And now ’twas silence all:  the pale stars shone;
    The moon, declining, fill’d her ruddy throne. 
    But wrapt in deepest trance Ernestus lay,
    ’Till Phosphor’s lamp restored the purple day.

      Meanwhile, ere yet on Stockholm’s towery height
    The morning-planet shed its trembling light,
    A troop, with Bernheirn, thro’ the portals past,
    Whose polish’d arms a glimmering splendor cast. 
    No single breath the general stillness stirr’d;
    Their trampling feet alone the warder heard,
    And follow’d with his sight the dusty cloud,
    That in its mantle wrapp’d the marching crowd. 
    O’er crackling bushes scud the warrior train
    And pass with haste the solitary plain;
    ’Till the broad sun discover’d from afar
    The dawning lustre of his golden car. 
    Beneath the covert of a neighbouring wood
    They paus’d awhile, and their swift march renew’d.

      Now, driven by force celestial o’er the tides,
    With lightning speed the rapid pinnace glides: 
    ’Till, having finish’d its predestined way,
    Its winged motions silently decay. 
    And now, from slumber rous’d, Ernestus spied
    A river, branching from the ocean tide;
    The mighty stream roll’d on its darksome flood
    Thro’ mossy cavern and thro’ tangled wood;
    Thence in soft mazes drew its humid train,
    To feed the verdure of a lonely plain. 
    He furl’d the sail, and grasp’d the labouring oar,
    And sped to Dalecarlia’s welcome shore. 
    The oar, light-stretching, breaks the sparkling tide. 
    And scatters the reflected sunbeam wide.

      And now, by Trollio sent, without delay
    From Stockholm’s towers a herald took his way,
    Amidst his idle fleet where Norbi slept,
    And on the ocean’s verge his station kept. 
    Amongst those peers, whom matchless talents rais’d
    To shine in Christiern’s court, their names emblazed
    With glittering infamy, and splendid shame,
    This naval chief held no inglorious fame. 
    In his firm heart ambition fix’d her reign,
    But led celestial mercy in her train. 
    While others joy’d to crush the yielding foe,
    And bid the torch of ruin ceaseless glow,
    ‘Twas his alone, to bid th’ uplifted dart
    Recoil unsated from the victim’s heart,
    The wounds of misery and despair to heal,
    And smile upon the griefs he could not feel. 
    A lawless pirate, by his king’s command
    His numerous navy on the hostile strand
    Pour’d their incessant force, and o’er his head
    Her wings for many a year bold triumph spread: 
    ’Till, doom’d at length the chance of war to feel,
    Entangled in ambition’s broken wheel,
    Crush’d by his falling master’s hapless fate,
    Awhile he struggled with th’ opposing weight: 
    In vain; of every hope and