Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/507

 COUNTESS OP WINCHILSEA 369 �That to declare my Name, might work my Ruin : �But since such Gratitude crowns your great Virtues, �I have a Blessing to implore from you, �When the full Time shall ripen and reveal it ; �Harder, I fear, to grant, and much more dear �Than what I now assist you to preserve. 90 �Aristom. By Liberty, which none like me can value, By new-recovered Light, and what it shews me, Your brighter Form, with yet a fairer Mind, By all the ties of Honour, here I swear ; Be that untouch'd, and your Request is granted. �Amal. Of you, .my Lord, and of the list'ning Gods I ask no more but, that you haste to 'scape : Without that Gate the open Champain lies. May Fortune, which the hardest Part has done, Crown her great Work, and lead you safely on! 100 �[Exit Aristom. leading her. Enter Phila weeping. �Phila. What shall I say, or how reveal this to her? Is't not enough, ye Gods, we bear our own, That thus you suffer the vain trifler Love To bring the Griefs of others too upon us! Amalintha returns. �Amal. Oh! Phila, I such Tydings have to tell thee, But thou hast chill'd them in a Moments space With that cold dew that trickles from thine Eyes. Is not Aristor safe? �Thou say'st he is not, in that weeping silence: But lives he yet? if this thou do'st not answer, 110 �My Death shall free thee from all farther Questions. �Phila. Yet he do's live: �But oh ! that some free Tongue, that lov'd you less, Cou'd tell how little time that Life must last To you so precious, and I fear so fatal ! ��� �