I've watched a wintry night on castle walls, I've stalked by moonlight through deserted halls; And when the weary world was sunk to rest, I've had such sights--as may not be expressed. "Lo! that chateau, the western tower decayed, The peasants shun it, they are all afraid; For there was done a deed! could walls reveal Or timbers tell it, how the heart would feel. Most horrid was it:--for, behold the floor Has stains of blood, and will be clean no more. Hark to the winds! which, through the wide saloon, And the long passage, send a dismal tune,-- Music that ghosts delight in; and now heed Yon beauteous nymph who must unmask the deed: See! with majestic sweep she swims alone Through rooms all dreary, guided by a groan. Though windows rattle, and though tapestries shake, And the feet falter every step they take, Mid moans and gibing sprites she silent goes, To find a something which shall soon expose The villainies and wiles of her determined foes: And having thus adventured, thus endured, Fame, wealth, and lover, are for life secured. "Much have I feared, but am no more afraid, When some chaste beauty, by some wretch betrayed, Is drawn away with such distracted speed That she anticipates a dreadful deed. Not so do I. Let solid walls impound The captive fair, and dig a moat around: Let there be brazen locks and bars of steel, And keepers cruel, such as never feel. With not a single note the purse supply, And when she begs let men and maids deny. Be windows those from which she dare not fall, And help so distant 'tis in vain to call; Still means of freedom will some power devise, And from the baffled ruffian snatch the prize." From all this false sublime, Crabbe was the first to free us, and to lead us into the true sublime of genuine human life. How novel at that time, and yet how thrilling, was the incident of the sea-side visitors surprised out on the sands by the rise of the tide. Here was real sublimity of distress, real display of human passion. The lady, with her children in her hand, wandering from the tea-table which had been spread on the sands, sees the boatmen asleep, the boat adrift, and the tide advancing:--