The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1837-10-25
SELECTED TALES.
From the Ladies' Garland.
THE WANDERERS RETURN.

They mourn, but smile at length; and, smiling,
mourn
The tree will wither long before it fall
The hull drives on though mast and sail be torn
The roof-tree sinks, but moulders on the hall
In massy hoariness; the ruined wall
Stands when its wind-worn bat,!emen,s are gone;
The bars survive the captive they enthral
TIE day drags through though storms keep out the
sun,
And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live
on:
Chiide Harold, Ill. xxxm
The heavy dew of an April morning still
lay unexhaled, on moorland aud meadow,
though the sun was already riding high in
heaven: the light air came in gusts, fraught
with that delicious freshness, peculiar 10
The early spring; every brake and bush
teemed with life aud motion, the small birds
fitted from spray to- spray, filling the whole
atmosphere with gushes of rejoicing melo-
dy, while far above the noisy rocks cawcd
and huttered among the quivering branches,
busy in repairing their wind-rocked habita-
tons, for the reception of their caIlow brood !;
repairing them perchance to be demolished
hy the oale, which on the morrow shall COW
er the green earth with lis icy shower, and
blight in its frs, tender beauty, the budding
vegetation of the year. Wild, thoughiIess,
happy denizens of the free air, we look up
on your discordant sports, upon your fruit
less labors. We moraize, and almost
mourn over the disappointments, which
must befal you from many chilling blast,
before the season shall realize its promise !;
and we forget that we, the boasied lords of
creation, the learned, the eloquent, the
wise, are hourly building palaces unmlnd-
ful of the tomb, that we are eternally form
ing projects, and tapping our souls in gol-
den dreams, which--however our reason
may whisper that they can never come to
pass--shall nevertheless sprinkle the flow
ers of our existance with bitterness and wo,
as they melt like the haze of morning be-
fore the increasing sunshine of experience.
Some such thoughts as these were passing
through the mind of a traveller who was
already on the road, even at this early hour.
He was man whose days had not passed
their prime, although the frequent streaks
of white that mingled with the waving curls,
which might once have shamed the color of
the raven, and the deep furrows which
trenched his broad and massive forehead,
might have become one many years his
senior his tall form was knit in the strong
est mould compatible with grace, and lIs
features, though obscured by settled cloud
of melancholy, were like the chiselled Inca
ments Of some sculp ptured marble. The
broad thick moustache shaded mouth
whose decided curve bespoke unconquered
resolution, and the dark gray eye, so pas
sionless, and even philosophc, in lis pres
eni expression, bad yet something which
taught the beholder that there might be
moments, when the glare of its wrath would
be scarcely less bright, or less blighting,
than the electric flash.
His garb, of that fashion which has been
rendered immortal by the pencil of Van
dyke costly in its materials. and rich in
its almost gloomy coloring, was worn in a
manner which, il not actually careless, yet
showed that the wearer had long ceased to
feel interest in bis personal appearance.
In market distinction to this negligence of
apparel, the condition and equipments of
the noble horse he beslrode, as well as the
state Of Lis arms-at that period the mark
of gentle bIood-showed, that in matters
deemed worthy of note, neither care. nor
cost, were spared. A huge greyhound, Of
the genuine Irish wolf breed, now trotted
laziIy by the side of the charger, now boun-
ded erect to the stirrup, as If 10 claim the
attention of his moody lord. The path ,-
long which he was journeyiug, at mod
crate rate, swept in easy reaches through
one of ihosc tracts Of forest land, which
abound even TO the present day (though in
small and de.acl'cd porions) through the
northern counties 10 England. The land
lay in broken swelIs, here studded xilh
huge oaks. whose mossy trunks, and gnar-
led branches twisting their gray aud shIser-
eI exlremnie. fAr above the red leaves Of