Ah! why this boding start, this sudden pain,
That wings my pulse and shoots from vein to vein,
What mean, regardless of yon midnight bell,
These earth-born visions sad'ning o'er my cell?
What strange disorder prompts these thoughts to glow,
These sighs to murmur, and these tears to flow?
Sleep, conscience, sleep, each awful thought be drown'd,
And sevenfold darkness veil the scene around.
What means this pause, this agonizing start,
This glimpse of heav'n just rushing thro' my heart?
Methinks, I see a radiant cross display'd,
A wounded Saviour bleeds along the shade;
Around th' expiring God bright angels fly,
Swell the loud hymn and open all the sky.
O save me, save me, e'er the thunder roll
And endless terrors swallow up my soul.
Fly, fly, for justice bares the arm of God,
And the grasp'd vengeance only waits his nod!