Those cherubs still, my life to bless, Were left; could I my fears remove, Sad fears that checked each fond caress, And poison'd all parental love? Yet that with jealous feelings strove, And would at last have won my will, Had I not, wretch! been doom'd to prove Th' extremes of mortal good and ill. In youth! health! joy! in beauty's pride! 140 They droop'd: as flowers when blighted bow, The dire infection came.--They died, And I was cursed--as I am now.-- Nay, frown not, angry friend--allow That I was deeply, sorely tried; Hear then, and you must wonder how I could such storms and strifes abide. Storms!--not that clouds embattled make, When they afflict this earthly globe; But such as with their terrors shake 150 Man's breast, and to the bottom probe: They make the hypocrite disrobe, They try us all, if false or true; For this, one devil had pow'r on Job; And I was long the slave of two. PHYSICIAN. Peace, peace, my friend; these subjects fly; Collect thy thoughts--go calmly on.-- PATIENT. And shall I then the fact deny? I was,--thou know'st--I was begone, Like him who fill'd the eastern throne, 160 To whom the Watcher cried aloud[27]; That royal wretch of Babylon, Who was so guilty and so proud. Like him, with haughty, stubborn mind, I, in my state, my comforts sought; Delight and praise I hoped to find, In what I builded, planted, bought! Oh! arrogance! by misery taught-- Soon came a voice! I felt it come: "Full be his cup, with evil fraught, 170 "Demons his guides, and death his doom!" Then was I cast from out my state; Two fiends of darkness led my way; They waked me early, watch'd me late, My dread by night, my plague by day! Oh! I was made their sport, their play, Through many a stormy troubled year; And how they used their passive prey Is sad to tell;--but you shall hear. And first, before they sent me forth, 180 Through this unpitying world to run, They robb'd Sir Eustace of his worth, Lands, manors, lordships, every one; So was that gracious man undone, Was spurn'd as vile, was scorn'd as poor, Whom every former friend would shun, And menials drove from every door. Then those ill-favour'd Ones[28], whom none But my unhappy eyes could view, Led me, with wild emotion, on, 190 And, with resistless terror, drew. Through lands we fled, o'er seas we flew, And halted on a boundless plain; Where nothing fed, nor breathed, nor grew, But silence ruled the still domain.