Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/253

Rh We both were scorned, both sternly driven

To shelter 'neath a foreign heaven;

And darkens o'er that dreary time

A wildering dream of frenzied crime.

'I would not now those days recall;

The oath within that caverned hall,

And its fulfilment; these you know,

We both together struck the blow;

But you can never know the pain

That my lost heart did then sustain,

When, severed wide by guiltless gore,

I felt that one could live no more!

Back maddening thought! the grave is deep

Where my Amedeus lies asleep,

And I have long forgot to weep.

'Now hear me; in these regions wild

I saw to-day my enemy.

Unarmed, as helpless as a child,

She slumbered on a sunny lea;

Two friends; no other guard had she;

And they were wandering on the braes;

And chasing, in regardless glee,

The wild goat o'er his dangerous ways.

'My hand was raised, my knife was bare;

With stealthy tread I stole along,

But a wild bird sprang from his hidden lair,

And woke her with a sudden song;