ge,
"Both quadruped and biped, ravage?
"Shall horses, hounds, and hunters still
"Unite their wits to work us ill?
"The youth, his parent's sole delight,
"Whose tooth the dewy lawns invite,
"Whose pulse in every vein beats strong,
"Whose limbs leap light the vales along,
"May yet e'er noontide meet his death,
"And lie dismembered on the heath:
"For youth, alas! nor cautious age,
"Nor strength, nor speed, eludes their rage.
"In every field we meet the foe,
"Each gale comes fraught with sounds of woe:
"The morning but awakes our fears,
"The evening sees us bathed in tears.
"But must we ever idly grieve,
"Nor strive our fortunes to relieve?
"Small is each individual force,
"To stratagem be our recourse;
"And then, from all our tribes combined,
"The murderer to his cost may find,
"No foe is weak, whom Justice arms,
"Whom Concord leads, and Hatred warms.
"Be roused; or liberty acquire,
"Or in the great attempt expire."--
He said no more, for in his breast
Conflicting thoughts the voice suppressed:
The fire of vengeance seemed to stream
From his swoln eyeball's yellow gleam.
And now the tumults of the war,
Mingling confusedly from afar,
Swell in the wind. Now louder cries,
Distinct, of hounds and men arise.
Forth from the brake, with beating heart,
Th' assembled hares tumultuous start,
And, every straining nerve on wing,
Away precipitately spring.
The hunting band, a signal given,
Thick thundering o'er the plain are driven;
O'er cliff abrupt, and shrubby mound,
And river broad, impetuous bound;
Now plunge amid the forest shades,
Glance through the openings of the glades;
Now o'er the level valley sweep,
Now with short steps strain up the steep,
While backward from the hunter's eyes
The landscape like a torrent flies.
At last an ancient wood they gained,
By pruner's axe yet unprofaned.
High o'er the rest, by Nature reared,
The oak's majestic boughs appeared;
Beneath, a copse of various hue
In barbarous luxuriance grew;
No knife had curbed the rambling sprays,
No hand had wove th' implicit maze.
The flowering thorn, self-taught to wind,
The hazle's stubborn stem intwined,
And bramble twigs were wreathed around,
And rough furze crept along the ground.
Here sheltering, f