Page:The Fall of the Alamo.djvu/29

 ''Elsie Bradburn, admitted by the jailer through the door in the rear, has entered during Travis' last words which she has overheard, and stands for a moment quietly behind him. Travis. ''

[Turning and perceiving Elsie, who sinks into his arms.] What ? Elsie, thou?

My Travis! thou in prison Unjustly, most unworthily confined! Than whom none else delights so much in sunshine, In balmy air, in freedom from restraint. Thou canst not live beneath this damp-cold vault, But wilt fall sick, and as the prairie-flower. Transferred into a sunless room, will fade, So thou canst not endure this cruel doom. Grieve not, beloved! since I hold thee now. This dungeon seems a paradise to me! Behold these walls! they bloom like rosy bowers; This ceiling spreads a verdant canopy Through which the sun, the sun of Love, sends in His warming beams into my gladdened heart. But tell, how couldst thou gain access to me?