Gustavus Vasa | Page 9

bled, }
And her brave chief was numbered with
the dead. }
Piled with her breathless sons, th' uncultured land
With
daily ravage fed a wasteful band;
And ruthless Christiern,
wheresoe'er be flew,
Around his steps a track of crimson drew.

Already, by Heaven's dark protection led,
To Dalecarlia Sweden's
hero fled;
There, with a pious friend retired, unknown,
He mourn'd
his country's sorrows, and his own.
Those mountain peasants,
negatively free,
The sole surviving friends of Liberty,
Unbought by
bribes, still trample Christiern's power,
And wait in silence the
decisive hour.
'Twas morn when Christiern bade a herald call
His secret council to

the regal hall--
Those whom his skill, selecting, had combined
To
share the deep recesses of his mind:
In these the prince unshaken trust
reposed,
To these his intricate designs disclosed;
Their counsel,
teeming with maturest thought,
His ripening plans to full perfection
brought,
Each enterprise with proper means supplied,
And stemm'd
strong difficulty's threatening tide:
The summons heard, th' obedient
train attend,
Collect, and hastening toward the palace bend.
First of their order, as in rank and fame
Superior, Upsal's haughty
prelate came;
Erect in priestly pride, he stalk'd along,
And tower'd
supreme o'er all the princely throng.
A soul congenial, and a mind
replete
With ready artifice and bold deceit,
To suit a tyrant's ends,
however base,
In Christiern's friendship had secured his place.
His
were the senator's and courtier's parts,
And all the statesman's
magazine of arts;
His, each expedient, each all-powerful wile,
To
thwart a foe, or win a monarch's smile:
The nicely-plann'd and
well-pursued intrigue;
The smooth evasion of the hollow league;

The specious argument, that subtly strays
Thro' winding sophistry's
protracted maze:
The complicated, deep, immense design,
That
works in darkness like a labouring mine,
Unknown to all, 'till,
bursting into birth,
Its wide explosion shakes th' astonish'd earth.

His was the prompt invention, fruitful still
In means subservient to
the varying will:
The flexible expertness, smooth and mean,
That
glides thro' obstacles, and wins unseen:
The quick discernment, that
with eagle eyes
Sees distant storms in ether darkly rise,
And active
vigour, that arrests their course,
Or to a different aim diverts their
force.
He, in a happier land, by freedom bless'd,

Had hallow'd
virtue dawn'd upon his breast,
Had done some glorious deed, to stamp
his name
High on the roll of ever-during fame;
Snatch'd from
Oppression's jaws some victim realm,
Or fix'd in stable peace his
country's wavering helm.
But baleful Guilt usurp'd with fatal care
A
heart which Virtue had been proud to share;
And turn'd to hateful
dross the radiant ore,
Whose lustre might have gilded Sweden's shore.


As the red dog star, Autumn's fiery eye,
Shines eminent o'er all the
spangled sky,
While thro' th' afflicted earth his torrid breath
Darts
glowing fevers and a cloud of death:
So Trollio shone, in whose
corrupted mind
Transcendent genius and deep guilt combined;

Placed all his arduous aims within his reach,
Yet fix'd the stamp of
infamy on each.
But Providence, whose undiscover'd plan
Lies
deeper than the wiliest schemes of man,
Can bare the sty designer's
latent guilt,
And crush to dust the structures he has built;
Can
disappoint the subtle tyrant's spite,
And stem the billows of his
stormy might;
Confound a Trollio's skill, a Christiern's power,
And
blast presumption in its haughtiest hour.
So Christiern found--and
Trollio found it true,
(Unwelcome truth, to his experience new!)

That he, who trusts in guilty friendship, binds
His fortune to a cloud,
that shifts with veering winds. Throned in Religion's seat, he scorn'd
her laws,
And with a cool indifference view'd her cause:
Yet, might
her earthly treasures feed the fire
Of wild ambition, or base gain's
desire,
He could assume, at will, her fairest dress--
Could plunge in
Superstition's dark recess--
Or the red mask of Bigotry put on;
The
fiercest champion, where there needed none.
But, should she cross
some glittering enterprise,
Her pleas, her awful threats, he could
despise;
Oaths, lightly sworn, and now forgotten things,
Vanish'd,
like smoke before the tempest's wings.
At interest's call, when
danger's sudden voice
Extinguish'd hope, nor left a final choice,
His
sacred honours he renounc'd, and fled
To hide in silent solitude his
head:
At interest's call, he calmly thrust aside
Each bond of
conscience that opposed his pride,
And, deeming every scruple out of
place,

Back posted to his dignified disgrace.
Next, with a lofty step advancing, came
A martial chieftain--Otho
was his name:
In Denmark born, of an illustrious line,
Whose
glories, now effaced, had ceased to shine;
And he was but unanxious
to redeem
Those honours, in his eyes a worthless dream.
Trained in
licentious customs, he despised
All virtue's rules, and pleasure only

prized;
And, faithful as the magnet, turn'd his head
To follow
fortune wheresoe'er it led:
Tho' hostile justice rear'd her loftiest
mound,
To bar his passage o'er forbidden ground.
Swift o'er all
impediments he flew,
And strain'd his eyes to keep the prize in view.

Religion, virtue, sense, to him were nought;
He hated none, yet
none employ'd his thought,
Save when he glitter'd in their borrowed
beam,
To gain preferment, or to court esteem.
The minister, not tool,
of Christiern's will,
He serv'd his measures, yet despis'd him still:

Scann'd with impartial view th'encircling scene,
Glancing o'er all an
eye exact and keen,
Advantage to descry; and seldom fail'd,
When
Virtue's cause by Fortune's will prevail'd,
On virtue's side his valour
to display,
And ne'er forsake it, but for better pay.
And, e'en when
Danger round