This darkly passionate man tortured himself with his longings and his horror.

War came and the prayers for victory in churches found him in his heart praying for defeat; then came the execution of the king; then the plot which slew the Gironde.

Before all this Wordsworth trembled as Hamlet did when he learned the ghost's story.

His faith in the world was shaken.

First his own country had taken up arms against what he believed to be the cause of liberty.