XI.
Oft on the lofty banks, from jutting rocks
The buck looked wildly on the swift canoe;
Oft o'er the bramble leaped the wary fox,
With bushy tail and fur of ruddy hue;
Or wheeling high and gathering still in flocks,
The dark-winged crows did by their clamors shew
Where the lone owl, upon his moss-grown seat,
Maintained, unvanquished yet, his drear retreat.
XII.
Far down the winding pass at length they spy
Where wider currents, bright as liquid gold,
Spread glimmering in the sun; and to the eye,
Still further down, broad Narraganset rolled
His host of waters azure as the sky;
For breezes from the hoary ocean cooled
His heaving breast, and, with rejoicing glance,
From shore to shore the wanton waters dance.
XIII.
And now did Williams in his mind debate;—
Should he that night cleave Narraganset's flood,
Or on the Seekonk's bank till morning wait,
And scour the while Mooshausick's gloomy wood?
"Oh, would that Heaven might there predestinate
On earth, Soul-Liberty! thy first abode,"
(He often thought) "or where, in ocean's arms,
Aquidnay smiles in her wild virgin charms."
XIV.
While thus he ponders, down the stream he sees,
Where from th' encroaching cove the wood retires,
Dark wreaths of smoke rise o'er the lofty trees,
And deems that there some village wakes its fires.
