Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 4.djvu/359

CANTO V.] We read one day for pastime, seated nigh,

Of Lancilot, how Love enchained him too.

We were alone, quite unsuspiciously.

But oft our eyes met, and our Cheeks in hue

All o'er discoloured by that reading were;

But one point only wholly us o'erthrew;

When we read the long-sighed-for smile of her,

To be thus kissed by such devoted lover,

He, who from me can be divided ne'er,

Kissed my mouth, trembling in the act all over:

Accurséd was the book and he who wrote!

That day no further leaf we did uncover.'

While thus one Spirit told us of their lot,

The other wept, so that with Pity's thralls

I swooned, as if by Death I had been smote,

And fell down even as a dead body falls." March 20, 1820.

March 20, 1820.