"And onward, onward, onward, seems "Like precipices in our dreams, "To stretch beyond the sight; "And here and there a speck of white, 610 "Or scatter'd spot of dusky green, “In masses broke into the light, "But nought distinctly seen "In the dim waste, would indicate "The omen of a cottage gate; "No twinkling taper from afar "Stood like an hospitable star; "Not even an ignis-fatuus rose "To make him with merry my woes: "That very cheat had cheer'd me then! "Although detected, welcome still, 66 Reminding me, through every ill, "Of the abodes of men. XVI. "Onward we went-but slack and slow; "His savage force at length o'erspent, 620 "The drooping courser, faint and low, "All feebly foaming went. "A sickly infant had had power "To guide him forward in that hour; 630 "But useless all to me. "His new-born tameness nought avail'd, "My limbs were bound; my force had fail'd, "Perchance, had they been free. "With feeble effort still I tried "To rend the bonds so starkly tied— "But still it was in vain; "My limbs were only wrung the more, "And soon the idle strife gave o'er, "Which but prolong'd their pain: "The dizzy race seem'd almost done, Although no goal was nearly won : "Some streaks announced the coming sun 66 "How slow, alas! he came ! Methought that mist of dawning gray "Would never dapple into day; "How heavily it roll'd away "Before the eastern flame 640 "Rose crimson, and deposed the stars, "And call'd the radiance from their cars, "And fill'd the earth, from his deep throne, "With lonely lustre, all his own. XVII. 650 Up rose the sun; the mists were curl'd "Back from the solitary world "Which lay around-behind-before: "What booted it to traverse o'er "Plain, forest, river? Man nor brute, "Nor dint of hoof, nor print of foot, "Lay in the wild luxuriant soil; "No sign of travel-none of toil; 66 The very air was mute; 660 "And not an insect's shrill small horn, "At length, while reeling on our way, 66 Methought I heard a courser neigh, "From out yon tuft of blackening firs. "Is it the wind those branches stirs ? "No, no! from out the forest prance "A trampling troop; I see them come ! "In one vast squadron they advance! "I strove to cry-my lips were dumb. “The steeds rush on in plunging pride; "But where are they the reins to guide? "A thousand horse—and none to ride! "With flowing tail, and flying mane, "Wide nostrils-never stretch'd by pain, "Mouths bloodless to the bit or rein, "And feet that iron never shod, "And flanks unscarr'd by spur or rod. "A thousand horse, the wild, the free, "Like waves that follow o'er the sea, "Came thickly thundering on, "As if our faint approach to meet; 670 680 "A moment, with a faint low neigh, "He answer'd, and then fell; "With gasps and glazing eyes he lay, "And reeking limbs immoveable, "His first and last career is done! "On came the troop-they saw him stoop, They saw me strangely bound along “His back with many a bloody thong: "They stop-they start-they snuff the air, Gallop a moment here and there, Approach, retire, wheel round and round, "Then plunging back with sudden bound, "Without a single speck or hair "Of white upon his shaggy hide; They snort-they foam-neigh-swerve aside, "And backward to the forest fly, "By instinct, from a human eye. 690 700 "They left me there, to my despair, "Link'd to the dead and stiffening wretch, "Whose lifeless limbs beneath me stretch, 710 |