"When every bodily sense is as it slept, "And the mind alone is wakeful. I have heard Strange voices in the evening wind; strange forms "Dimly discovered throng'd the twilight air. "They wondered at me who had known me once "And in his eye such meaning, that my heart "At length I heard of Orleans, by the foe "Wall'd in from human succour; to the event "All look'd with fear, for there the fate of France 66 'Hung in the balance. Now my troubled soul "Grew more disturb'd, and shunning every eye, "I loved to wander where the forest shade "Frown'd deepest; there on mightiest deeds to brood Of shadowy vastness, such as made my heart "Throb loud: anon I paus'd, and in a state "Of half expectance, listen'd to the wind. "There is a fountain in the forest call'd In the Journal of Paris in the reigns of Charles VI. and VII. it is asserted that the Maid of Orleans, in answer to an interrogatory of the Doctors, whether she had ever assisted at the assemblies held at the Fountain of the Fairies near Domprein, round which the Evil Spirits dance, confessed that she had often repaired to a beautiful fountain in the country of Lorraine, which she named the good Fountain of the Fairies of our Lord. From the notes to the English version of Le Grands Fablaux. "It ever hath been deem'd their favourite § tree, 66 They love to lie and rock upon its leaves, "And bask them in the moonshine. Many a time "Hath the woodman shown his boy where the dark round "On the green-sward beneath its boughs, bewrays "Their nightly dance, and bade him spare the tree. Fancy had cast a spell upon the place "And made it holy; and the villagers r Unpunish'd there. The strange and fearful pleasure "That fill'd me by that solitary spring, "Ceas'd not in riper years; and now it woke "Deeper delight, and more mysterious awe. "Lonely the forest spring: a rocky hill "Rises beside it, and an aged yew § Being asked whether she had ever seen any Fairies, she answered no; but that one of her God-mothers pretended to have seen some at the Fairy tree, near the village of Dompre. Rapin. "Bursts from the rifted crag that overbrows " And silently they well. The adder's tongue "Nor ever sound profanes it, save such sounds "As Silence loves to hear, the passing wind, "Or the low murmuring of the scarce-heard stream. "A blessed spot! oh how my soul enjoy'd "Its holy quietness, with what delight Escaping humankind I hastened there "To solitude and freedom! thitherward On a spring eve I had betaken me, "And there I sat, and mark'd the deep red clouds "Gather before the wind, the rising wind "Whose sudden gusts, each wilder than the last, Seem'd as they rock'd my senses. Soon the night "Darken'd around, and the large rain drops fell " Heavy; anon with tempest rage the storm "Howl'd o'er the wood. Methought the heavy rain "Fell with a grateful coolness on my head, "And the hoarse dash of waters, and the rush "Of winds that mingled with the forest roar, "Made a wild music. On a rock I sat, "The glory of the tempest fill'd my soul. "And when the thunders peal'd, and the long flash " Hung durable in heaven, and to mine eye "Spread the grey forest, all remembrance left My † mind, annihilate was every thought, ተ "In this representation which I made to place myself near to Christ, (says St. Teresa) there would come suddenly upon me, without either expectation or any preparation on my part, such an evident feeling of the presence of God, as that I could by no means doubt, but that either he was within me, or else I all engulfed in him. This was not in the manner of a vision, but I think they call it Mistical Theology; and it suspends the soul in such sort, that she seems to be wholly out of herself. The Will is in act of loving, the Memory seems to be in a manner lost, the |