FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184  
185   186   187   188   >>  
appeal from that sentence. It needs not to tell The tears of Constance, nor the grief of her lover: The dream they had laid out their lives in was over. Bravely strove the young soldier to look in the face Of a life where invisible hands seemed to trace O'er the threshold these words... "Hope no more!" Unreturn'd Had his love been, the strong manful heart would have spurn'd That weakness which suffers a woman to lie At the roots of man's life, like a canker, and dry And wither the sap of life's purpose. But there Lay the bitterer part of the pain! Could he dare To forget he was loved? that he grieved not alone? Recording a love that drew sorrow upon The woman he loved, for himself dare he seek Surcease to that sorrow, which thus held him weak, Beat him down, and destroy'd him? News reach'd him indeed, Through a comrade, who brought him a letter to read From the dame who had care of Constance (it was one To whom, when at Paris, the boy had been known, A Frenchman, and friend of the Faubourg), which said That Constance, although never a murmur betray'd What she suffer'd, in silence grew paler each day, And seem'd visibly drooping and dying away. It was then he sought death. XVII. Thus the tale ends. 'Twas told With such broken, passionate words, as unfold In glimpses alone, a coil'd grief. Through each pause Of its fitful recital, in raw gusty flaws, The rain shook the canvas, unheeded; aloof, And unheeded, the night-wind around the tent-roof At intervals wirbled. And when all was said, The sick man, exhausted, droop'd backward his head, And fell into a feverish slumber. Long while Sat the Soeur Seraphine, in deep thought. The still smile That was wont, angel-wise, to inhabit her face And made it like heaven, was fled from its place In her eyes, on her lips; and a deep sadness there Seem'd to darken the lines of long sorrow and care, As low to herself she sigh'd... "Hath it, Eugene, Been so long, then, the struggle?... and yet, all in vain! Nay, not all in va
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184  
185   186   187   188   >>  



Top keywords:

Constance

 

sorrow

 

Through

 

unheeded

 

recital

 

canvas

 

sought

 

drooping

 
visibly
 
unfold

glimpses

 

passionate

 
broken
 

fitful

 

sadness

 

darken

 

heaven

 
struggle
 

Eugene

 
inhabit

exhausted

 
backward
 

silence

 

wirbled

 

intervals

 

feverish

 

thought

 

Seraphine

 

slumber

 

letter


Unreturn
 

strong

 
threshold
 

manful

 

canker

 

wither

 

suffers

 

weakness

 

appeal

 

sentence


invisible

 

soldier

 

Bravely

 

strove

 

purpose

 

comrade

 
brought
 

murmur

 

betray

 

Faubourg