THE BRIDE OF GUAYAQUIL.

THE BRIDE OF GUAYAQUIL.

I.

WHERE Chimborazo rears his top

Until he seems the heavens to prop,

And at his feet Pacific rolls

His yeasty tide o'er rocky shoals
In fierce festivity;

The lofty palms and cedars stand
In shadowy files along his strand,
And comes the reptile's fearful hiss
From chasm deep and dark abyss,
The owlet from his covert hoots,

And the wild steed like meteor shoots,
Proud of his liberty;

Why, on a little mound of turf,

Washed by the passing streamlet's surf,
Her garments soiled-her hair unbound,
Her brow with weeping willows wound,

A rusty falchion by her side,

Dwells lonely Guayaquil's fair Bride
In pensive mournfulness?

Why, in that lonely desert spot,

Where man dwells not in cave or cot,

Nor human footsteps ever stray,

Save hunter who hath lost his way,

Or pilgrim that bewildered roves

O'er rocky dells and shallow coves
In awe and deep distress,

Midst thunder, storm, and rain, and sleet,

The blood oft oozing from her feet—

A very skeleton her frame,

Her only food the feathered game,

Her scanty roof a shelving rock,

That trembles 'neath the tempest's shock,

Doth ever bide

That youthful Bride?

II.

ONE eve unto a pilgrim old,

Who, wildered, strayed along the wold,

That mournful Bride her story told.

"I was a hunter's only daughter,

Who dwelt by Guayaquil's dark water,
And early me in wedlock gave,
Unto a youthful warrior brave;

But scarcely were we wed a day,
When he, alas! was called away
To join afar bold Bolivar,

And help to quell the blast of war.

Week after week, and months went by,

And still I heard not of my Guy,

Nor if the war continued yet,

Which me with dreadful fears beset;

And, tortured with the mad'ning thought

That he had fall'n, the shore I sought
One eve, and walked along the strand,
With streaming eyes and clasped hand,
Then sat me down upon the sand,
With the vain hope that I might see
His white sail fluttering on the sea.
Long through the pale, uncertain light
Across the wave I strained my sight,
But nothing meeting there mine eye,
Save water, mist, and starry sky,
My spirit wandered to my Guy,
Along the wild Peruvian plain,