"God hath inclined his ear, hath heard the voice "Of mourning, and his anger is gone forth."

Then said the Son of Orleans, "Holy Maid!

"I would fain know, if blameless I may seek "Such knowledge, how the heavenly call was heard

"First in thy waken'd soul; nor deem in me

"

Ought idly curious, if of thy past days

"I ask the detail. In the hour of age,

"If haply I survive to see this realm

"By thee deliver'd, dear will be the thought

That I have seen the delegated Maid,

"And heard from her the wonderous ways of Heaven.”

"A simple tale," the mission'd Maid replied,
"Yet may it well employ the journeying hour
"And pleasant is the memory of the past."

"Seest thou, Sir Chief, where yonder forest skirts

"As on the farther bank the distant towers

"Of Vaucouleur? there in the hamlet Arc
"My father's dwelling stands; a lowly hut,

"Yet nought of needful comfort wanted it,
"For in Lorraine there lived no kinder Lord
"Than old Sir Robert, and my father Jaques
"In flocks and herds was rich. A toiling man
"Intent on worldly gains, one in whose heart
"Affection had no root. I never knew

"A parent's love; for harsh

my mother was,

"And deem'd the cares that infancy demands "Irksome, and ill-repaid. Severe they were,

“And would have made me fear them, but my "Possess'd the germ of steady fortitude,

"And stubbornly I bore unkind rebuke

soul

"And wrathful chastisement. Yet was the voice

"That spake in tones of tenderness most sweet

"To my young heart; how have I felt it leap "With transport, when mine Uncle Claude approach'd! "For he would place me on his knee, and tell

"The wonderous tales that Childhood loves to hear,

"Listening with eager eyes and open lips
"In most devout attention. Good old man!
"Oh if I ever pour'd a prayer to Heaven
"Unhallowed by the grateful thought of him,
"Methinks the righteous winds would scatter it !
"He was a parent to me, and his home

"Was mine, when in advancing years I found
"No peace, no comfort in my father's house.
"With him I pass'd the pleasant evening hours,
"By day I drove my father's † flock afield

"And this was happiness.

"Amid these wilds

"Often to summer pasture have I driven

"The flock; and well I know these mountain wilds,

" And every

bosom'd vale, and valley stream

"Is dear to memory.

I have laid me down

+ People found out a nest of miracles in her education, says old Fuller, that so lion-like a spirit should be bred among sheep like David,

"Beside yon valley stream, that up the ascent "Scarce sends the sound of waters now, and watch'd "The tide roll glittering to the noon-tide sun,

"And listened to its ceaseless murmuring,

"Till all was hush'd and tranquil in my soul,
"Fill'd with a strange and undefined delight
"That pass'd across the mind like summer clouds
"Over the lake at eve, their fleeting hues

"The traveller cannot trace with memory's eye,
"Yet he remembers well how fair they were,
"How very lovely."

"Here in solitude

My soul was nurst, amid the loveliest scenes "Of unpolluted nature. Sweet it was "As the white mists of morning roll'd away "To see the mountains wooded heights appear "Dark in the early dawn, and mark its slope "Rich with the blossom'd furze, as the slant sun "On the golden ripeness pour'd a deepening light. "Pleasant at noon beside the vocal brook

"To lie me down, and watch the floating clouds, "And shape to Fancy's wild similitudes

"Their ever-varying forms; and oh most sweet!

"To drive my flock at evening to the fold, "And hasten to our little hut, and hear

"The voice of kindness bid me welcome home.

"Amid the village playmates of my youth "Was one whom riper years approved my friend. "A very gentle maid was Madelon,

"I loved her as a sister, and long time “Her undivided tenderness possess'd,

"Till that a better and a holier tie

"Gave her one nearer friend; and then my heart "Partook her happiness, for never lived

"A happier pair than Arnaud and his wife.

"Lorraine was call'd to arms, and with her youth "Went Arnaud to the war. The morn was fair, "Bright shone the sun, the birds sung cheerily,