And hate the hearts that thus create
The dimness of severest woe;

"Though I behold no friendly steel,
To give my Emma vengeance, drawn;
And though a brother's pangs I feel,
To know her destitute, forlorn;

"Though, banish'd from the sight of day,
In dreary solitude I pine;
And, forc'd to feel a tyrant's sway,
Each dear paternal right resign;

"Yet will I seal my lips; nor dare
To extricate my haughty foes:
The hateful, guilty root I spare,
Which can produce so fair a rose.

"But thou, my heart, wilt thou be calm?
Oh! tell me, can reflection cease;
And this fond bosom, now so warm,
Be ever tranquilliz'd to peace!

"Ah, no! a father's scornful eye
Is ever present to my view;
And tells me, Herbert dar'd to die,
Though Normans could his son subdue.

"Each feeble plea his soul disdains,
They cannot for the fault atone;
Though, when I left Northumbria's plains,
I had not fifteen summers known.

"And hear me, Herbert, when I swear
It was not fear that urg'd my flight;
A worthless life was not my care,
I thought but of a parent's right.

"Then pardon that my youth comply'd,
To ease a mother's anxious fears
That, when I rather would have died,
I yielded to a sister's tears.

"Alas! a peasant's humble shed,
Soon saw our sainted parents' death,
Who, while our hearts in anguish bled,
With pious hopes resign'd her breath.

"When mists foretel the ev'ning near,
And clouds of chilling dew arise,
We sought the grave of her so dear,
And offer'd there our tears and sighs.

"'Till mild reflection lent her aid,
And bade our filial sorrows cease;
The fever of our souls allay'd,
We sunk into a mournful peace.

"My pensive bosom strove to keep
A dying mother's last request;
I let the thoughts of vengeance sleep,
And studied to make Emma blest.

"No longer shunning of the dawn,
Or seeking the sequester'd shade,
I call'd my sister to the lawn,
And trod with her the flow'ry glade.

"Submitting to our wayward fate,
I talk'd not of the treasures flown;
But still seem'd easy and sedate,
While pressing verdure not my own.

"Then all I wish'd, and all I fear'd,
Was by fraternal love inspir'd;
And one, by every tie endear'd,
The only friend my soul desir'd.

"Yet soon that pleasing calmness fled,
A Norman beauty won my heart,
Imperious love my footsteps led,
And bade all secrecy depart.

"I own'd the splendour of my race,
Altho' a peasan