CAKTO I.

21

Beneath yon mountain’s ever Beauteous brow:But now, as if a thing unblest by Man,

Thy fairy dwelling is as lone as thou!

Here giant weeds a passage scarce allowTo halls deserted , portals gaping wide:

Fresh lessons to the thinking bosom , howVain are the pleasaunccs on earth supplied .Swept into wrecks anon hy Time’s ungentle tide j

XXIV.

Behold the hall where chiefs were late con-ven’d! >■

Oh! dome displeasing unto British eye!With diadem hight foolscap, lo! a fiend,

A. little fiend that scoffs incessantly,

There sits in parchment rohearrayed, and hyllis side is hung a seal and sable scroll,"Where blazoned glare names known to chivalry,And sundry signatures adorn the roll,Whereat the Urchin points and laughs with allhis soul.

XXV.

Convention is the dwarfish demon styledThat foiled the knights in Marialva’s dome:

Of brains (if brains they had) he them beguiled.And turned a nation’s shallow joy to gloom.Here Folly dashed to earth the victor’s plume.And Policy regained what arms had lost: