And babbled for the golden seal, that hung "O Father!—if you let me call you so I never came a-begging for myself, Or William, or this child; but now I come So Mary said, and Dora hid her face By Mary. There was silence in the room; And all at once the old man burst in sobs: "I have been to blame-to blame. I have kill'd my son. I have kill'd him-but I loved him-my dear son. May God forgive me!-I have been to blame. Kiss me, my children." Then they clung about The old man's neck, and kiss'd him many times. And all his love came back a hundredfold; And for three hours he sobb'd o'er William's child, Thinking of William. So those four abode Within one house together; and as years Went forward, Mary took another mate; But Dora lived unmarried till her death. AUDLEY COURT "THE Bull, the Fleece are cramm'd, and not a room For love or money. Let us picnic there At Audley Court." I spoke, while Audley feast Humm'd like a hive all round the narrow quay, To Francis, with a basket on his arm, To Francis just alighted from the boat, And breathing of the sea. "With all my heart," We left the dying ebb that faintly lipp'd There, on a slope of orchard, Francis laid A damask napkin wrought with horse and hound, To hear him, clapt his hand in mine and sang "Oh! who would fight and march and countermarch, Be shot for sixpence in a battle-field, And shovell'd up into a bloody trench Where no one knows? but let me live my life. "Oh! who would cast and balance at a desk, "Who'd serve the state? for if I carved my name Upon the cliffs that guard my native land, I might as well have traced it in the sands; Oh! who would love? I woo'd a woman once, He sang his song, and I replied with mine : Knock'd down to me, when old Sir Robert's pride, I set the words, and added names I knew. Sleep, Ellen Aubrey, sleep, and dream of me: Sleep, Ellen, folded in thy sister's arm, And sleeping, haply dream her arm is mine. "Sleep, Ellen, folded in Emilia's arm; Emilia, fairer than all else but thou, For thou art fairer than all else that is. "Sleep, breathing health and peace upon her breast: Sleep, breathing love and trust against her lip: I go to-night: I come to-morrow morn. "I go, but I return: I would I were The pilot of the darkness and the dream. Sleep, Ellen Aubrey, love, and dream of me." |