to save;—­
    If, when remov’d beyond our eye,
    All faith in heaven’s protection die,
    Can all our tenderness atone
    For ills which spring from that alone?’
    My fancy rush’d the pause between—­
    ’What can this fearful prelude mean? 
    Art thou but seeking some pretence,
    So lately met! to send me hence? 
    Believ’st thou terrors will not shake,
    Nor doubts distract, nor fears awake,
    In absence? when no power, no charm,
    Can grant a respite from alarm! 
    Unreal evils manifold,
    Often and differently told,
    Scaring repose, each instant rise,
    False, but the cause of tears and sighs. 
    How often I should see thee bleed! 
    New terrors would the past succeed,
    With not a smile to intervene
    Of fair security between!’

      “’No, Marie, no! my wife shall share
    With me the trials soldiers bear: 
    No longer and no more we part.—–­
    Thy presence needful to my heart
    I now more evidently know;
    Making the careful moments flow
    To happy music! on my brow
      The iron casque shall lighter prove,—­
    The corslet softer on my breast,
    The shield upon my arm shall rest
      More easy, when the hand of love
    There places them.  Our succours soon
    Arrive; and then, whatever boon
    I shall think fitting to demand,
    My gracious monarch’s bounteous hand
    Awards as guerdon for my charge,
    And bids my wishes roam at large. 
    Then if we from these rebels tear
    The traitor honours which they wear,
    Thy father’s tides and domain
    Shall flourish in his line again! 
    And Marie’s child, in time to come,
    Shall call his grandsire’s castle, home! 
    Alas! poor babe! the scenes of war
    For him too harsh and frightful are! 
    Would that he might in safety rest
    Upon my gentle mother’s breast! 
    That in the vessel now at bay,
    In Hugh de Lacy’s care he lay! 
    My heart and reason would be free,
    If he were safe beyond the sea.

      “’Nay, let me not my love displease! 
    But is it fit, that walls like these
    The blooming cherub should inclose! 
    And when our close approaching foes
    Are skirmishing the country o’er,
    We must adventure forth no more.’

      “At length I gave a half consent,
    Resign’d, submissive, not content: 
    For, only in intensest prayer,
    For, only kneeling did I dare,
    Sustaining thus my sinking heart,
    Suffer my infant to depart. 
    Oh! yet I see his sparkling tears;
    His parting cries are in my ears,
    As, strongly bending back the head,
    The little hands imploring spread,
    Him from my blinding sight they bore,
    Down from the fort along the shore.