Page:The Village - Crabbe (1783).djvu/36

 Save when to yonder hall they bend their way, Where the grave Justice ends the grievous fray; He who recites, to keep the poor in awe, The law's vast volume—for he knows the law.— To him with anger or with shame repair The injur'd peasant and deluded fair.

Lo! at his throne the silent nymph appears, Frail by her shape, but modest in her tears; And while she stands abash'd, with conscious eye, Some favourite female of her judge glides by; Who views with scornful glance the strumpet's fate, And thanks the stars that made her keeper great: Near her the swain, about to bear for life One certain evil, doubts 'twlxt war and wife; But, while the faultering damsel takes her oath, Consents to wed, and so secures them both. Yet