The tribute by these various records claimed, Duly we paid, each after each, and read[442] The ordinary chronicle of birth, Office, alliance, and promotion--all Ending in dust; of upright magistrates, 175 Grave doctors strenuous for the mother-church, And uncorrupted senators, alike To king and people true. A brazen plate, Not easily deciphered, told of one Whose course of earthly honour was begun 180 In quality of page among the train Of the eighth Henry, when he crossed the seas His royal state to show, and prove his strength In tournament, upon the fields of France. Another tablet registered the death, 185 And praised the gallant bearing, of a Knight Tried in the sea-fights of the second Charles. Near this brave Knight his father lay entombed; And, to the silent language giving voice, I read,--how in his manhood's earlier day 190 He, 'mid the afflictions of intestine war, And rightful government subverted, found One only solace--that he had espoused A virtuous Lady tenderly beloved For her benign perfections; and yet more 195 Endeared to him, for this,[443] that, in her state Of wedlock richly crowned with Heaven's regard, She with a numerous issue filled his house, Who throve, like plants, uninjured by the storm That laid their country waste. No need to speak 200 Of less particular notices assigned To Youth or Maiden gone before their time, And Matrons and unwedded Sisters old; Whose charity and goodness were rehearsed In modest panegyric. "These dim lines, 205 What would they tell?" said I,--but, from the task Of puzzling out that faded narrative, With whisper soft my venerable Friend Called me; and, looking down the darksome aisle, I saw the Tenant of the lonely vale 210 Standing apart; with curvèd arm reclined On the baptismal font; his pallid face Upturned, as if his mind were rapt, or lost In some abstraction; gracefully he stood, The semblance bearing of a sculptured form 215 That leans upon a monumental urn In peace, from morn to night, from year to year.