Whether this opened the wounds that had closed in his youthful
breast, and malignant Love, in his revenge, poisoned it; or whether
the disappointment he had experienced in finding others preferred to
him, first in the paths of fortune, then in those of the muses,--he
was thought to have died broken-hearted.
"'About half a mile from St. John's College is the termination of a
natural terrace, with the Cherwell close under it, in some places
bright with yellow and red flowers glancing and glowing through the
stream, and suddenly in others dark with the shadows of many
different trees, in broad, overbending thickets, and with rushes
spear-high, and party-coloured flags.
"'After a walk in Midsummer, the emersion of our hands into the cool
and closing grass is surely not the least among our animal delights.
I was just seated, and the first sensation of rest vibrated in me
gently, as though it were music to the limbs, when I discovered by a
hollow in the herbage that another was near. The long meadow-sweet
and blooming burnet half concealed from me him whom the earth was
about to hide totally and for ever.
"'Master Batchelor,' said I, 'it is ill-sleeping by the water-side.
Pages:
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153