Page:The Siege of Valencia.pdf/185

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Look to the gate! Thou 'rt worn with toil—but take no rest to-night! The western gate!—Its watchers have been won— The Christian city hath been bought and sold! They will admit the Moor!

They have been won! Brave men and tried so long!—Whose work was this?

Think'st thou all hearts like thine?—Can mothers stand To see their children perish?

Then the guilt Was thine?

—Shall mortal dare to call it guilt? I tell thee, Heaven, which made all holy things, Made nought more holy than the boundless love Which fills a mother's heart!—I say, 'tis woe Enough, with such an aching tenderness, To love aught earthly!—and in vain! in vain! —We are press'd down too sorely!