Falkland, Book 3.Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
Falkland, Book 3.
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
Fiction
She did not reproach him--she
died of a broken heart! I saw her just before her death, for I was
distantly related to her, and I could not forsake her utterly even in her
sin. She then spoke to me only of the child by her former marriage, whom
she had left in the years when it most needed her care: she questioned me
of its health--its education--its very growth: the minutest thing was not
beneath her inquiry. His tidings were all that brought back to her mind
'the redolence of joy and spring.' I brought that child to her one day:
he at least had never forgotten her. How bitterly both wept when they
were separated! and she--poor, poor Ellen--an hour after their separation
was no more!" There was a pause for a few minutes. Emily was deeply
affected. Mrs. St. John had anticipated the effect she had produced, and
concerted the method to increase it. "It is singular," she resumed,
"that, the evening before her elopement, some verses were sent to her
anonymously--I do not think, Emily, that you have ever seen them. Shall
I sing them to you now?" and, without waiting for a reply, she placed
herself at the piano; and with a low but sweet voice, greatly aided in
effect by the extreme feeling of her manner, she sang the following
verses:
1.
And wilt thou leave that happy home,
Where once it was so sweet to live?
Ah! think, before thou seek'st to roam,
What safer shelter Guilt can give!
2.
The Bird may rove, and still regain
With spotless wings, her wonted rest,
But home, once lost, is ne'er again
Restored to Woman's erring breast!
3.
If wandering o'er a world of flowers,
The heart at times would ask repose;
But thou wouldst lose the only bowers
Of rest amid a world of woes.
4.
Recall thy youth's unsullied vow
The past which on thee smile so fair;
Then turn from thence to picture now
The frowns thy future fate must wear!
5.
No hour, no hope, can bring relief
To her who hides a blighted name;
For hearts unbow'd by stormiest _grief_
Will break beneath one breeze of _shame_!
6.
And when thy child's deserted years
Amid life's early woes are thrown,
Shall menial bosoms soothe the tears
That should be shed on thine alone?
7.
When on thy name his lips shall call,
(That tender name, the earliest taught!)
Thou wouldst not Shame and Sin were all
The memories link'd around its thought!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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