Attempt > Volume 1 and Select writings

THE ATTEMPT.
31
fyt Cmus.
Little golden flow’ret!
Hung with sparkling dew,
All thy pretty tiny buds
Opening to the view.
Peeping, little flow’ret!
Scarce above the ground,
Other flowers beneath the soil,
Sale and snug and sound.
Darling little flow’ret!
Like the snowflake driven,
To cheer unhappy mortals here
With messages from heaven.
Lovely little flow’ret!
Decked in purple gay;
Like a little king of flowers,
Hold thy petty sway.
Ueania.
JV igmii xrf Itcrhmg.
Part I.
Long ages ago, when the whole of ^Northern Europe was sunk in barbarism and
dark idolatry, a young and beautiful maiden was found at sunrise upon the
rugged coast of Norway. There she stood, looking wistfully over the retiring waves
which had left their fringes of silvery surf at her small naked feet. The night had
been stormy, and a vessel lay wrecked among the rocks. All the crew had perished hut
that gentle lady. The savage people gathered about her, wondering much at the rare
fashion and the richness of her flowing garments, and at her fresh and delicate beauty,
but most of all at the sweetness and dignity of her demeanour.
It was this maiden who became the wife of liegnar, the young Prince of Norway.
She was his equal in birth, being a king’s daughter, but obliged to llee from the
usurper of her father’s throne.
The Princess Geraldine was not an idolater, yet, for nearly a year after her
marriage, few persons hut her husband knew the name of her religion. They soon
learned, however, that in her it was pure and peaceable, and so she was loved by all,
and might have been happy, had not Queen Temora, the widow of the King’s eldest
son, visited the Court of'Norway. Now Temora was very beautiful, but proud and
revengeful, and so skilled in magic, that by many she was named “ The Sorceress.”
. Temora was Queen in her own right of the far Orkney Isles, and, notwithstanding her
husband’s sudden death, she had cherished the hope to reign in Norway also; for