The lovers meet at the altar, but they appeal to the altar to consecrate their vows. And thus the poem closes with a passage in celebration of connubial love, which, even though it perhaps seemed to Lady Donegal too bold a gloss on the text of Genesis, may very well have pleased the poet's Bessy; for we can be very certain that the poet was thinking more of Bessy than of Genesis when he wrote it. I shall quote the whole passage, which contains some lines that have hardly their equal in Moore's writings--notably the fine strain beginning, "For humble was their love,"--and, further on, the closing period which recalls, yet not by imitation, Wordsworth's scarcely more beautiful tribute to his wife:-- "Sweet was the hour, though dearly won, And pure, as aught of earth could he, For then first did the glorious sun Before Religion's altar see Two hearts in wedlock's golden tie Self-pledged, in love to live and die. Blest union! by that Angel wove, And worthy from such hands to come; Safe, sole asylum, in which Love, When fall'n or exiled from above, In this dark world can find a home. "And though the spirit had transgress'd, Had, from his station 'mong the blest Won down by woman's smile, allow'd Terrestrial passion to breathe o'er The mirror of his heart, and cloud God's image, there so bright before-- Yet never did that Power look down On error with a brow so mild; Never did Justice wear a frown Through which so gently Mercy smiled.