of the Ashtons, and in the feuds of the times. When Love intervenes we
discover in an instant that he is not sent by the gods to bring peace,
but that he is the awful instrument of destruction. The spectral
appearance of Alice at the hour of her departure, on the very spot "on
which Lucy Ashton had reclined listening to the fatal tale of woe . . .
holding up her shrivelled hand as if to prevent his coming more near,"
is necessary in order to intimate that the interdict is pronounced not
by a mortal human being but by a dread, supernal authority.



SEPTEMBER, 1798. "THE LYRICAL BALLADS."



The year 1798 was a year of great excitement: England was alone in the
struggle against Buonaparte; the mutiny at the Nore had only just been
quelled: the 3 per cent. Consols had been marked at 49 or 50; the
Gazettes were occupied with accounts of bloody captures of French ships;
Ireland may be said to have been in rebellion, and horrible murders were
committed there; the King sent a message to Parliament telling it that
an invasion might be expected and that it was to be assisted by
"incendiaries" at home; and the Archbishop of Canterbury and eleven
bishops passed a resolution declaring that if the French should land, or
a dangerous insurrection should break out, it would be the duty of the
clergy to take up arms against an enemy whom the Bishop of Rochester
described as "instigated by that desperate malignity against the Faith
he has abandoned, which in all ages has marked the horrible character of
the vile apostate."