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VII. THE BEATIFICATION

When the Spirit withdrew, the Monarch1 around the assembly

Looked, but none else came forth; and

he heard the voice of the Angel,"King of England! speak for thyself; here is none to arraign thee." "Father," he replied, "from whom no secrets are hidden,

5 What should I say? Thou knowest that mine was an arduous station,

Full of cares, and with perils beset. How heavy the burden,

Thou alone canst tell! Short-sighted and
frail hast Thou made us;

And Thy judgments who can abide? But,
as surely Thou knowest
The desire of my heart hath been alway
the good of my people,

10 Pardon my errors, O Lord! and in mercy accept the intention:

As in Thee I have trusted, so let me not now be confounded."

Bending forward, he spake with earnest humility. "Well done, Good and faithful servant!" then said a Voice from the Brightness; "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."2 The ministering Spirits

15 Clapped their pennons therewith, and from that whole army of Angels Songs of thanksgiving and joy resounded, and loud hallelujahs;

While, on the wings of Winds upraised, the pavilion of splendor,

Where inscrutable light enveloped the Holy of Holies,

Moved, and was borne away, through the empyrean ascending.

1 George III.

See Matthew, 25:21.

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Then methought we approached the gate. In front of the portal,

From a rock where the standard of man's redemption was planted,

Issued the Well of Life, where whosoever would enter

So it was written-must drink, and put away all that is earthly.

30 Earth among its gems, its creations of art and of nature,

Offers not aught whereto that marvellous
Cross may be likened

Even in dim similitude, such was its won-
derful substance.

Pure it was and diaphanous. It had no visible lustre;

Yet from it alone whole Heaven was illuminate alway:

35 Day and night being none in the upper firmament, neither

Sun nor moon nor stars; but from that
Cross, as a fountain,

Flowed the Light uncreated; light all-
sufficing, eternal;

Light which was, and which is, and which will be forever and ever;1

Light of light, which, if daringly gazed on, would blind an Archangel, 40 Yet the eye of weak man may behold, and beholding is strengthened; Yea, while we wander below, oppressed with our bodily burden,

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How long, O Lord! Holy and Just, how long!

80 A merciless oppressor hast thou been, Thyself remorselessly oppress'd meantime;

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Greedy of war, when all that thou
couldst gain

Was but to dye thy soul with deeper crime,
And rivet faster round thyself the chain.
O blind to honor, and to interest blind,
When thus in abject servitude resign'd
To this barbarian upstart, thou
couldst brave

God's justice, and the heart of human kind! Madly thou thoughtest to enslave the world,

Thyself the while a miserable slave. Behold the flag of vengeance is unfurl'd! The dreadful armies of the North

advance;

While England, Portugal, and Spain combined,

Give their triumphant banners to the wind, And stand victorious in the fields of

France.

One man hath been for ten long

wretched years

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Revenge thy sufferings and thy shame! By the bones which bleach on Jaffa's beach;

By the blood which on Domingo's shore
Hath clogg'd the carrion-birds with
gore;

By the flesh which gorged the wolves of
Spain,

Or stiffen'd on the snowy plain
of frozen Moscovy;

By the bodies which lie all open to the sky,
Tracking from Elbe to Rhine the
tyrant's flight;

By the widow's and the orphan's cry; By the childless parent's misery; By the lives which he hath shed; By the ruin he hath spread; 125 By the prayers which rise for curses on his head;

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Redeem, O France! thine ancient fame, Revenge thy sufferings and thy shame, Open thine eyes! too long hast thou been blind;

Take vengeance for thyself, and for mankind!

By those horrors which the night Witness'd, when the torches' light To the assembled murderers show'd Where the blood of Condé flow'd; By thy murder'd Pichegru's fame;

The cause of all this blood and all these 135 By murder'd Wright, an English name;

tears;

One man in this most awful point

of time

Draws on thy danger, as he caused thy

crime.

Wait not too long the event, For now whole Europe comes against thee bent,

His wiles and their own strength the nations know:

Wise from past wrongs, on future peace intent,

The people and the princes, with one mind,

105 From all parts move against the general foe:

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Thou alone canst tell! Short-sighted and 35

frail hast Thou made us;

And Thy judgments who can abide? But, as surely Thou knowest

The desire of my heart hath been alway the good of my people,

10 Pardon my errors, O Lord! and in mercy accept the intention:

As in Thee I have trusted, so let me not now be confounded."

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Offers not aught whereto that marvellous
Cross may be likened

Even in dim similitude, such was its won-
derful substance.

Pure it was and diaphanous. It had no
visible lustre;

Yet from it alone whole Heaven was
Day and night being none in the upper
illuminate alway:
firmament, neither

Sun nor moon nor stars; but from that
Cross, as a fountain,

Flowed the Light uncreated; light all-
sufficing, eternal;

Light which was, and which is, and which will be forever and ever;1

Light of light, which, if daringly gazed on, would blind an Archangel, 40 Yet the eye of weak man may behold, and beholding is strengthened; Yea, while we wander below, oppressed with our bodily burden, And in the shadow of death, this Light is in mercy vouchsafed us;

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Come down at Lodore?"

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To tell him in rhyme.
Anon at the word,

There first came one daughter
And then came another,

To second and third

The request of their brother, And to hear how the water Comes down at Lodore, With its rush and its roar,

As many a time

They had seen it before. So I told them in rhyme, For of rhymes I had store: And 'twas in my vocation

For their recreation
That so I should sing;
Because I was Laureate

To them and the King.3

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Of its steep descent.

The cataract strong
Then plunges along,
Striking and raging
As if a war waging
Its caverns and rocks among:
Rising and leaping,
Sinking and creeping,
Swelling and sweeping,
Showering and springing,

Flying and flinging,
Writhing and ringing,
Eddying and whisking,
Spouting and frisking,
Turning and twisting,
Around and around
With endless rebound!
Smiting and fighting,
A sight to delight in;
Confounding, astounding,

70 Dizzying and deafening the ear with its sound.

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laureate in 1813. 4 small lake moor

• brooks

And dripping and skipping, And hitting and splitting, And shining and twining, And rattling and battling, And shaking and quaking, And pouring and roaring, And waving and raving, And tossing and crossing, And flowing and going, And running and stunning, And foaming and roaming, And dinning and spinning, And dropping and hopping, And working and jerking, And guggling and struggling, And heaving and cleaving, And moaning and groaning;

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don he called at his upholsterer's, where the coffin which Captain Hallowell had given him was deposited, and desired that its history1 might be engraven upon the lid, 5 saying it was highly probable he might want it on his return. He seemed, indeed, to have been impressed with an expectation that he should fall in the battle. In a letter to his brother, written immediately after his return,2 he had said: "We must not talk of Sir Robert Calder's battle. I might not have done so much with my small force. If I had fallen in with them, you wished, for I know they meant to make a might probably have been a lord before I dead set at the Victory." Nelson had once regarded the prospect of death with gloomy satisfaction; it was when he anticipated the upbraidings of his wife and the displeasure of his venerable father. The state of his feelings now was expressed in his private journal in these words: "Friday night (Sept. 13th), at half-past ten, I drove from dear, dear Merton, where I left all which I hold dear in this world, to go to serve my king and country. May the great God whom I adore enable me to fulfil the expectations of my country! And if it is His good pleasure that I should return, my thanks will never cease being offered up to the throne of His mercy. If it is His good providence to cut short my days upon earth, I bow with the greatest submission; relying that He will protect those so dear to me, whom I may leave behind! His will be done! Amen! Amen! Amen!"

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Early on the following morning he reached Portsmouth; and, having despatched his business on shore, endeavored to elude the populace by taking a byway to the beach; but a crowd collected in his train, pressing forward to obtain a sight of his face;-many were in tears, and many knelt down before him, and blessed him as he passed. England has had many heroes, but never one who so entirely possessed the love of his fellow-countrymen as Nelson. All men knew that his heart was as humane as it was fearless; that there 50 was not in his nature the slightest alloy of selfishness or cupidity; but that, with per

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1 It had been made from the mainmast of the French ship. L'Orient, destroyed by Nelson in the Battle of the Nile, Aug. 1. 1798.

2 From his search for the French fleet in Septem ber, 1805.

3 An engagement with the French and Spanish fleets, which was fought without a victory for either side, on July 22, 1805.

4 On account of his relations with Lady Hamilton, a noted adventuress.

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