"As it fares," said he, "so will fare my
fortunes." Several years elapsed, many of them passed in idleness and
dissipation. He returned to the Abbey a youth scarce grown to manhood,
but, as he thought, with vices and follies beyond his years. He found
his emblem oak almost choked by weeds and brambles, and took the lesson
to himself.
"Young oak, when I planted thee deep in the ground,
I hoped that thy days would be longer than mine,
That thy dark waving branches would flourish around,
And ivy thy trunk with its mantle entwine.
"Such, such was my hope--when in infancy's years
On the laud of my fathers I reared thee with pride;
They are past, and I water thy stem with my tears--
Thy decay not the weeds that surround thee can hide."
I leaned over the stone balustrade of the terrace, and gazed upon the
valley of Newstead, with its silver sheets of water gleaming in the
morning sun. It was a sabbath morning, which always seems to have a
hallowed influence over the landscape, probably from the quiet of the
day, and the cessation of all kinds of week-day labor. As I mused upon
the mild and beautiful scene, and the wayward destinies of the man,
whose stormy temperament forced him from this tranquil paradise to
battle with the passions and perils of the world, the sweet chime of
bells from a village a few miles distant came stealing up the valley.
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