fowfing eagle will descend..
But moft the proud Honoria fear'd th' event,
And thought to her alone the vision sent.
Her guilt prefents to her diftracted mind
Heav'n's juftice, Theodore's revengeful kind,
And the fame fate to the fame fin affign'd.
Already fees herself the monster's prey,
And feels her heart and entrails torn away.
'I'was a mute fcene of forrow, mix'd with fear;
Still on the table lay th' unfinish'd cheer:
The knight and hungry mastiffs stood around,
The mangled dame lay breathlefs on the ground;
When on a fudden, re-inspir'd with breath,
Again the rofe, again to fuffer death;
Nor ftaid the hell-hounds, nor the hunter ftaid,
But follow'd as before, the flying maid:
Th' avenger took from earth th' avenging fword,
And mounting light as air his fable fteed he fpurr'd:
The clouds difpell'd, the sky refum'd her light,
And Nature ftood recover'd of her fright.
But fear, the laft of ills, remain'd behind,
And horror heavy fat on ev'ry mind.
Nor Theodore encourag'd more the feast,
But fternly look'd, as hatching in his breast
Some deep defigns; which when Honoria view'd,
The fresh impulfe her former fright renew'd:
She thought herself the trembling dame who fled,
And him the grifly ghoft that fpurr'd th' infernal steed:
The more difmay'd, for when the guests withdrew,
Their courteous hoft faluting all the crew,
Regardless pafs'd her o'er; nor grac'd with kind adieu.
That fting infix'd within her haughty mind,
The downfall of her empire fhe divin'd;
And her proud heart with fecret forrow pin'd.
Home as they went, the fad discourse renew'd,
Of the relentless dame to death pursu’d,
And of the fight obfcene fo lately view'd.
None durft arraign the righteous doom the bore,
Ev'n they who pity'd most, yet blam'd her more:
The parallel they needed not to name,
But in the dead they damn'd the living dame.
At ev'ry little noise fhe look'd behind,
For fill the knight was present to her mind:
And anxious oft fhe started on the way,
And thought the horfeman-ghoft came thund'ring for his prey.
Return'd fhe took her bed with little reft,
But in fhort flumbers dreamt the fun'ral feaft:
Awak'd, she turn'd her fide, and slept again;
The fame black vapours mounted in her brain,
And the fame dreams return'd with double pain.
Now forc'd to wake, because afraid to fleep,
Her blood all fever'd, with a furious leap
She sprung from bed, distracted in her mind,
And fear'd, at ev'ry step, a twitching spright behind.
Darkling and defperate with a ftagg'ring pace,
Of death afraid, and confcious of difgrace;
Fear, pride, remorfe, at once her heart affail'd,
Pride put remorse to flight, but fear prevail❜d.
Friday, the fatal day, when next it came,
Her foul forethought the fiend would change his game,
And her purfue, or Theodore be slain,
And two ghosts join their packs to hunt her o'er the plain. 'This dreadful image fo poffefs'd her mind,
That defperate any fuccour elfe to find,
She ceas'd all farther hope; and now began
To make reflexion on th' unhappy man.
Rich, brave, and young, who paft expreffion lov'd,
Proof to difdain, and not to be remov'd :
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