But now the anxious Dame, impatient grown,
Demanded what the Youth had heard, or known,

_The Investigation_.

Whereon to ground those doubts but just exprest;--
Doubts, which must interest the feeling breast:
'Her Brother wert thou, George?--how; prithee say:
Canst thou forego, or cast that name away?'

'No living proofs have I,' the Youth reply'd,
That we by closest ties are not allied;
But in my memory live, and ever will,
A mother's dying words......I hear them still:
She said, to one who watch'd her parting breath,
"Don't separate the Children at my death;
They're not both mine: but--" Here the scene was clos'd;
She died, and left us helpless and expos'd;
Nor Time hath thrown, nor Reason's opening power,
One friendly ray on that benighted hour.'

Ne'er did the Chieftains of a Warring State
Hear from the _Oracle_ their half-told fate
With more religious fear, or more suspense,
Than _Phoebe_ now endur'd:--for every sense

_The Perplexity_.

Became absorb'd in this unwelcome theme;
Nay every meditation, every dream,