Still dark and darker frown the shades,

Dark as the darkness of the grave; And not a sound the still invades,

Save what a distant torrent gave.

High o'er the sinner's humbled head At length the solemn silence broke;

And from a cloud of swarthy red, The awful voice of thunder spoke.

66 Oppressor of creation fair!

Apostate Spirit's hardened tool! Scorner of God! Scourge of the poor!

The measure of thy cup is full.

"Be chased forever through the wood;

Forever roam the affrighted wild; And let thy fate instruct the proud, God's meanest creature is his child."

That wont on harp to stray, A cloak must shear from the slaughtered deer,

To keep the cold away."

"O Richard! if my brother died,
'Twas but a fatal chance;
For darkling was the battle tried,
And fortune sped the lance.

"If pall and vair no more I wear,
Nor thou the crimson sheen,

As warm, we'll say, is the russet gray,

As gay the forest green.

"And, Richard, if our lot be hard,
And lost thy native land,
Still Alice has her own Richard,
And he his Alice Brand."

'Tis merry, 'tis merry, in good greenwood,

So blithe Lady Alice is singing; On the beech's pride, and oak's brown side,

Lord Richard's axe is ringing.

Up spoke the moody Elfin King,
Who woned within the hill,

Like wind in the porch of a ruined church,

His voice was ghostly shrill. "Why sounds yon stroke on beech and oak,

Our moonlight circle's screen? Or who comes here to chase the deer, Beloved of our Elfin Queen? Or who may dare on wold to wear The fairies' fatal green?

"Up, Urgan, up! to yon mortal hie, For thou wert christened man; For cross or sign thou wilt not fly, For muttered word or ban."

CHILDREN IN THE WOOD.

Being a true relation of the inhuman murder of two children of a deceased gentleman in Norfolk, England, whom he left to the care of his brother; but the wicked uncle, in order to get the children's estate, contrived to have them destroyed by two ruflians whom he hired for that purpose; with an account of the heavy judgments of God, which befell him, for this inhuman deed, and of the untimely end of the two bloody ruffians. To which is added a word of advice to executors, &c.

Now ponder well, you parents dear,
These words which I do write;
A doleful story you shall hear,

In time, brought forth to light.

A gentleman of good account
In Norfolk lived of late,
Whose fame and credit did sur-
mount

Most men of his estate.

So sick he was, and like to die, No help he then could have; His wife by him as sick did lie,

And both possess one grave.

No love between these two was lost,
Each was to other kind;
In love they lived, in love they
died,

And left two babes behind;

The one a fine and pretty boy,

Not passing three years old; The other a girl more young than he, And made of beauteous mould.

The father left his little son,

As plainly doth appear, When he to perfect age should come, Three hundreds pounds a year.

And to his little daughter Jane

Two hundred pounds in gold, For to be paid on marriage day,

Which might not be controlled.

But, if these children chanced to die
Ere they to age did come,
The uncle should possess the wealth;
For so the will did run.

"Now, brother," said the dying man, "Look to my children dear, Be good unto my boy and girl: No friend else have I here.