142

THE SIESTA.

Gently sweeping the grassy ground,
Bearing delight where'er ye blow,
Make in the elms a lulling sound,

While my lady sleeps in the shade below

FROM THE SPANISH

OF PEDRO DE CASTRO Y ANAYA.

STAY, rivulet, nor haste to leave

The lovely vale that lies around thee. Why wouldst thou be a sea at eve,

When but a fount the morning found thee?

Born when the skies began to glow,

Humblest of all the rock's cold daughters,

No blossom bowed its stalk to show
Where stole thy still and scanty waters.

Now on thy stream the noonbeams look,
Usurping, as thou downward driftest,

Its crystal from the clearest brook,

Its rushing current from the swiftest.

Ah! what wild haste!-and all to be
A river and expire in ocean.
Each fountain's tribute hurries thee

To that vast grave with quicker motion.

144

FROM THE SPANISH.

Far better 'twere to linger still

In this green vale, these flowers to cherish, And die in peace, an aged rill,

Than thus, a youthful Danube, perish.

THE COUNT OF GREIERS.

(FROM THE GERMAN.)

AT morn the Count of Greiers before his castle stands ;
He sees afar the glory that lights the mountain lands;
The horned crags are shining, and in the shade between
A pleasant Alpine valley lies beautifully green.

"Oh, greenest of the valleys, how shall I come to thee!
Thy herdsmen and thy maidens, how happy must they be!
I have gazed upon thee coldly, all lovely as thou art,
But the wish to walk thy pastures now stirs my inmost heart.”

He hears a sound of timbrels, and suddenly appear
A troop of ruddy damsels and herdsmen drawing near;
They reach the castle greensward, and gaily dance across;
The white sleeves flit and glimmer, the wreaths and ribands
toss.

The youngest of the maidens, slim as a spray of spring,
She takes the young Count's fingers, and draws him to the

ring;

They fling upon his forehead a crown of mountain flowers, "And ho, young Count of Greiers! this morning thou art

ours!"

146

THE COUNT OF GREIERS.

Then hand in hand departing, with dance and roundelay, Through hamlet after hamlet, they lead the Count away. They dance through wood and meadow, they dance across the linn,

Till the mighty Alpine summits have shut the music in.

The second morn is risen, and now the third is come; Where stays the Count of Greiers? has he forgot his home? Again the evening closes, in thick and sultry air,

There's thunder on the mountains, the storm is gathering there.

The cloud has shed its waters, the brook comes swollen

down ;

You see it by the lightning-a river wide and brown.
Around a struggling swimmer the eddies dash and roar,
Till, seizing on a willow, he swings him to the shore.

"Here am I cast by tempests far from your mountain dell.
Amid our evening dances the bursting deluge fell.
Ye all, in cots and caverns, have 'scaped the waterspout,
While me alone the tempest o'erwhelmed and hurried out.

"Farewell, with thy glad dwellers, green vale among the rocks!

Farewell the swift sweet moments, in which I watched thy flocks!

Why rocked they not my cradle in that delicious spot,

That garden of the happy, where heaven endures me not?