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Dear, dear father!

And thou must meet me as a man proscribed: Child of a parent reft of name and honours, Bann'd by the church, and by the laws condemn'd Ev'n to the traitor's death of degradation: One whom to name were pain and insult to thee; One now despised of all, forgot, accurst.

O not accurst! for I will bless thee, father, Though every other tongue should blast thy fame. O not forgotten! I'll remember thee; Ay; nightly, daily, hourly, in my thoughts Shalt thou have place; more cherish'd—more endear'd For that all hearts besides have shut thee out. O not despised! for I will honour thee, And in my pious thoughts, as now in act, Kneel at thine honour'd feet in faithful duty.

Rise, dearest, kindest, best, mine own Zorada! Yes, child; thou shalt be all the world to me; But it must be a faint, ideal world. I may in dreams, in thought, in musing fancy Behold thy face, thy form,—may hear thy voice— But many a league of ocean and of land