Page:Landon in Literary Gazette 1823.pdf/136



Curses, and crashing boards, and infant words Praying for mercy, and then childish screams Of fear and pain. There were these the last night The white walls of my cottage stood; they bound And flung me down beside the oak, to watch How the red fire gathered, like that of hell. There sprang one to the lattice, and leant forth, Gasping for the fresh air,—my own fair girl! My only one! The vision haunts me still: The white arms raised to heaven, and the long hair, Bright as the light beside it, stiff on the head Upright, from terror. In th' accursed glare We knew each other; and I heard a cry Half tenderness, half agony,—a crash,— The roof fell in,—I saw my child no more! A cloud closed around me, a deep thunder cloud, Half darkness and half fire. At length sense came, With a rememb'ring like that which a dream Leaves, of vague horrors: but the heavy chain, The loathsome straw which was mine only bed, The sickly light through the dim bars, the damp, The silence, were realities; and then I lay on the cold stones and wept aloud, And prayed the fever to return again And bring death with it. Yet did I escape,— Again I drank the fresh blue air of heaven, And felt the sunshine laugh upon my brow; I thought then I would seek my desolate home, And die where it had been. I reached the place: The ground was bare and scorched, and in the midst Was a black heap of ashes. Frantickly I groped amid them, ever and anon Meeting some human fragment, skulls and bones Shapeless and cinders, till I drew a curl, A long and beautiful curl of sunny hair, Stainless and golden, as but then just severed, A love gift from the head: I knew the hair— It was my daughter's! There I stood, and howled Curses upon that night. There came a voice, There came a gentle step;—even on that heap Of blood and ashes did I kneel, and pour To the great God my gratitude! That curl Was wet with tears of happiness; that step, That voice, were sweet familiar ones,—one child, My eldest son, was sent me from the grave! That night he had escaped. - - -