Page:Goblin Market and Other Poems - C G Rossetti (1862, 1st ed).djvu/47

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31

IN THE ROUND TOWER AT JHANSI,

June 8, 1857

A hundred, a thousand to one; even so;
Not a hope in the world remained:
The swarming howling wretches below
Gained and gained and gained.

Skene looked at his pale young wife:—
"Is the time come?"—"The time is come!"—
Young, strong, and so full of life:
The agony struck them dumb.

Close his arm about her now,
Close her cheek to his,
Close the pistol to her brow—
God forgive them this!