Nor fears from wrath, nor threats from conscience, felt. Long time our friend had watch’d, and much had paid For vulgar minds, who lent his vengeance aid. 440 At length one evening, late returning home, Thoughtless and fearless of the ills to come, The Wife was seized, when void of all alarm And vainly trusting to a footman’s arm. Death in his hand, the Husband stood in view, Commanding silence, and obedience too; Forced to his carriage, sinking at his side, Madly he drove her—Vengeance was his guide. All in that ruin Villars had prepared, And meant her fate and sorrow to have shared; 450 There he design’d they should for ever dwell, The weeping pair of a monastic cell. An ancient couple from their cottage went, Won by his pay, to this imprisonment; And all was order’d in his mind—the pain He must inflict, the shame she must sustain; But such his gentle spirit, such his love, The proof might fail of all he meant to prove. Features so dear had still maintain’d their sway, And looks so loved had taught him to obey; 460 Rage and Revenge had yielded to the sight Of charms that waken wonder and delight; The harsher passions from the heart had flown, And LOVE regain’d his Subject and his Throne. THE FAREWELL AND RETURN [The next Tale, and a number of others, were originally designed for a separate volume, to be entitled “The Farewell and Return.” In a letter to Mrs. Leadbetter, written in 1823, the poet says—“In my ‘Farewell and Return’ I suppose a young man to take leave of his native place, and to exchange _farewells_ with his friends and acquaintance there—in short, with as many characters as I have fancied I could manage. These, and their several situations and prospects, being briefly sketched, an interval is supposed to elapse; and our youth, a youth no more, _returns_ to the scene of his early days. Twenty years have passed; and the interest, if there be any, consists in the completion, more or less unexpected, of the history of each person to whom he had originally bidden farewell.” The reader will find the Tales written on this plan divided each into two or more sections, and will easily perceive where the _farewell_ terminates and the _return_ begins.] TALE VI. _THE FAREWELL AND RETURN._ I.