Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 1).djvu/14

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CLERMONT.
Beholds the azure canopy of heaven,
And living lamps that over-arch his head
With more than regal splendour.

Never did a pupil render the toils of an instructor less difficult than did Madeline those of her father; and as she grew up, her perfect knowledge of the historian's record, and just conception of the poet's beauty, rendered her a companion well qualified to diversify his lonely hours.

She possessed besides an exquisite taste for drawing and music, and accompanied the soft melody of her lute with a voice which, though not strong, was inexpressibly sweet; melodious as that which the rapt poet at the visionary hour of twilight sometimes thinks he hears

chanting from the wood-crown'd hill,
the deep'ning dale, or inmost sylvan glade.

The liveliness of her fancy was equal to the strength of her understanding, and often raised a visionary paradise around her; soft-ness

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