In Imitation of Lewis [1]
TWAS night, and the winds thro the dark forest roar'd,
From heaven's wide cat'racts the torrents down pour'd,
And blue lightnings flash'd on the ;
Demoniac howlings were heard in the air,
With groans of deep anguish and shrieks of despair,
And hoarse thunders growl'd thro the sky.
Pale, breathless, and trembling the dark villain stood,
His hands and his clothes all bespotted with blood,
His eyes wild with terror did stare ;
The earth yawn'd around him, and sulph'rous blue,
From the flame boiling gaps, did expose to his view
A gibbet and skeleton bare.
With horror he shrunk from a prospect so dread,
The blast swung the clanking chains over his head,
The rattling bones sung in the wind ;
The lone bird of night from the abbey did cry,
He look'd o'er his shoulder, intending to fly,
But a spectre stood ghastly behind.
“Stop, deep hell-taught villain !” the ghost did exclaim,
“With thy brother of guilt here to expiate thy crime,
“And atone for thy treacherous vow.
“Tis here thou shalt hang, to the vultures a prey,
“Till, piecemeal, they tear thee and bear thee away,
“And thy bones rot unburied below.”
Now, closing all round him fierce demons did throng,
In sounds all unholy they howl'd their death-song,
And the vultures around them did scream ;
Now clenching their claws in his fear-bristled hair,
Loud yelling they bore him aloft in the air,
And the Murd'rer awoke—Twas a Dream !
This tale first appeared in the Poetical Magazine of Vernon and Hood, London, 1804.—Ed.
[1] Matthew Gregory Lewis, M.P., was born in London in 1773. A romance-writer, whose tales were of the most marvellous description. He was called Monk Lewis, from his novel entitled “The Monk.” He died in 1818. Lewis was a year older than Tannahill, and the latter must have read the tales of the former, when he imitated him in "The Portrait of Guilt."—Ed.
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