Page:Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, 1846).djvu/46

36 Haply, no more our English home

An anchorage for us may be?

That there is risk our mutual blood

May redden in some lonely wood

The knife of treachery?

Say'st thou—that where we lodge each night,

In each lone farm, or lonelier hall

Of Norman Peer—ere morning light

Suspicion must as duly fall,

As day returns—such vigilance

Presides and watches over France,

Such rigour governs all?

I fear not, William; dost thou fear?

So that the knife does not divide,

It may be ever hovering near:

I could not tremble at thy side,

And strenuous love—like mine for thee—

Is buckler strong, 'gainst treachery,

And turns its stab aside.

I am resolved that thou shalt learn

To trust my strength as I trust thine;

I am resolved our souls shall burn,

With equal, steady, mingling shine;

Part of the field is conquered now,

Our lives in the same channel flow,

Along the self-same line;