The Gem Of The Western World - For All Seasons (1851) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: FANCHETTE. BY MRS. D. M. OSGOOD. The storm ceased at midnight? The wave seems to sleep, And the sea-gull flies screaming Away o'er the deep; And Fanchette is waiting At morn on the shore, For the boat that returneth, Returneth no more. Oh, bright flashed the sunlight At morn on her sail And loud in her canvass At night roared the gale; And the maiden waits ever In vain on the shore, For the boat that returneth, Returneth no more. And thus thou art watching, Oh, heart on the sand, For the bark that loosed anchor At morn from the strand? Rich, rich was the lading That fair vessel bore? " Hope, and trust, and affection, That come back no more. HILDEGARDE. A ROMANCE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. " Is this her fault, or mine 1 The tempter, or the tempted, who sins most 1 Ha Not she; nor doth she tempt: but it is I, That lying by the violet in the sun, Do as the carrion does, not as the flower, Corrupt with virtuous season."?Shakspeare. CHAPTER I. During the dark and superstitious age of the twelfth century, few persons of religious character, of either sex, maintained a more exalted reputation for piety, or exercised by the aid of prophetic oracles, and miraculous visions, greater ascendancy over the minds of both Germany and Italy, than Hildegarde, Abbess of St. Ruperts, near Bingen, on the Rhine. Her claims were well suited to the age in which she lived. Crowds of persons of all ranks received her decisions as the commands of the most high God. Cardinals and Archbishops bent with obsequious acquiescence to her holy decrees, and even the papal throne, which at that period held the reins of all Europe in its powerful grasp, failed not to further its own ambitious projects by feigning to respect her mysterious and lofty pr...