This Conrad marked, and felt--ah! could he less?-- Hate of that deed--but grief for her distress; What she has done no tears can wash away, And Heaven must punish on its angry day: But--it was done: he knew, whate'er her guilt, For him that poniard smote, that blood was spilt; And he was free!--and she for him had given Her all on earth, and more than all in heaven![234] And now he turned him to that dark-eyed slave Whose brow was bowed beneath the glance he gave, 1700 Who now seemed changed and humbled, faint and meek, But varying oft the colour of her cheek To deeper shades of paleness--all its red That fearful spot which stained it from the dead! He took that hand--it trembled--now too late-- So soft in love--so wildly nerved in hate; He clasped that hand--it trembled--and his own Had lost its firmness, and his voice its tone. "Gulnare!"--but she replied not--"dear Gulnare!"[ii] She raised her eye--her only answer there-- 1710 At once she sought and sunk in his embrace: If he had driven her from that resting-place, His had been more or less than mortal heart, But--good or ill--it bade her not depart. Perchance, but for the bodings of his breast, His latest virtue then had joined the rest. Yet even Medora might forgive the kiss[ij] That asked from form so fair no more than this, The first, the last that Frailty stole from Faith-- To lips where Love had lavished all his breath, 1720 To lips--whose broken sighs such fragrance fling, As he had fanned them freshly with his wing![ik] XVIII. They gain by twilight's hour their lonely isle. To them the very rocks appear to smile; The haven hums with many a cheering sound, The beacons blaze their wonted stations round, The boats are darting o'er the curly bay, And sportive Dolphins bend them through the spray; Even the hoarse sea-bird's shrill, discordant shriek, Greets like the welcome of his tuneless beak! 1730 Beneath each lamp that through its lattice gleams, Their fancy paints the friends that trim the beams. Oh! what can sanctify the joys of home, Like Hope's gay glance from Ocean's troubled foam?[il] XIX.