Infpir'd from heav'n he homeward took his, Dryden.
Nor pall'd his new defign with long delay:
But of his train a trufty fervant fent
To call his friends together at his tent.
They came, and ufual falutations paid;
With words premeditated thus he faid:
What have often counsell'd, to remove
you
My vain pursuit of unregarded love;
By thrift my finking fortune to repair,
To late, yet is at last become my care:
My heart fhall 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 shall display
On Friday next; for that's th' appointed day.
Well pleas'd were all his friends;
The father, mother, daughter, they invite;
Hardly the dame was drawn to this repaft;
But yet refolv'd, because it was the laft.
The day was come; the guests invited came,
And, with the reft, th' inexorable dame:
A feaft prepar'd with riotous expence,
Much coft, much care, and much magnificence.
The place ordain'd was in the haunted grove,
Where the revenging ghost 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 lo well forecast,
That just 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
Nor long before the loud laments arife,
Of one diftrefs'd, and mastiffs mingled cries;
And first the dame came rushing thro' the wood,
And next the famifh'd hounds that fought their
food,
And grip'd their 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
ípeed.
her flight directly bent
(A guest unbidden,) to the fatal tent,
The scene of death,
and place ordain'd for pu
aghaft was ev'ry guest, The women fhriek'd, the men forfook the feaft, The hounds at nearer distance 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 brandifh'd at the grifly fpright;
High on his stirrups 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, faid 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 heav'n defign'd:
Mercy fhe would not give, nor mercy fhall fhe
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
And now th' infernal minifter advanc'd,
Seiz'd the due victim, and with fury lanch'd
Her back, and piercing thro' the 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 ftand:
With horror fhudd'ring, on a heap they run,
Sick at the fight of hateful justice 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 defcend.
But most the proud Honoria fear'd th' event
And thought to her alone the vifion fent,
Her guilt prefents 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 fcene of forrow, mix'd with fear;
Still on the table lay th' unfinish'd cheer;
The knight and hungry maftiffs ftood around,
The mangled dame lay breathlefs on the ground;
When on a fudden, re-infpir'd with breath,
Again fhe 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:
Dryden. The clouds difpell'd, the sky refum'd her light,
And Nature ftood recover'd from 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 breaft
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 spurr'd th' infernal
fteed:
The more difmay'd; for when the guests with-
drew,
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 fhe divin'd,
And her proud heart with fecret forrow pin'd.
Home as they went, the fad difcourfe renew'd,
Of the relentless dame to death purfu'd,
And of the fight obfcene fo lately view'd.
None durft arraign the righteous doom fhe bore;
Ev'n they who pity'd moft, 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 is 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 she took her bed with little rest,
But in fhort flumbers dreamt the fun'ral feaft:
Awak'd, fhe turn'd her fide, and flept again;
The fame black vapours mounted in her brain,
And the fame dreams return'd with double pain.
Now force'd to wake, because afraid to fleep,
Her blood all fever'd, with a furious leap
She fprung from bed, distracted in her mind,
And fear'd, at ev'ry ftep, a twitching spright be
Darkling and defperate, with a ftagg'ring pace,
Of death afraid, and confcious of disgrace;
Fear, pride, remorfe, at once her heart affail'd,
Pride put remorfe 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 flain,"
And two ghofts join their pack 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 disdain, and not to be remov'd:
Of all the men refpected and admir'd
Of all the dames, except herself, defir'd:
Why not of her? preferr'd above the reft
By him, with knightly deeds, and open love pro'
fefs'd
So had another been, where he his vows addrefs'd.'
This quell'd her pride; yet other doubts re-
main'd,
That, once difdaining, fhe might be difdain'd.
The fear was juft; but greater fear prevail'd:
Fear of her life by hellifh hounds affail'd:
He took a low'ring leave; but who can tell,
What outward hate might inward love conceal?
Her fex's arts fhe knew, and why not, then
Might deep diffembling have a place in men?
Here hope began to dawn; refolv'd to try,
She fix'd on this her utmost remedy;
Death was behind; but hard it was to die.
'Twas time enough at last on death to call,
The precipice in fight; a fhrub was all,
That kindly stood betwixt to break the fatal fall.
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