CHAPTER XIII.
L. E. L.
Oh! if Love—the sister dear
Of Youth which we have lost,—
Come not, in swift pity, here,—
Come not, with a host
Of affections strong and kind,
To hold up our sinking mind,—
If she will not, of her grace,
Take her brother's holy place,
And be, to us, at least a part
Of what he was, in life and heart—
The faintness that is on our breath
Can have no other end but death!—M. Milnes.
In the course of little more than ten years were published the Improvvisatrice, the Troubadour, the Golden Violet, and the Venetian Bracelet, which gave titles to as many volumes, filled up with shorter poems, though some of them, such as the Lost Pleiad, Erinna, the Ancestress (dramatic), and others were of sufficient importance to warrant separate publication. To all the popular annuals there were also numerous contributions; the Drawing-Room Scrap Book was for several years the author's favourite task, without assistance from any hand, though a biography of Maginn erroneously claims a share in the compositions for him; the Easter Offering was another of her productions; and the Literary Gazette, as I have stated, was in almost every number enriched by her captivating poetry, and judicious, as well
