Britain ... - Blue-Lite

Scene II.] THE VARANGIAN. 387
In the full sunshine of thy princely love.
Dark, in an evil hour, the tempest came.
And laid me !
prostrate I confess my crime,
And bootless were it to entreat thy pardon,
For I have been a traitor ! and concealed %
The daring plots of traitors !
But though in saintly hall I bowed the knee
Before the Etheling's rebel-guarded throne,
Yet, when with noisy night the mantling fumes
Of wine had passed away and reason dawned,
I saw my guilt, dark as the tempest-cloud
That fronts the
rising sun, and, conscience-smote,
Came here, my sovereign, to confess and die.
O,
LANFRANC.
let his former worthiness atone
For this one error, deeply so repented :
For he hath been like a poor wanderer lost,
At eventide, amid the misty shades
Of pathless mountain wilds
KING.
Northumberland,
Farewell ! [Eateunt King, Lords, and train.
WALTHEOF (after a pause.)
For ever ! ay, for ever !
Such long adieu thy stern "farewell" implied.
JUDITH.
Grant, Heaven, it did ! But Lanfranc, meddling fool,
May yet incline the King. (aside.) My lord, I grieve
That I have failed in thy behalf to move
His Highness to forgive, albeit I strove
Long and unweariedly, with prayers and tears,
To pluck sweet mercy from him. Yet, hadst thou
My counsel followed, I should have prevailed.
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