"I will not plead the cause of crime, "Nor sue thee to redeem from time "Such maddening moments as my past, They could not, and they did not, last "Albeit my birth and name be base, 280 "From thee-nay, wherefore dost thou start ?— "From thee in all their vigour came "My arm of strength, my soul of flame 290 "Thou didst not give me life alone, "But all that made me more thine own. "For that, like thine, abhorred controul: "And for my breath, that hasty boon 295 "Thou gav'st and wilt resume so soon, "I valued it no more than thou, 300 "When rose thy casque above thy brow, "And we, all side by side, have striven, "And o'er the dead our coursers driven : "The past is nothing—and at last "The future can but be the past; 305 "Yet would I that I then had died : "For though thou work'dst my mother's ill; "And made thy own my destined bride, "I feel thou art my father still; And, harsh as sounds thy hard decree, ""Tis not unjust, although from thee. "Begot in sin, to die in shame, "My life begun and ends the same: "As erred the sire, so erred the son, 310 "And thou must punish both in one. 315 "My crime seems worst to human view, "But God must judge between us too!" Again attracted every eye Would she thus hear him doomed to die! 325 She stood, I said, all pale and still, So large and slowly gathered slid From the long dark fringe of that fair lid, It was a thing to see, not hear! 335 And those who saw, it did surprise, Such drops could fall from human eyes. To speak she thought-the imperfect note 340 345 It ceased—again she thought to speak, Then burst her voice in one long shriek, And to the earth she fell like stone Or statue from its base o'erthrown, More like a thing that ne'er had life,— 350. |