9

Dark and neglected locks overshadowed his brow, and a sadness

Somewhat beyond his years on his face was legibly written.

Gabriel was it, who, weary with waiting, unhappy and restless,

Sought in the western wilds oblivion of self and of

sorrow.

Swiftly they glided along, close under the lee of the

island,

But by the opposite bank, and behind a screen of palmettos,

So that they saw not the boat, where it lay concealed in the willows,

And undisturbed by the dash of their oars, and unseen, were the sleepers;

Angel of God was there none to awaken the slumbering maiden.

Swiftly they glided away, like the shade of a cloud on the prairie.

After the sound of their oars on the tholes had died in the distance,

As from a magic trance the sleepers awoke, and the

maiden

Said with a sigh to the friendly priest :-"O Father Felician!

Something says in my heart that near me Gabriel wanders.

Is it a foolish dream, an idle and vague supersti

tion?

O has an angel passed, and revealed the truth to my spirit?"

Then, with a blush, she added:

dulous fancy!

"Alas for my cre

Unto ears like thine such words as these have no

meaning."

But made answer the reverend man, and he smiled as he answered:

66

Daughter, thy words are not idle; nor are they to me without meaning.

Feeling is deep and still; and the word that floats on the surface

Is as the tossing buoy, that betrays where the anchor is hidden.

Therefore trust to thy heart, and to what the world calls illusions.

Gabriel truly is near thee; for not far away to the southward,

On the banks of the Têche, are the towns of St. Maur and St. Martin.

There the long-wandering bride shall be given again to her bridegroom,

There the long-absent pastor regain his flock and his sheepfold.

Beautiful is the land, with its prairies and forests of fruit-trees;

Under the feet a garden of flowers, and the bluest of heavens

Bending above, and resting its dome on the walls of the forest.

They who dwell there have named it the Eden of Louisiana."

And with these words of cheer they arose and continued their journey.

Softly the evening came. The sun from the western

horizon

Like a magician extended his golden wand o'er the landscape;

Twinkling vapours arose; and sky and water and

forest

Seemed all on fire at the touch, and melted and mingled together.

Hanging between two, skies, a cloud with edges of silver,

Floated the boat, with its dripping oars, on the motionless water.

Filled was Evangeline's heart with inexpressible sweet

ness.

Touched by the magic spell, the sacred fountains of

feeling

Glowed with the light of love, as the skies and waters around her.

Then from a neighbouring thicket the mocking-bird, wildest of singers,

Swinging aloft on a willow-spray that hung o'er the

water,

Shook from his little throat such floods of delirious

music,

That the whole air and the woods and the waves

seemed silent to listen.

Plaintive at first were the tones and sad; then soaring to madness

Seemed they to follow or guide the revel of frenzied Bacchantes.

Single notes were then heard, in sorrowful, low lamentation;

ill, having gathered them all, he flung them abroad in derision;

As when, after a storm, a gust of wind through the tree-tops

Shakes down the rattling rain in a crystal shower on the branches.

With such a prelude as this, and hearts that throbbed with emotion,

Slowly they entered the Têche, where it flows through the green Opelousas,

And through the amber air, above the crest of the woodland,

Saw the column of smoke that arose from a neighbouring dwelling;

Sounds of a horn they heard, and the distant lowing of cattle.

III.

NEAR to the bank of the river, o'ershadowed by oaks, from whose branches

Garlands of Spanish moss and of mystic mistletoe flaunted,

Such as the Druids cut down with golden hatchets at Yule-tide,

Stood, secluded and still, the house of the herdsman.

A garden

Girded it round about with a belt of luxuriant blos

soms,

Filling the air with fragrance. The house itself was

of timbers

Hewn from the cypress-tree, and carefully fitted toge

ther.

Large and low was the roof; and on slender columns supported,

Rose-wreathed, vine-encircled, a broad and spacious

veranda,

Haunt of the humming-bird and the bee, extended around it.

At each end of the house, amid the flowers of the

garden,

Stationed the dove-cots were, as love's perpetual sym

bol,

Scenes of endless wooing, and endless contentions of

rivals.

Silence reigned o'er the place. The line of shadow and sunshine

Ran near the tops of the trees; but the house itself was in shadow,

And from its chimney-top, ascending and slowly expanding

Into the evening air, a thin blue column of smoke

rose.

In the rear of the house, from the garden-gate, ran a pathway

Through the great groves of oak to the skirts of the limitless prairie,

Into whose sea of flowers the sun was slowly descending.

Full in his track of light, like ships with shadowy

canvass