A flaming cross--a beacon light To this world's universal night! It seemed to shine with such a glow, And through my spirit piercing so, That, pantingly, I strove to cry For her, whom I thought slumbered by, And hide me from that awful shine In the embrace of Caroline! I wakened in the attempt--'twas day; The troubled dream had fled away; 'Twas day--and I, alone, was laid In that great room and stately bed; No Caroline beside me! Wide And unrelenting swept the tide Of death 'twixt her and me!" There paused Sweet Harriet's voice, for such thoughts caused--' * * * * * This poem springs from the deepest feelings, and from sorrows the most poignant. The respective images, tinctured with grief and despondency, pass before us with weird and vivid reality; and many of the passages are imbued with great tenderness, beauty, and pathos. The painful, and, perhaps, too morbid intensity of some of the pictures, whether of dreams or realities, is painted here with the skill of no common artist, whatever youthful defects may be observed in the composition. The poem is one more notable for tender sweetness than any other that remains from Branwell; but it lacks in places the vigour and power of his later compositions, and is, in several parts, of unequal merit. In the earlier portion of it, where he assumes the iambic measure, it is not difficult to perceive the influence of Byron on his diction. In this work Branwell again recurs to the time when tears of anguish flowed from his yet 'unhardened heart,' whose present woes are forgotten in the swelling thoughts of 'things gone by.' We recognize with what pathetic feeling he paints in Caroline all the qualities of instructress, guardian, and friend, which had characterized his sister Maria. Long afterwards Charlotte Brontë, inspired by similar feelings, devoted the first chapters of 'Jane Eyre' to a delineation, in the character of Helen Burns, of the disposition of her dead sister, whose death, a few days after her return from Cowan Bridge, she could scarcely ever either forget or forgive. CHAPTER XV. EVENTS AT THE PARSONAGE. Charlotte's first Offer of Marriage--Her Remarks concerning it-- A second Offer Declined--Anne a Governess--She Moralizes upon it--Charlotte obtains a Situation--Unsuited to Her--She Leaves it--Branwell takes Pleasure in Scenery--He Visits Liverpool with his Friends--Charlotte goes to Easton--Curates at Haworth--Their Visits to the Parsonage--Public Meetings on Church Rates--Charlotte's Attempt at a Richardsonian Novel--She sends the Commencement of it to Wordsworth for his Opinion--Branwell receives an Appointment as Private Tutor.