The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1882-04-20

VI me Olu PROVINCIAL Gays
Alike Were they. save the faint outline
OF scar on Suzettes forehead fine;
And BOTH 50 it befell.
Loved the hereto stranger well.
Both were pleasant to look upon,
But the heart of the skipper clave to one:
Though less by his eye than his heart
He knew the twain apart.
Despite of alien race and creed
Well did his Wooing of Marguerite speed
And the mothers wrath was vain
As the sisters Jealous pain.
The >hrill-tongucd mistress her house forbade
And solemn warning was sternly said
Ay the black-rObed priest, whose word
A. law the hamlet heard
But half by voice and half by signs
The skipper said. "A warm sun shines
On the green banked Merrimac;
Wait. watch. till | come back.
And when You see, from my mast head,
The signal fly of Il kerchef red,
Ny boat on the shore shall wait;
Come, when the night is late"
All! weighed With childhoods haunts and
friends.
And all that The home sky overbends,
Did ever Young love fail
TO turn the trembling scale:
ndcr the night on the wet sea sands.
Slowly unclasped their plighted hands:
On@ 10 the cottage hearth.
And one to his sailors berth.
V hat was it the parting lovers heard:
Nor leaf nor ripple. nor wing Of bird,
But listeners >tealthy tread
ON the rock-mos>, crisp and dead.
Tie weighed his anchor and 1ishcd once more
BY the black coaSt-line of Labrador;
And by love and the north wind driven
Sailed back to the Islands Seven.
In The sunsets glow the sisters twain
saw the Breeze come sailing in again;
While >uzctte i'll at ease.
Watched the red sign of the Breeze.
At midnight. down to the waiting skiti
She stole in the shadow of the cliff;
And out Of the Bays mouth ran
The schooner with maid and man.
And all night long. on Il restless bed.
Her prayers To the Virgin Marguerite said,
And thought of her lovers pain
Waiting for her in vain.
Did he pace the sands: Did he pause to hear
The sound Of her light step drawing near:
And. II til" slow hours passed
Would he doubt her faith at last?
Put when she saw. through the misty pane
The morning break on a sea of rain,
Could even her love avail
Meantime the Breeze. with fayoring wind.
Left the rugged Moi>ic hills behind.
And heard from an unseen shore
The fails OF Manitou roar.
on the morrow'> morn. in the thick, gray
weather,
They ,at on the reeling deck together.
Lover and counterfeit
OF haplc>> Marguerite
l.,
He >moothed away her iet-black hair.
What was it his fond eyes met:
The scar Of the false Suzette,
Fi,rcclv he shouted Bear away
East by north for Seven Isles Bay"
The maiden wept and prayed,
But the ship her helm obeyed.
They hear, the bell Of the chapel sound.
And the chant of the dying sung
In the harsh, wild Indian tongue.
\ feeling of mystery. change and awe
Was in all they heard and all they saw
>pell-bound the hamlet lay
In the hush of its lonely bay
And when they came to the cottage door
The mother rose up from her weeping sore,
And with angry gestures met
The scared look OF Suzette.
Here is your daughter, the skipper said;
''(iiYe me the one love instead"
But the woman >ternly spake:
Go, see if the dead will awake
He looked. Her sweet face. still and white
And strange in the MONDAY taper light,
She lay on her little bed,
With the cross at her feet and head.
in passion of grief the strong man bent
Down 10 her face, and, kissing if. went
Back 10 the waiting Breeze,
Back to the mournful seas
Never again to the Merrimac
And NeWbury's homes that bark came back.
Whether her fate she met
On the shores Of CarraQuette.
Ni~rou. or Traradic, who can say:
Bur even yet at Seven Isles Bay
Is told the ghoStly tale
OF Il weird, mspofen sail.
In the pale. sad light of the Northern day
seen by the blanketed Montagnais.
OR >quaW, in her small hyack,
Crossing the SpectrcS track.
ON the deck a maiden rings her hands;
Her likeness knecls on the gray coast sands:
one in her wild despair.
And one in the trance of PRAYER
She fits before no earthly blast
With the red sign tiutterng from her mast
over the solemn seas
The ghost Of the schooner Breeze.
John Greencaf Whittier