Now, when the corpse to Appleton[220] was ta’en—
Among the mourners were “young Mistress Jane,”
And her dear father (by his daughter’s side),
Who griev’d as though he had been long allied
To the departed! but George Hollybrand
Ne’er had the joy to clasp old Andrew’s hand
Before his spirit fled, for that same night
George came to Rollingate the soul took flight!—
And this sad sense of frail mortality,
Stung George’s heart and wrung it bitterly.
O’er Andrew’s grave a tablet-stone was rais’d;
And as the sheep around about it graz’d
Arnold some day, perchance, might step thereon—
Himself to witness that the deed was done:
And, doubtless, if he lives to see the mound
A tear will trickle on that holy ground,
Where, near the spot (within the sacred fane),
Lord William’s ancestors were deathful lain,—
So that no stranger would (when Arnold saw)
Be studious sorrowing o’er the dead below.
[220] A little village, about a mile and a half from the lodge at
Rollingate.