I envied e'en her dreams; dear one, I must awake thee now,
And softly did I bend to kiss the slumber from her brow:
I started at its marble touch, it was so ghastly chill;
I prest my hand upon her heart, but there the pulse was still;
I kist her mouth, it had no breath, her lip and cheek no red:
I called her, but she answered not I knew that she was dead.
To-night they lay her in the tomb, which I will watch beside,
And look my last, and weep my last, o'er my betrothed bride.
And all my gallant comrades here, pray for her soul and mine;
A long, a last farewell to all—I'm bound for Palestine."
He raised the red wine from the board, he drank them one by one;
"I never pledge man's name again:"—Sir Adalbert past on.
Next day a bark for Acre sailed: of those who crossed the main,
Were some who sought in after-years their native shore again;
But never came Sir Adalbert home to our English strand;
His death-wound won, his grave was made, within the Holy Land.L. E. L.
