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No more a lover, but a mortal foe,
I seek her life (for love is none below):
As often as my dogs with better speed 180
Arrest ber flight, is she to death decreed.
Then with this fatal sword, on which I died,
I pierce her open'd back, or tender side,
And tear that harden'd heart from out her
breast,

Which, with her entrails, makes my hungry hounds a feast.

Nor lies she long, but, as her fates ordain, Springs up to life, and fresh to second

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Her heart and bowels thro' her back he drew,

And fed the hounds that help'd him to pursue.
Stern look'd the fiend, as frustrate of his will,
Not half suffic'd, and greedy yet to kill.
And now the soul, expiring thro' the wound,
Had left the body breathless on the ground,
When thus the grisly specter spoke again:
"Behold the fruit of ill-rewarded pain:
As many months as I sustain'd her hate,
So many years is she condemn'd by fate 200
To daily death; and ev'ry several place
Conscious of her disdain, and my disgrace,
Must witness her just punishment, and be
A scene of triumph and revenge to me.
As in this grove I took my last farewell,
As on this very spot of earth I fell,
As Friday saw me die, so she my prey
Becomes ev'n here, on this revolving day."
Thus while he spoke, the virgin from
the ground
Upstarted fresh, already clos'd the wound,
And, unconcern'd for all she felt before,
Precipitates her flight along the shore.
The hellhounds, as ungorg'd with flesh and
blood,

209

Pursue their prey, and seek their wonted

food;

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But dreams, he knew, no long impression make,

Tho' strong at first; if vision, to what end,

But such as must his future state portend, His love the damsel, and himself the fiend?

But yet reflecting that it could not be From Heav'n, which cannot impious acts decree,

Resolv'd within himself to shun the snare Which Hell for his destruction did prepare; And, as his better genius should direct, From an ill cause to draw a good effect.

230

Inspir'd from Heav'n, he homeward took his way,

Nor pall'd his new design with long delay;
But of his train a trusty servant sent,
To call his friends together at his tent.
They came, and, usual salutations paid,
With words premeditated thus he said:
"What you have often counsel'd, to remove
My vain pursuit of unregarded love,
By thrift my sinking fortune to repair,
Tho' late, yet is at last become my care: 240
My heart shall be my own; my vast ex-
pense

Reduc'd to bounds, by timely providence.
This only I require; invite for me
Honoria, with her father's family,

Her friends, and mine; the cause I shall display,

On Friday next, for that's th' appointed day."

Well pleas'd were all his friends, the

task was light;

The father, mother, daughter, they invite;
Hardly the dame was drawn to this repast;
But yet resolv'd, because it was the last. 250
The day was come, the guests invited came,
And, with the rest, th' inexorable dame;
A feast prepar'd with riotous expense,
Much cost, more care, and most magnifi-

cence.

The place ordain'd was in that haunted

grove

Where the revenging ghost pursued his love; The tables in a proud pavilion spread, With flow'rs below, and tissue overhead: The rest in rank; Honoria, chief in place, Was artfully contriv'd to set her face 260 To front the thicket, and behold the chase.

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The fiend's alarm began; the hollow sound

Sung in the leaves, the forest shook around,

Air blacken'd, roll'd the thunder, groan'd the ground.

Nor long before the loud laments arise Of one distress'd, and mastiffs' mingled cries;

And first the dame came rushing thro' the wood,

And next the famish'd hounds that sought their food,

270

And grip'd her flanks, and oft essay'd their jaws in blood,

Last came the felon, on the sable steed, Arm'd with his naked sword, and urg'd his dogs to speed.

She ran, and cried; her flight directly

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