VII.
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he desert gave him visions wild,Such as might suit the spectre's child.Where with black cliffs the torrents toil,He watched the wheeling eddies boil,Jill from their foam his dazzled eyesBeheld the River Demon rise:The mountain mist took form and limbOf noontide hag or goblin grim;The midnight wind came wild and dread,Swelled with the voices of the dead;Far on the future battle-heathHis eye beheld the ranks of death:Thus the lone Seer, from mankind hurled,Shaped forth a disembodied world.One lingering sympathy of mindStill bound him to the mortal kind;The only parent he could claimOf ancient Alpine's lineage came.Late had he heard, in prophet's dream,The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream;Sounds, too, had come in midnight blastOf charging steeds, careering fastAlong Benharrow's shingly side,Where mortal horseman ne'er might ride;The thunderbolt had split the pine,--All augured ill to Alpine's line.He girt his loins, and came to showThe signals of impending woe,And now stood prompt to bless or ban,As bade the Chieftain of his clan.
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