Though dark the shade it sheltered,

till now.

The thunder came that bolt hath blasted both,
The Granite's firmness, and the Lily's growth:
The gentle plant hath left no leaf to tell

Its tale, but shrunk and withered where it fell,
And of its cold protector, blacken round
But shivered fragments on the barren ground!

XXIV.

'Tis morn to venture on his lonely hour Few dare; though now Anselmo sought his

tower.

He was not there

1850

nor seen along the shore; Ere night, alarmed, their isle is traversed o'er: Another morn another bids them seek,

And shout his name till echo waxeth weak; Mount grotto cavern- valley searched in

vain,

They find on shore a sea-boat's broken chain:
Their hope revives they follow o'er the main.
'Tis idle all moons roll on moons away,
And Conrad comes not came not since that day:
Nor trace, nor tidings of his doom declare 1860
Where lives his grief, or perished his despair!

Long mourned his band whom none could mourn

beside;

And fair the monument they gave his bride :
For him they raise not the recording stone-
His death yet dubious, deeds too widely known;
He left a Corsair's name to other times,

Linked with one virtue, and a thousand crimes,

NOTES

TO

THE CORSAIR.

The time in this poem may seem too short for the occurrences, but the whole of the Aegean isles are within a few hours sail of the continent, and the reader must be kind enough to take the wind as I have often found it.

Note 1, page 33, line 3.

Of fair Olympia loved and left of old.

Orlando, Canto 10.

Note 2, page 39, line 5.

Around the waves' phosphoric brightness broke. By night, particularly in a warm latitude, every stroke of the oar, every motion of the boat or ship, is followed by a slight flash like sheet lightning from the water.

Note 3, page 42, line 21.

Though to the rest the sober berry's juice.

Coffee.

Note 4, page 42, line 23.

The long Chibouque's dissolving cloud supply.

Pipe.

Note 5, page 42, line 24.

While dance the Almas to wild minstrelsy. Dancing - girls.

Note to Canto II. page 43. line 13.

It has been objected that Conrad's entering disguised as Perhaps so. I find something

a spy is out of nature. not unlike it in history.

"Anxious to explore with his own eyes the states of the Vandals, Majorian ventured, after disguising the colour of his hair, to visit Carthage in the character of his own ambassador, and Genseric was afterwards mortified by the discovery, that he had entertained and dismissed the Emperor of the Romans. Such an anecdote may be rejected as an improbable fiction; but it is a fiction which would not have been imagined unless in the life of a hero." Gibbon, D. and F. Vol. VI. P. 180.

That Conrad is a character not altogether out of nature 'I shall attempt to prove by some historical coincidences which I have met with since writing "The Corsair."

"Eccelin prisonnier" dit Rolandini, "s'enfermoit dans un silence menaçant, il fixoit sur la terre son visage feroce, et ne donnoit point d'essor à sa profonde indignation. De toutes parts cependant les soldats et les peuples accouroient; ils vouloient voir cet homme, jadis si puissant, et la joie universelle éclatoit de toutes parts.

"Eccelin étoit d'une petite taille; mais tout l'aspect de sa personne, tous ses mouvemens indiquoient un soldat. Son langage etoit amer, son deportment superbe et par son seul egard, il faisoit trembler les plus hardis." Sismondi, tome III. page 219, 220.

“Gizericus (Genseric, king of the Vandals, the conqueror of both Carthage and Rome,) statura mediocris, et equi casu claudicans, animo profundus, sermone rarus, luxuriae contemptor, irâ turpidus, habendi cupidus, ad solicitandas gentes providentissimus,” etc. etc. Jornandes de Rebus Ceticis, c. 33.

I beg leave to quote these gloomy realities to keep in countenance my Giaour and Corsair,

Note 6, page 46, last line.

And my stern vow and order's laws oppose. The Dervises are in colleges, and of different orders, as the monks.

He tore his beard, and foaming fled the fight. A common and not very novel effect of Mussulman anger. See Prince Eugene's Memoirs, page 24. “The "Seraskier received a wound in the thigh; he plucked up "his beard by the roots, because he was obliged to quit "the field."