Page:Hemans in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 35 1834.pdf/10

Of the great forests, I have called aloud
"Brother, forgive, forgive!"—he answered not.—
—His deep voice, rising from the land of souls,
Cries but "Avenge me!"—and I go forth now
To slay his murderer, that when next his eyes
Gleam on me mournfully from that pale shore,
I may look up, and meet their glance, and say
—"I have avenged thee."
Herrmann.Oh! that human love
Should be the root of this dread bitterness,
Till Heaven through all the fevered being pours
Transmuting balsam!—Stay, Enonio, stay!
Thy brother calls thee not!—The spirit world
Where the departed go, sends back to earth
No visitants for evil.—'Tis the might
Of the strong passion, the remorseful grief
At work in thine own breast, which lends the voice
Unto the forest and the cataract,
The angry colour to the clouds of morn,
The shadow to the moonlight—Stay, my son!
Thy brother is at peace.—Beside his couch,
When of the murderer's poisoned shaft he died,
I knelt and prayed; he named his Saviour's name,
Meekly, beseechingly;—he spoke of thee
In pity and in love.
Enonio (hurriedly.) Did he not say
My arrow should avenge him?
Herrmann.His last words
Were all forgiveness.
Enonio.What! and shall the man
Who pierced him, with the shaft of treachery,
Walk fearless forth in joy?
Herrmann.Was he not once
Thy brother's friend?—Oh! trust me, not in joy
He walks the frowning forest. Did keen love,
The late repentant of its heart estranged,
Wake in thy haunted bosom, with its train
Of sounds and shadows—and shall he escape?
Enonio, dream it not!—Our God, the all-just,
Unto himself reserves this Royalty—
The secret chastening of the guilty heart,
The fiery touch, the scourge that purifies,
Leave it with Him —Yet make it not thy hope—
For that strong heart of thine—oh listen yet—
Must in its depths o'ercome the very wish
For death or fortune to the guilty one,
Ere it can sleep again.
Enonio.My father speaks
 Of change, for man too mighty.
Herrmann.I but speak
Of that which hath been, and again must be,
If thou wouldst join thy brother, in the life
Of the bright country, where, I well believe,
His soul rejoices.—He had known such change.
He died in peace. He, whom his tribe once named
The avenging eagle, took to his meek heart,
In its last pangs, the spirit of those words
Which from the Saviour's cross went up to Heaven:
"Forgive them, for they know not what they do,
Father, forgive!"–And o'er the eternal bounds
Of that celestial kingdom undefiled
Where evil may not enter, He, I deem,