_For the apartment in Chepstow Castle, where
Harry Marten the regicide was imprisoned thirty years._
For thirty years secluded from mankind,
Here Marten lingered. Often have these walls
Echoed his footsteps, as with even tread
He paced around his prison. Not to him
Did nature’s fair varieties exist:
He never saw the sun’s delightful beams,
Save when through yon high bars he poured a sad
And broken splendour. Dost thou ask his crime?
He had _rebelled against the king, and sat
In judgment on him_; for his ardent mind
Shaped goodliest plans of happiness on earth,
And peace and liberty. Wild dreams! but such
As Plato loved; such as with holy zeal
Our Milton worshipp’d. Blessed hopes! awhile
From man withheld, even to the latter days,
When CHRIST shall come, and all things be fulfilled!
The next is the parody by Canning, as published in the first number of
the Anti-Jacobin, 1797:--