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To read, when they were gone beyond recal.
A note from her loved hand explaining all.
She said, that with their house she only staid
That parting peace might with them all be made;
But pray'd for love to share his foreign life,
And shun all future chance of kindred strife.
He wrote with speed, his soul's consent to say:
The letter miss'd her on her homeward way.
In six hours Constance was within his arms:
Moved, flushed, unlike her wonted calm of charms,
And breathless—with uplifted hands outspread—
Burst into tears upon his neck, and said,—
'I knew that those who brought your message laugh'd,
With poison of their own to point the shaft;
And this my one kind sister thought, yet loth
Confess'd she fear'd 'twas true you had been wroth.
But here you are, and smile on me: my pain
Is gone, and Constance is herself again.'
His ecstasy, it may be guess'd, was much:
Yet pain's extreme and pleasure's seem'd to touch.
What pride! embracing beauty's perfect mould;
What terror! lest his few rash words, mistold.
Had agonised her pulse to fever's heat:
But calmed again so soon it healthful beat,
And such sweet tones were in her voice's sound.
Composed herself, she breathed composure round.
Fair being with what sympathetic grace
She heard, bewail'd, and pleaded Julia's ease;
Implored he would her dying wish attend,
'And go,' she said, 'to-morrow with your friend;
I'll wait for your return on England's shore,
And then we'll cross the deep, and part no more.'
A note from her loved hand explaining all.
She said, that with their house she only staid
That parting peace might with them all be made;
But pray'd for love to share his foreign life,
And shun all future chance of kindred strife.
He wrote with speed, his soul's consent to say:
The letter miss'd her on her homeward way.
In six hours Constance was within his arms:
Moved, flushed, unlike her wonted calm of charms,
And breathless—with uplifted hands outspread—
Burst into tears upon his neck, and said,—
'I knew that those who brought your message laugh'd,
With poison of their own to point the shaft;
And this my one kind sister thought, yet loth
Confess'd she fear'd 'twas true you had been wroth.
But here you are, and smile on me: my pain
Is gone, and Constance is herself again.'
His ecstasy, it may be guess'd, was much:
Yet pain's extreme and pleasure's seem'd to touch.
What pride! embracing beauty's perfect mould;
What terror! lest his few rash words, mistold.
Had agonised her pulse to fever's heat:
But calmed again so soon it healthful beat,
And such sweet tones were in her voice's sound.
Composed herself, she breathed composure round.
Fair being with what sympathetic grace
She heard, bewail'd, and pleaded Julia's ease;
Implored he would her dying wish attend,
'And go,' she said, 'to-morrow with your friend;
I'll wait for your return on England's shore,
And then we'll cross the deep, and part no more.'