Last night as I happen'd to ride on the Down, Some thunder I heard and the sky 'gan to frown; So expecting a shower my way I soon bent, To a mean looking cottage to 'scape the descent; And o'ertook the poor owner decrepid and sickly, Who strove but in vain, to move forward more quickly; So I said "honest fellow your toiling refrain, You may yet reach your cottage untouch'd by the rain." When struck by my voice he turn'd round to reply, I saw with much pain the tears stand in his eye, "I have two little girls Sir, should tempest come on, "Most sorely they'll grieve that their daddy is gone; "But their mother will sooth them," "their mother,"! he cried, And his anguish gush'd forth in keen agony's tide. 743 Alarm'd and distress'd by the wound I had given, I dismounted and leaving my pony with Stephen, Attended the mourner whose words weak and faint Were rather the language of woe than complaint, Tho' worn with disease and by mis'ry opprest, Yet one sorrow 'bove all gave a pang to his breast, The heart that was widow'd all evils could bear, For sorrow is sunk in the gulph of despair! "Many men have good wives Sir but one like my own, I doubt even great men too seldom have known, "When robb'd by disease of our means of subsistence, "Her care and industry kept want at a distance; "Her tenderness sooth'd while her labour sustain'd me, "Nor a word pass'd her lips Sir, that ever yet pain'd me, "To her all my burden of suffering was given, "And it sunk her to earth while it rais'd her to Heaven," 'Twas simplicity's tale which no words could adorn, And I wept o'er the being thus 'reft and forlorn, Ere I ventur'd to offer that kind of relief, Which could sooth but one source of his manifold grief. It was sympathy's proof and I wish for no other, That however divided still man is man's brother; But judge my emotion on ent'ring the cot, Where once love and innocence hallow'd the spot, To see love and innocence burst on my sight, In a form more endearing and beauty more bright, 'Twas my Cumberland maiden embracing each child Like the Angel of pity that wept as she smil'd, She had heard the poor babes as they wander'd around, Lament their dear mammy laid deep in the ground, And stole from her party tho' splendid and gay, To wipe their sad tears and to show them their way, Now I gaz'd!--my heart throbb'd! while a kind of devotion Rose at once to my tongue and obstructed its motion, May I ne'er lose the sense of that sacred sensation Or forget her blue eyes more divine emanation! In folly's light moment in solitude's hour, Still dear be its memory, resistless its pow'r, And if ever false pleasure to guilt should allure me, May a glance on this scene from perdition secure me.