Over the tapestried green of the plain! Have I escaped from my prison so drear? Shall I no more in my sad dungeon pine? Let me in long and in thirsty draughts here Drink in the breezes, so free, so divine Thanks, thanks, ye trees, in smiling verdure dressed, In that ye veil my prison-walls from sight! I'll dream that I am free and blest Why should I waken from a dream so bright? Do not the spacious heavens encompass me? Behold! my gaze, unshackled, free, Pierces with joy the trackless realms of light! There, where the gray-tinged hills of mist project, My kingdom's boundaries begin; Yon clouds, that tow'rd the south their course direct,     France's far-distant ocean seek to win. Swiftly-flying clouds, hardy sailors through air! Mortal hath roamed with ye, sailed with ye, ne'er! Greetings of love to my youthful home bear! I am a prisoner, I am in chains, Ah, not a herald, save ye, now remains, Free through the air hath your path ever been, Ye are not subject to England's proud queen! Yonder's a fisherman trimming his boat. E'en that frail skiff from all danger might tear me, And to the dwellings of friends it might bear me. Scarcely his earnings can keep life afloat. Richly with treasures his lap I'd heap over,—     Oh! what a draught should reward him to-day! Fortune held fast in his nets he'd discover, If in his bark he would take me away! Hear'st thou the horn of the hunter resound, Wakening the echo through forest and plain? Ah, on my spirited courser to bound! Once more to join in the mirth-stirring train! Hark! how the dearly-loved tones come again! Blissful, yet sad, the remembrance they wake; Oft have they fallen with joy on mine ear, When in the highlands the bugle rang clear, Rousing the chase over mountain and brake. 

       From The Maid of Orleans, Prologue, scene 4.     

      JOAN OF ARC (soliloquizing). Farewell, ye mountains, and ye pastures dear, Ye still and happy valleys, fare ye well! No longer may Joan's footsteps linger here, Joan bids ye now a long, a last farewell! Ye meadows that I watered, and each bush Set by my hands, ne'er may your verdure fail! Farewell, ye grots, ye springs that cooling gush Thou echo, blissful voice of this sweet vale, So wont to give me back an answering strain,—    Joan must depart, and ne'er return again! Ye haunts of all my silent joys of old, I leave ye now behind forevermore! Disperse, ye lambs, far o'er the trackless wold! She now hath gone who tended you of yore! I must away to guard another fold, On yonder field 

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