She fear'd-she felt that something ill To her all-jarr'd and wandering mind; She strove with that convulsive dream: The convent bells are ringing, But mournfully and slow; Or the living who shortly shall be so! The death-hymn peals and the hollow bells knoll: With the block before and the guards around- While the crowd in a speechless circle gather XVI. It is a lovely hour as yet He bends to hear his accents bless But brighter still the beam was thrown XVII. The parting prayers are said and over Shall ne'er approach his haughty eye. In deep disdain, were half renew'd When headsman's hands prepared to bind (1) "The grand part of this poem is that which describes the execution of the rival son; and in which, though there in no XVIII. Still as the lips that closed in death, As down the deadly blow descended Pierced through with forced and sullen shock, Save one-what cleaves the silent air So madly shrill, so passing wild? That, as a mother's o'er her child, Done to death by sudden blow, To the sky these accents go, Like a soul's in endless woe. Through Azo's palace-lattice driven, That horrid voice ascends to heaven, And every eye is turn'd thereon; But sound and sight alike are gone! It was a woman's shriek-and ne'er In madlier accents rose despair; And those who heard it, as it pass'd, In mercy wish'd it were the last. XIX. Hugo is fallen; and, from that hour, At least the knight's who died that day. Of scourge, and fast, and sleepless tears; For that dark love she dared to feel; With heart that shared the headsman's shock, In quicken'd brokenness that came, +In pity, o'er her shatter'd frame, None knew-and none can ever know: pomp, either of language or of sentiment, and though every thing is conceived and expressed with the utmost simplicity and direct But whatsoe'er its end below, XX. And Azo found another bride But never tear his cheek descended, And o'er that fair broad brow were wrought Which the soul's war doth leave behind. That they had wrought their doom of ill; If lopp'd with care, a strength may give, ness, there is a spirit of pathos and poetry to which it would not be easy to find many parallels." Jeffrey. (1) When this poem was composed, I was not sufficiently aware of the history of Bonnivard, or I should have endeavoured to dignify the subject by an attempt to celebrate his courage and his virtues. With some account of his life I have been furnished, by the kindness of a citizen of that republic, which is still proud of the memory of a man worthy of the best age of ancient freedom: "François de Bonnivard, fils de Louis de Bonnivard, originaire de Seyssel et Seigneur de Lunes, naquit en 1496. li fit ses études à Turin: en 1510 Jean Aimé de Bonnivard, son oncle, lui résigna le prieuré de St. Victor, qui aboutissoit aux murs de Genève, et qui formoit un bénéfice considérable. And when thy sons to fetters are consign'd- And thy sad floor an altar-for 't was trod, dans le château de Chillon, où il resta sans être interrogé jusqu'en 1536; il fut alors délivré par les Bernois, qui s'emparèrent du pays de Vaud. "Bonnivard, en sortant de sa captivité, eut le plaisir de trouver Genève libre et réformé : la république s'empressa de lui temoigner sa reconnaissance, et de le dédommager des maux qu'il avoit soufferts: elle le reçut bourgeois de la ville au mois de juin 1536; elle lui donna la maison habitée autrefois par le Vicaire-general, et elle lui assigna une pension de deux cents écus d'or tant qu'il séjourneroit à Genève. Il fut admis dans le Conseil des DeuxCents en 1557. "Bonnivard n'a pas fini d'être utile: après avoir travaillé à rendre Genève libre, il réussit à la rendre tolerante. Bonnivard engagea le Conseil à accorder aux ccclésiastiques et aux paysans un temps suffisant pour examiner les propositions qu'on leur faisoit; il réussit par sa douceur: on préche toujours le Christianisme avec succès quand on le prèche avec charité. "Bonnivard fut savant: ses manuscrits, qui sont dans la bi "Ce grand homme-(Bonnivard mérite ce titre par la force de son âme, la droiture de son cœur, la noblesse de ses intentions, la sagesse de ses conseils, le courage de ses démarches, l'étendue de ses connaissances et la vivacité de son esprit),—ce grand homme, qui excitera l'admiration de tous ceux qu'une vertu heroïque peut encore cmouvoir, inspirera encore la plus vive reconnaissance dans les cœurs des Genevois qui aiment Genève. Bon-bliothèque publique, prouvent qu'il avoit bien lu les auteurs clasnivard en fut toujours un des plus fermes appuis : pour assurer la liberté de notre république, il ne craignit pas de perdre souvent la sienne : il oublia son repos; il méprisa les richesses; il ne négligea rien pour affermir une patrie qu'il honora de son choix: dès ce moment il la chérit comme le plus zélé de ses citoyens; il la servit avec l'intrépidité d'un héros, et il écrivit son histoire avec la naiveté d'un philosophe et la chaleur d'un patriote. | siques latins, et qu'il avoit approfondi la théologie et l'histoire. Ce grand homme aimoit les sciences, et il croyoit qu'elles pouvoient faire la gloire de Genève; aussi il ne négligea rien pour ies lixer dans cette ville naissante; en 1851 il donna sa bibliothèque au public; elle fut le commencement de notre bibliothèque publique, et ces livres sont en partie ces rares et belles éditions du quinzième siècle qu'on voit dans notre collection. Enfin, pendant la même année, ce bon patriote institua la république son heritière, à condition qu'elle employeroit ses biens à entretenir le college dont on projetoit la fondation. "Il dit, dans le commencement de son Histoire de Genève, que dès qu'il eut commencé de lire l'histoire des nations, il se sentit entraîné par son gout pour les républiques, dont il épousa toujours les intérêts: c'est ce goût pour la liberté qui lui fit sans doute adopter Genève pour sa patrie. "Bonnivard encore jeune s'annonça hautement comme le dé- mois de juillet 1570, jusqu'en 1571.” fenseur de Genève contre le duc de Savoye et l'Evéque. "En 1519, Bonnivard devint le martyr de sa patrie: le Duc de Savoye etant entre dans Genève avec cinq cents hommes, Bonnivard craignit le ressentiment du Duc; il voulut se retirer á Fribourg pour en éviter les suites; mais il fut trahi par deux hommes qui l'accompagnoient, et conduit par ordre du Prince à Grolée, où il resta prisonnier pendant deux ans. Bonnivard étoit malheureux dans ses voyages: comme ses malheurs n'avoient point ralenti son zèle pour Genève, il étoit toujours un ennemi redoutable pour ceux qui la menaçoient, et par conséquent il devoit être exposé à leurs coups. Il fut rencontré en 1530 sur le Jura, par des voleurs, qui le dépouillèrent, et qui le mirent encore entre les mains du Duc de Savoye : ce Prince le fit enfermer "Il paroit que Bonnivard mourut en 1570; mais on ne peut l'assurer, parce qu'il y a une lacune dane le Nécrologe depuis le [Lord Byron wrote this beautiful poem at a small inn, in the "Beloved Goddess of the chainless mind! To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom, Until his very steps have left a trace Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod, By Bonnivard!-May none those marks efface; For they appeal from tyranny to God. THE PRISONER OF CHILLON. (1) I. My hair is grey, but not with years, Nor grew it white In a single night, As men's have grown from sudden fears: (2) Proud of Persecution's rage; (4) (1) "I will tell you something about Chillon. A M. de Luc, ninety years old, a Swiss, had it read to him, and is pleased with it-so my sister writes. He said that he was with Rousseau at Chillon, and that the description is perfectly correct. But this is not all; I recollected something of the name, and find the following passages in The Confessions, vol. iii. p. 217, liv. iii. De tous ces amusements, celui qui me plut davantage fut une promenade autour du Lac, que je fis en bateau avec De Luc père, sa bonne, ses deux fils, et ma Thérèse. Nous mimes sept jours à cette tournée par le plus beau temps du monde. J'en gardai le vil souvenir des sites qui m'avoient frappé à l'autre extrémité du Lac, et dont je fis la description, quelques années après, dans La Nouvelle Héloise.' This nonagenarian, De Luc, must be one of the 'deux fils.' He is in England, infirm, but still in faculty. It is odd that he should have lived so long, and not wanting in oddness, that he should have made this voyage with Jean Jacques, and afterwards, at such an interval, read a poem by an Englishman (who made precisely the same circumnavigation) upon the same scenery."-B. Letters, April 9, 1817.-Jean André de Luc, F.R. S., died at Windsor, in the July following. He was born There are seven columns massy and grey, For in these limbs its teeth remain, III. They chain'd us each to a column stone, But even these at length grew cold— A grating sound-not full and free in 1726, at Geneva, was the author of many geological works, and corresponded with most of the learned societies of Europe. -E. (2) Ludovico Sforza, and others. The same is asserted of Marie Antoinette's, the wife of Louis the Sixteenth, though not in quite so short a period. Grief is said to have the same effect; to such, and not to fear, this change in hers was to be attributed. (3) In the MS. "But with the inward waste of grief.”—E. (4) In the MS. "Braving rancour-chains-and rage."—E. (5) The fidelity of Lord Byron's description of the dungeon of Chillon, to which he has given a deathless interest, is shown in the engraving in Finden's Illustrations, from Mr. Stanfield's drawing of the interior of the prison.-E. (6) "This picture of the first feelings of the three gallang brothers, when bound apart in this living tomb, and of the gradual decay of their cheery fortitude, is full of pity and agony." Jeffrey. IV. I was the eldest of the three, The youngest, whom my father loved, For him my soul was sorely moved: (When day was beautiful to me Its sleepless summer of long light, V. The other was as pure of mind, With joy:-but not in chains to pine: And so perchance in sooth did mine: Had follow'd there the deer and wolf; VI. Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls: Sounding o'er our heads it knock'd : Wash through the bars when winds were high And then the very rock hath rock'd, The death that would have set me free. VII. I said my nearer brother pined, I said his mighty heart declined, He loathed and put away his food; history of this castle," says Mr. Tennant, who went over it in 1821, "is, I believe, involved in doubt. By some historians it is said to be built in the year 1120, and according to others, in the year 1236; but by whom it was built seems not to be known. It is said, however, in history, that Charles the Fifth, Duke of Savoy, stormed and took it in 1556; that he there found great hidden treasures, and many wretched beings pining away their lives in these frightful dungeons, amongst whom was the good Bonnivard. On the pillar to which this unfortunate man is said to have been (1) The Château de Chillon is situated between Clarens and Villeneuve, which last is at one extremity of the Lake of Geneva. On its left are the entrances of the Rhone, and opposite are the heights of Meillerie and the range of Alps above Boveret and St. Gingo. Near it, on a hill behind, is a torrent: below it, washing its walls, the lake has been fathomed to the depth of 800 feet, French measure: within it are a range of dungeons, in which the early reformers, and subsequently prisoners of state, were confined. Across one of the vaults is a beam black with age, on which we were informed that the condemned were formerly exe-chained, I observed, cut out of the stone, the name of one whose cuted. In the cells are seven pillars, or rather eight, one being half merged in the wall; in some of these are rings for the fetters and the fettered; in the pavement the steps of Bonnivard have left their traces. He was confined here several years. It is by this castle that Rousseau has fixed the catastrophe of his Héloïse, In the rescue of one of her children by Julie from the water; the shock of which, and the illness produced by the immersion, is the cause of her death. The château is large, and seen along the lake for a great distance. The walls are white.-["The early beautiful poem has done much to heighten the interest of this dreary spot, and will, perhaps, do more towards rescuing from oblivion the names of Chillon' and 'Bonnivard,' than all the cruel sufferings which that injured man endured within its damp and gloomy walls."-E.] (2) In the MS. "But why withhold the blow ?-he died."-E. |