Far too strong for it! then drooping, bow'd her face upon her hands--
And I spake out wildly, fiercely, brutal truths of her and others!
_I, she planted the desert, swathed her, windlike, with my sands._

"I pluck'd up her social fictions, bloody-rooted, though leaf verdant,--
Trod them down with words of shaming,--all the purples and the gold,
And the 'landed stakes' and Lordships--all that spirits pure and ardent
Are cast out of love and reverence, because chancing not to hold.

"'For myself I do not argue,' said I, 'though I love you, Madam,
But for better souls, that nearer to the height of yours have trod--
And this age shows, to my thinking, still more infidels to Adam,
Than directly, by profession, simple infidels to God.

"'Yet, O God' (I said,) 'O grave' (I said,) 'O mother's heart and bosom!
With whom first and last are equal, saint and corpse and little child!
We are fools to your deductions, in these figments of heart-closing!
We are traitors to your causes, in these sympathies defiled!

"'Learn more reverence, madam, not for rank or wealth--_that_ needs
no learning;
_That_ comes quickly--quick as sin does! ay, and often works to sin;
But for Adam's seed, MAN! Trust me, 'tis a clay above your scorning,
With God's image stamp'd upon it, and God's kindling breath within.

"'What right have you, Madam, gazing in your shining mirror daily,
Getting, so, by heart, your beauty, which all others must adore,--
While you draw the golden ringlets down your fingers, to vow gaily,...
You will wed no man that's only good to God,--and nothing more.'"

In the second stanza, we cannot make out the construction of the words,
"all that spirits pure and ardent are cast out of love and reverence."
This vigorous tirade is continued throughout several stanzas. The poor
lady merely utters the word "Bertram," and the lover is carried to bed
in a fainting fit when his passion is expended. When he recovers he
indites the aforesaid letter. After he has dispatched it, the lady
enters his apartment: oh, blessed and gracious apparition! We quote the
_denouement_, omitting one or two stanzas--

Soh! how still the lady standeth! 'tis a dream--a dream of mercies!
'Twixt the purple lattice-curtains, how she standeth still and pale!
'Tis a vision, sure, of mercies, sent to soften his self-curses--
Sent to _sweep_ a patient qu