Yet virtue from her deathlike sleep awakes, Remorse comes on, and rears her whip of snakes. Ah, HENRY! fled are all those fatal charms That led their victim to the monarch's arms; No more responsive to the evening air In wanton ringlets waves my golden hair; No more amid the dance my footsteps move, No more the languid eye dissolves with love; Fades on the cheek of ROSAMUND the rose, And penitence awakes from sin's repose. Harlot! adultress! HENRY! can I bear Such aggravated guilt, such full despair! By me the marriage-bed defil'd, by me The laws of heaven forsook, defied for thee! Dishonour fix'd on CLIFFORD's ancient name, A father sinking to the grave with shame; These are the crimes that harrow up my heart, These are the crimes that poison memory's dart; For these each pang of penitence I prove, Yet these, and more than these, are lost in love. Yes, even here amid the sacred pile, The echoing cloister, and the long-drawn aisle; Even here, when pausing on the silent air, The midnight bell awakes and calls to prayer; As on the stone I bend my clay-cold knee, Love heaves the sigh, and drops the tear for thee: All day the penitent but wakes to weep, 'Till nature and the woman sink in sleep; Nightly to thee the guilty dreams repair, And morning wakes to sorrow and despair! Lov'd of my heart, the conflict soon must cease, Soon must this harrow'd bosom rest in peace; Soon must it heave the last soul-rending breath, And sink to slumber in the arms of death. To slumber! oh, that I might slumber there! Oh, that that dreadful thought might lull despair! That death's chill dews might quench this vital flame, And life lie mouldering with this lifeless frame! Then would I strike with joy the friendly blow, Then rush to mingle with the dead below. Oh, agonizing hour! when round my head Dark-brow'd despair his shadowing wings shall spread; When conscience from herself shall seek to fly, And, loathing life, still more shall loath to die! Already vengeance lifts his iron rod, Already conscience sees an angry God! No virtue now to shield my soul I boast, No hope protects, for innocence is lost!