THE

FOSTER-MOTIIER'S TALE,

A DRAMATIC FRAGMENT.

FOSTER-MOTHER. I never saw the man whom

you

describe.

MARIA.

'Tis strange! he spake of you familiarly As mine and Albert's common Foster-mother.

Foster-MOTHER. Now blessings on the man, whoe'er he be, That joined your names with mine! O my

sweet lady, As often as I think of those dear times When

you

two little ones would stand at eve On each side of my chair, and make me learn All you had learnt in the day; and how to talk In gentle phrase, then bid me sing to you 'Tis more like heaven to come than what has MARIA. O my dear Mother! this strange man has left

me

Troubled with wilder fancies, than the moon
Breeds in the love-sick maid who gazes at it,
Till lost in inward vision, with wet eye
She gazes idly! But that entrance, Mother!

FOSTER-MOTHER.
Can no one hear? It is a perilous tale!

MARIA.

No one!

FOSTER-MOTHER. My husband's father told it me, Poor old Leoni !-Angels rest his soul! He was a woodman, and could fell and saw With lusty arm. You know that hug'e round

beam Which props the hanging wall of the old chapel? Beneath that tree, while yet it was a tree, He found a baby wrapt in mosses, lined With thistle-beards, and such small locks of

wool As hang on brambles. Well, he brought him:

home, And reared him at the then Lord Velez' cost..

And so the babe grew up a pretty boy,
A pretty boy, but most unteachable
And never learnt a prayer, nor told a bead,
But knew the names of birds, and mocked

their notes,
And whistled, as he were a bird himself:
And all the autumn 'twas his only play
To get the seeds of wild flowers, and to plant

them With earth and water, on the stumps of trees. A Friar, who gathered simples in the wood, A grey-haired man-he loved this little boy, The boy loved him-and, when the Friar

taught him, He soon could write with the pen; and from

that time, Lived chiefly at the Convent or the Castle. So he became a very learned youth. But Oh! poor wretch !-he read, and read,

and read, 'Till his brain turned-and ere his twentieth

vear, He had unlawful thoughts of many things: And though he prayed, he never loved to pray With holy men; nor in a holy place ;But yet his speech, it was so soft and sweet, The late Lord Velez ne'er was wearied with

And once, as by the north side of the Chapel They stood together, chained in deep discourse, The earth heaved under them with such a groan, That the wall tottered, and had well nigh fallen Right on their heads. My Lord was sorely

frightened.; A fever seized him, and he made confession Of all the heretical and lawless talk Which brought this judgment: So the youth

was seized

And cast into that hole. My husband's father
Sobbed like a child-it almost broke his heart:
And once as he was working in the cellar,
He heard a voice distinctly; 'twas the youth's,
Who sung a doleful song about green fields,
How sweet it were on lake or wild Savannah
To hunt for food, and be a naked man,
And wander up and down at liberty.
He always doted on the youth, and now
His love grew desperate; and defying death,
He made that running entrance. I described:
And the young man escaped.

MARIA.

'Tis a sweet tale: Such as would lull a listening child to sleep, His rosy face besoiled with unwiped tears.And what became of him?

FOSTER-MOTHER.

He went on ship-board With those bold voyagers, who made discovery Of golden lands. Leoni's younger brother Went likewise, and when he returned to Spain, He told Leoni, that the poor mad youth, Soon after they arrived in that new world, In spite of his dissuasion, seized a boat, And all alone, set sail by silent moonlight Up a great river, great as any sea, And ne'er was heard of more; but 'tis supposed, He lived and died

aniong

the

savage men,