Page:The Mysterious Mother - Walpole (1781).djvu/69

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A TRAGEDY.
61
The virgin veil shall guard my spotless hours,
Assure my peace, and saint me for hereafter.

COUNTESS.
It cannot be—
To Narbonne thou must bid a last adieu!
And with the stranger knight depart a bride.

ADELIZA.
Unhappy me! too sure I have o'erburthen'd
Thy charity, if thou wouldst drive me from thee.
Restrain thy alms, dear lady. I have learnt
From our kind sister-hood the needle's art.
My needle and thy smiles will life support.
Pray let me bring my last embroidery;
'Tis all by my own hand. Indeed I meant it
For my kind lady's festival.

COUNTESS.
Does this stroke pierce not Great justice!
Does this stroke pierce not deep enough? These tears,
Wrung from my vital fondness, scald they not
Worse than the living coal that sears the limbs?

ADELIZA.
Alas! thou hearest not! What grief o'erwhelms thee?
Why darts thy eye into my inmost soul?
Then vacant, motionless, arrests its course,
And seems not to perceive what it reads there?
My much-lov'd patroness!

COUNTESS.
Thy words now slake, and noO Adeliza,
Thy words now slake, and now augment my fever!
But oh! e'er reason quits this lab'ring frame,
While I dare weep these tears of anguish o'er thee,
Unutterable, petrifying anguish!

Hear

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