By thrift my finking fortune to repair,
Tho late yet is at last become my care:
My heart shall be my own; my vast expence
Reduc'd to bounds, by timely providence ;
This only I require; invite for me
Honoria, with her fathers family,
Her friends, and mine; the cause I fhall display,
On Friday next; for that's th' appointed day. 246
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 feaft prepar'd with riotous expence,
Much coft, more care, and most magnificence.
The place ordain'd was in that haunted grove,
Where the revenging ghost pursu'd his love: 256
The tables in a proud pavilion spread,
With flowers below, and tissue 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 feast was ferv'd, the time so well forecast,
That just when the desert 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 distress'd, and maftiffs mingled cries; And first the dame came rushing through the wood, And next the famish'd hounds, that sought their food, And grip'd her flanks, and oft essay'd their jaws in blood.
Laft came the felon, on his fable steed,
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 scene of death, and place defign'd for punish
Loud was the noise, aghaft was ev'ry guest,
The women shriek'd, the men forfook the feast;
The hounds at nearer distance hoarsly bay'd;
The hunter close purfu'd the vifionary maid,
She rent the heav'n with loud laments, imploring
aid.
The gallants, to protect the lady's right,
Their fauchions brandish'd at the grisly spright;
High on his ftirrups he provok'd the fight,
Then on the crowd he caft a furious look,
And wither'd all their ftrength before he spoke :
Back on your lives; let be, said he, my prey,
And let my vengeance take the deftin'd way:
Vain are your arms, and vainer your defence,
Against th' eternal doom of Providence:
Mine is th' ungrateful maid by heaven 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, 296
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 · lanc'd'
Her back, and, piercing through her inmoft heart,
Drew backward, as before, th' offending part.
The reeking entrails next he tore away,
And to his meagre mastiffs 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 heng,
And dy'd imperfect on the fault'ring tongue.
The fright was general; but the female band
(A helpless train) in more confusion stand:
With horror fhudd'ring, `on 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, 315
A plump of fowl behold their foe on high;
They close their trembling troop; and all attend
On whom the fowfing eagle will defcend.
But most the proud Honoria fear'd th' event,
And thought to her alone the vifion sent.
Her guilt presents to her distracted 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.
'Twas a mute scene 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, 330
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 sword,
And mounting light as air his fable steed he spurr'd :
The clouds difpell'd, the sky refum'd the light,
And Nature ftood recover'd of her fright.
But fear, the last of ills, remain'd behind,
And horror heavy fat on ev'ry mind.
Nor Theodore encourag'd more the feaft,
But fternly look'd, as hatching in his breast
Some deep defigns; which when Honoria view'd,
The fresh impulse her former fright renew'd;
She thought herself the trembling dame who fled,
And him the grifly ghoft that spurr'd th' infernal
The more dismay'd, for when the guests withdrew,
Their courteous hoft, faluting all the crew,
Regardless pass'd her o'er; nor grac'd with kind
adieu.
That fting infix'd within her haughty mind,
The downfall of her empire she 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 she 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 noife fhe look'd behind,
For ftill the knight was present to her mind: 360
And anxious oft she started on the way,
And thought the horseman-ghoft came thund'ring for his prey.
Return'd, fhe took her bed with little reft,
But in fhort flumbers dreamt the fun'ral feast:
Awak'd, fhe turn'd her fide, and slept again;
The fame black vapors 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 fprang from bed, distracted in her mind, 370
And fear'd, at every step, a twitching spright behind,
|