As death itself;-it needs not to be told- “Oh! curse me not,” she cried, as wild he toss'd His desperate hand tow'rds Heaven-"though I am lost, " Think not that guilt, that falsehood made me fall ; “No, no—'twas grief, 'twas madness did it all! “Nay, doubt me not--though all thy love hath ceas'd“ I know it hath-yet, yet believe, at least, “That every spark of reason's light must be Quench'd in this brain, ere I could stray from thee. “ They told me thou wert dead-why, Azim, why “ Did we not, both of us, that instant die “When we were parted? Oh! couldst thou but know “ With what a deep devotedness of woe “ I wept thy absence-o'er and o'er again “ Thinking of thee, still thee, till thought grew pain, “ And memory, like a drop that, night and day, “ Falls cold and ceaseless, wore my heart away. “ Didst thou but know how pale I sat at home, “ My eyes still turn’d the way thou wert to come, “ And, all the long, long night of hope and fear, Thy voice and step still sounding in my ear “ O God! thou wouldst not wonder that, at last, “ Without one glimpse of reason or of Heaven- My heart has treasur'd from affection's spring, Enough, that Guilt reigns here—that hearts, once good, "Now tainted, chill'd, and broken, are his food. Enough, that we are parted—that there rolls 66 66 66 K “ A flood of headlong fate between our souls, “ ZELICA, ZELICA !" the youth exclaim’d, In all the tortures of a mind inflam'd Almost to madness—“by that sacred Heaven, “ Where yet, if prayers can move, thou'lt be forgiven, “ As thou art here—here, in this writhing heart, “ All sinful, wild, and ruin'd as thou art ! By the remembrance of our once pure love, " Which, like a churchyard light, still burns above “ The grave of our lost souls—which guilt in thee “ Cannot extinguish, nor despair in me! “I do conjure, implore thee to fly hence“ If thou hast yet one spark of innocence, “ Fly with me from this place “With thee! oh bliss ! “ 'Tis worth whole years of torment to hear this. “What ! take the lost one with thee?-let her rove By thy dear side, as in those days of love, “ When we were both so happy, both so pure“ Too heavenly dream ! if there's on earth a cure “ For the sunk heart, 'tis this—day after day “ To be the blest companion of thy way ; "To hear thy angel eloquence-to see “ Those virtuous eyes for ever turn'd on me ; " And, in their light re-chasten'd silently, “ Like the stain'd web that whitens in the sun, “ Grow pure by being purely shone upon ! " And thou wilt pray for me-I know thou wilt" At the dim vesper hour, when thoughts of guilt 66 “Come heaviest o'er the heart, thou'lt lift thine eyes, Scarce had she said These breathless words, when a voice deep and dread As that of MONKER, waking up the dead From their first sleep-so startling 'twas to bothRung through the casement near, “ Thy oath ! thy oath !” |