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"For to-morrow we give to the slaughter and flame

"The sons and the shrines of the Christian name.

"None, save thou and thine, I've sworn

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"Shall be left upon the morn:

"But thee will I bear to a lovely spot,

"Where our hands shall be joined, and our sorrow

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"Whom vice and envy made my foes."

Upon his hand she laid her own

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Light was the touch, but it thrilled to the bone,

And shot a chillness to his heart,

Which fixed him beyond the power to start.

Though slight was that grasp so mortal cold,

He could not loose him from its hold;

But never did clasp of one so dear

Strike on the pulse with such feeling of fear,

As those thin fingers, long and white,

Froze through his blood by their touch that night.

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The feverish glow of his brow was gone,

And his heart sank so still that it felt like stone,

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As he looked on the face, and beheld its hue

So deeply changed from what he knew:

Fair but faint-without the ray

Of mind, that made each feature play

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Like sparkling waves on a sunny day;

And her motionless lips lay still as death,

And her words came forth without her breath,
And there rose not a heave o'er her bosom's swell,
And there seemed not a pulse in her veins to dwell.
Though her eye shone out, yet the lids were fixed, 571
And the glance that it gave was wild and unmixed
With aught of change, as the eyes may seem
Of the restless who walk in a troubled dream;
Like the figures on arras, that gloomily glare
Stirred by the breath of the wintry air,

So seen by the dying lamp's fitful light,

Lifeless, but life-like, and awful to sight;

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As they seem, through the dimness, about to come

down

From the shadowy wall where their images frown;

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Fearfully flitting to and fro,

As the gusts on the tapestry come and go.

"If not for love of me be given

"Thus much, then, for the love of heaven,

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"Thine injured country's sons to spare,

"Or thou art lost; and never shalt see

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"Not earth-that's past-but heaven or me.

"If this thou dost accord, albeit

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"A heavy doom 'tis thine to meet,

"That doom shall half absolve thy sin,

"And mercy's gate may receive thee within:

"But pause one moment more, and take
"The curse of him thou didst forsake;
"And look once more to heaven, and see
"Its love for ever shut from thee.
“There is a light cloud by the moon-

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full soon

sail

""Tis passing, and will pass
"If, by the time its vapoury
"Hath ceased her shaded orb to veil,
"Thy heart within thee is not changed,
"Then God and man are both avenged;

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"Dark will thy doom be, darker still

"Thine immortality of ill."

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Alp looked to heaven, and saw on high

The sign she spake of in the sky;

But his heart was swollen, and turned aside,

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And charged to crush him-let it burst!

He looked upon it earnestly,

Without an accent of reply;

He watched it passing; it is flown:

Full on his eye the clear moon shone,

And thus he spake-" Whate'er my fate,

"I am no changeling-'tis too late :

"The reed in storms may bow and quiver,

"Then rise again; the tree must shiver.

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"What Venice made me, I must be, "Her foe in all, save love to thee:

"But thou art safe: oh, fly with me!"

He turned, but she is gone!

Nothing is there but the column stone.

Hath she sunk in the earth, or melted in air?

He saw not, he knew not; but nothing is there.

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The night is past, and shines the sum

As if that morn were a jocund one.

Lightly and brightly breaks away

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The Morning from her mantle grey,

And the Noon will look on a sultry day.

Hark to the trump, and the drum,

And the mournful sound of the barbarous horn,

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And the flap of the banners, that flit as they're borne, And the neigh of the steed, and the multitude's hum, And the clash, and the shout, they come, they come!'

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The horsetails are plucked from the ground, and the

sword

From its sheath; and they form, and but wait for the

word.

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