Page:A lover's tale (Tennyson, 1879).djvu/84

80 There fever seized upon him: myself was then Travelling that land, and meant to rest an hour; And sitting down to such a base repast, It makes me angry yet to speak of it— I heard a groaning overhead, and climb'd The moulder'd stairs (for everything was vile) And in a loft, with none to wait on him, Found, as it seem'd, a skeleton alone, Raving of dead men's dust and beating hearts.

A dismal hostel in a dismal land, A flat malarian world of reed and rush! But there from fever and my care of him Sprang up a friendship that may help us yet. For while we roam'd along the dreary coast, And waited for her message, piece by piece I learnt the drearier story of his life; And, tho' he loved and honour'd Lionel