The Venetian bracelet the lost Pleiad, a history of the lyre, and other poems. By L. E. L. [i.e. Landon] |
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 | The Venetian bracelet |  |
XII.
“Gold, oh! take double, so my prayer I win.”When hath such offer fail'd?—She enter'd in:
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Ere she could reach the prisoner's midnight cell.
They grated on her very heart. At last
She saw Leoni in his misery cast
Abject upon the ground:—not her strange tread
Brought aught to make him raise his bow'd down head.
She gazed upon him:—has it come to this,
Her passionate love, her youth's long dream of bliss?
She felt her frame convulsed, her pulse grow weak:
“Leoni, O Leoni! hear me speak.”
He started at her voice:—“Amenaïde!
I did not merit this from thee indeed;
And yet thy name was heavy on my heart:
I pray thee pardon me before we part.”
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The shrowding mantle that around her clung.
“Ah! start you at my livid lip and brow?
You are familiar with such signs ere now!
O for a few short words! I've own'd the whole:
Ere this the Count Arezzi has my scroll.—
The darkness gathers on my failing eye,—
Leoni, let me gaze on thee and die!
O God, unloose this bracelet's fiery clasp!”—
Her spirit pass'd in that convulsive gasp.
The struggle 's o'er,—that wild heart does not beat;
She lies a ghastly corpse before his feet.
| The Venetian bracelet | |