Julia Alpinula :: :: University of Virginia Library

In pride of peril, with a brief adieu,
Cosmo received the ring, and thence withdrew;—
Passed to the tower which bears the ocean blast,
And gave the word to Guiscard as he passed.
A kiss of gladness, and one soothing tone,
Are given Eudora, and her chief is gone
Down the deep windings of the steps of stone.
No outward sign that vault must e'er betray;—
'Tis closed upon him, and he strides away:
So much of firmness did his step assume,
She would not doubt, but still must dread his doom.
With ear awake to every sound, she stands,
Pale lip, quick pulse, short breath, and clasped hands,
And eager head bent downward to the floor;
A faint, departing footfall sounds—one more—

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And all is silence, and a dim delay,
And golden moments hurrying on the day;
Then a strong arm has smote the yielding wall,
And stones fall fast without—she hears them fall.
What next the Lady saw, she scarcely knew,
Sick with suspense, or dizzy with the view,—
A gasping at the heart she felt, of breath
Denied,—the film without the rest of death.