Page:The Emigrants.pdf/22

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[ 18 ]

He, to whose daring soul and high ambition
The World seem'd circumscrib'd; who, wont to dream,
Of Fleuri, Richelieu, Alberoni, men
Who trod on Empire, and whose politics
Were not beyond the grasp of his vast mind,
Is, in a Land once hostile, still prophan'd
By disbelief, and rites un‐orthodox,
The object of compassion—­At his side,
Lighter of heart than these, but heavier far
Than he was wont, another victim comes,
An Abbé­—who with less contracted brow
Still smiles and flatters, and still talks of Hope;
Which, sanguine as he is, he does not feel,
And so he cheats the sad and weighty pressure
Of evils present;­­———Still, as Men misled
By early prejudice (so hard to break),

I mourn