Britain ... - Blue-Lite

182 THE DEVOTED ONE. [Act III.
A few brief moments, on that faithless face :
'Tis but once more to hear that voice, which I
Shall never hear again : 'tis but to take
A last, a sad farewell, and then return
To Selwood's lonely shades, there soon to find
An early grave beneath the forest flowers.
Talk not of dying
GODWIN.
EDITH.
Wherefore should I live ?
Can earth afford one solitary joy
To me, a friendless orphan, scorned, forsaken
By him in whom my soul had treasured up
Her sum of worldly bliss ? O, Godwin, Godwin !
Could I have once believed, when we at morn
Or evening's golden hour the green woods sought,
And, harmonizing with thy voice of love,
Their blessed melodies came o'er my heart,
Till earth to me seemed an abode for gods,
Could I have then believed that voice of thine
Was like the mermaid's, which the sea-boy hears
In music wandering o'er the moonlight deep,
Prophetic of the storm that soon shall sink
His fated barque amid the ocean surge ?
GODWIN (aside.)
If thou, Ambition, listen to her voice,
Despite thy struggles shipwrecked wilt thou be,
With all thy hopes, on honour's perilous shore.
EDITH.
Yet did my heart forbode, when last we parted,
That regal halls and stirring scenes of pomp
Would cause thee to forget thy forest-maid.
But I forgive thee, though my sad lone heart