Page:The Emigrants.pdf/59



Unable to endure7, often implor'd, As the last act of friendship, from the hand Of some brave comrade, to receive the blow That freed the indignant spirit from its pain. To a wild mountain, whose bare summit hides Its broken eminence in clouds; whose steeps Are dark with woods; where the receding rocks Are worn by torrents of dissolving snow, A wretched Woman, pale and breathless, flies! And, gazing round her, listens to the sound Of hostile footsteps­­No! it dies away: Nor noise remains, but of the cataract, Or surly breeze of night, that mutters low Among the thickets, where she trembling seeks A temporary shelter—­clasping close To her hard‐heaving heart, her sleeping child,