shall partake their thrones, and be crowned like them with never-fading
laurel."

[Illustration]






BOOK THE SECOND

THUNDER STORM.--THE RAPE OF IMOGEN.--EDWIN ARRIVES AT THE GROTTO OF
ELWY.--CHARACTER OF THE MAGICIAN.--THE END OF THE FIRST DAY.


The song of Llewelyn was heard by the shepherds with reverence and mute
attention. Their blameless hearts were lifted to the skies with the
sentiment of gratitude; their honest bosoms overflowed with the fervour
of devotion. They proved their sympathy with the feelings of the bard,
not by licentious shouts and wild huzzas, but by the composure of their
spirits, the serenity of their countenances, and the deep and
unutterable silence which universally prevailed. And now the hoary
minstrel rose from the little eminence, beneath the aged oak, from whose
branches depended the ivy and the honeysuckle, on which the veneration
of the multitude had placed him. He came into the midst of the plain,
and the sons and the daughters of the fertile Clwyd pressed around him.
Fervently they kissed the hem of his garment; eagerly with their eyes
they sought to encounter the benign rays of his countenance. With the
dignity of a magistrate, and the tenderness of a father, he lifted his