Page:Deserter.pdf/5

                                 (  5  ) Her zeal (the supplement of strength) Upheld her many a day, But nature’s pow’rs subdu’d at length, On sickness' couch the lay.

Three painful days unseen the lay Of him she held so dear : Ah does he thus my love repay ?" She said—-and dropt a tear.

Cabeysa, at a league’s remove, “ Dwells on the tent spread hill : Ah, wherefore did he vow true love, "And not that vow fulfil ?”

Let not deficiency of truth Forbad to yield relief, Stern pow’r with-held the tender youth, And duty to his chief:

Tho, wifely counsel’d, drew a line, To check the hand of stealth, That ravag’d wide th’ encircling vines The humble peasant’s wealth.

To pass the line, it was ordain’d, Whoever should presume, Could a Deserter be arraign’d, And meet the coward’s doom.

THis law by equity approv’d, aid to the peasant dear, Soon to the brave Cabeysa prov’d Destructively severe.