"Methought I saw a vessel near, and bitter were my screams,
But they died within me echoless as voices in our dreams;
For the winds were howling round me, and the suffocating gush
Of briny horrors rioted, the cry of death to crush.
"My senses fled. I lifelessly upon the ocean slept;
And when to consciousness I woke, a form before me wept.
Her face was beautiful as night; but by her side there stood
A group, whose savage glances were more dismal than the flood.
"They stood around exultingly; they snatched me from the wave--
Stole me from death--to torture me, to sell me as a slave.
She who stood o'er me weeping was a partner of my chains.
We were sold, and separation bled my heart with deeper pains.
"I knew not what her birth had been, but loved her with a love
Which nor our tyrant's cruelty nor mockery could move.
I saw her offered to a Moor--another purchased me;
But, Heavens! my arms once fetterless, ere midnight I was free!
"Memory, with eager eye, had marked her master's hated door--
I grasped a sabre, reached the house, and slew the opposing Moor.
I bore her rapidly away; a boat was on the beach--
We put to sea--saw morning dawn 'yond our pursuers' reach
"I gazed upon her silently--I saw her sink to sleep,
As darkness gathered over us upon the cheerless deep;
I saw her in her slumber start--unconsciously she spoke--
Oh death!--she called upon _his_ name who left me on the rock!
"Then there was madness in my breast and fury in my brain--
She never heard _that name_ from me, yet uttered it again!
I started forth and grasped her hand--'Are we pursued?' she cried--
I trembled in my agony, and speechless o'er her sighed.
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