'Tis the cessation of our breath. Silent and motionless we lie: And no one knoweth more than this. I saw our little Gertrude die; She left off breathing, and no more I smoothed the pillow beneath her head. She was more beautiful than before. Like violets faded were her eyes; By this we knew that she was dead. Through the open window looked the skies Into the chamber where she lay, And the wind was like the sound of wings As if angels came to bear her away. Ah! when I saw and felt these things, I found it difficult to stay; I longed to die as she had died; And go forth with her side by side. The saints are dead, the martyrs dead, And Mary, and our Lord; and I Would follow in humility The way by them illumined! * * * * * URSULA. Alas! that I should live to see Thy death, beloved, and to stand Above thy grave! Ah, woe the day! ELSIE. Thou wilt not see it. I shall lie Beneath the flowers of another land; For at Salerno, far away Over the mountains, over the sea, It is appointed me to die! And it will seem no more to thee Than if at the village on market-day I should a little longer stay Than I am used. * * * * * URSULA. Not now! not now! ELSIE. Christ died for me, and shall not I Be willing for my Prince to die? You both are silent; you cannot speak. This said I, at our Saviour's feast, After confession to the priest, And even he made no reply. Does he not warn us all to seek The happier, better land on high, Where flowers immortal never wither; And could he forbid me to go thither? GOTTLIEB. In God's own time, my heart's delight! When he shall call thee, not before! ELSIE. I heard him call. When Christ ascended Triumphantly, from star to star, He left the gates of heaven ajar; I had a vision in the night, And saw him standing at the door Of his Father's mansion, vast and splendid, And beckoning to me from afar. I cannot stay!" We need not point out the exquisite simplicity of the language here employed, or the beauty and tenderness of the thought. It is in such passages that Mr Longfellow's genius is most eminently apparent; because in them all is nature, and there is no indication of a model. In his more laboured scenes there is generally an appearance of effort, beside the imitative propensity, to which we have already sufficiently alluded.