[IM]"Sweet HIGHLAND Girl! a very shower Of beauty was thy earthly dower," When thou didst flit before mine eyes,[537] 55 Gay Vision under sullen skies, While Hope and Love around thee played, Near the rough falls of Inversneyd![IN] Have they, who nursed the blossom, seen No breach of promise in the fruit? 60 Was joy, in following joy, as keen As grief can be in grief's pursuit? When youth had flown did hope still bless Thy goings[538]--or the cheerfulness Of innocence survive to mitigate distress? 65 VI But from our course why turn--to tread A way with shadows overspread; Where what we gladliest would believe Is feared as what may most deceive? Bright Spirit, not with amaranth crowned 70 But heath-bells from thy native ground. Time[539] cannot thin thy flowing hair, Nor take one ray of light from Thee; For in my Fancy thou dost share The gift of immortality; 75 And there shall bloom, with Thee allied, The Votaress by Lugano's side; And that intrepid Nymph, on Uri's steep, descried! The following passage from Mrs. Wordsworth's Journal describes The Votaress by Lugano's side. "Lugano, Sept. 8, Friday.--... The evening was uncommonly fine; the road shady; bells ringing from the neighbouring chapels, that crested many a steep rock; birds too here, fitfully warbling from the groves; waters gushing through some rocky cleft among the thickets; and I, at my own pace and will, enjoyed a quiet and most refreshing walk. At every step up and down the well-made road, meeting something new, a different shaped mountain, or the same trees under different combinations, a tempting path winding to a village in a dell below, or to a nest of cottages gathered round a spire above, a tinkling stream, or a green glade without one; and all the way through a region of stately trees.... Here an elegant-looking peasant Girl was putting on her gay ornaments before she entered the Town, where also was a festival. Her dress was so pretty I could not help noticing it, a scarlet chintz frock with a deep figured border, a wide muslin apron, nearly wrapping her round, also with a deep richly wrought border, and slung by white straps over the shoulders, a gold chain round the neck, earrings, etc.; her hair, something like Dora's, nicely braided. Her companions were assisting to put a very beautiful silk handkerchief upon her neck. One of them, from the interest she seemed to take in the arrangements, might be the mother of the Maiden; the other, a younger Sister perhaps, who lent her aid more slackly, and would, I daresay, rather have been in the wild fields gathering flowers to deck a Mayday garland, or to wreath a coronal for _Our Lady's_ head, on this her day of Festival." The intrepid Nymph, on Uri's steep, descried!