Chapter VI

As the bold bird that builds her mansion high
On beetling crag or helmlock’s lofty bough,
Deep in the desert, far from human eye,
And deems herself secure from every foe,--
Aloft in overshadowing branches nigh,
Perceives the wild-cat’s threatening eye-balls glow,
And spurns her eyry, with ascending flight
To some tall ash that crests the mountain’s height;