Page 107 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...
P. 107
They come, they come!— and l o ! the .scowl of Ruthven's hollov.
eye !
nd Hi words are drawn, and daggers gleam, and tears and words are
vain—
The ruffian's steel is in his heart— the faith In!. R j^ io’.s slain!
Then Mary Stuart dashed aside the: tears that tddding fdl :
!l Wow for TiJty fathers ami 111 ylio said, ;I my woinan's heart, farewell j ”
T h e set!lie was changed. It was a lake, with one; small lone;y isle,
A n d there, w-Ethin the prison wails o f its baronial pile,
men stood mer.adng the Queen, til! she should stoop to sign
Tl:e traitorous scro!; that sr-atohed the crown from her ancestral li;iL,
" M y lords, my lords !f' the captive said, "were 1 but once more free,
With ten good knights on yonder shore, to aid my cause and me,
That parchment would 1 scatter wide to every breeze that, blows,
A ik:! once more rcii-n a Stuart Ouecn o’er m\- remorseless foes I"
O --«■ r'
A red spr..it burned upon her cheek— streamed her lieh tresses down,
-She wrote the words— -slic stood erect -a queen without a crown.
The scene was dianged-— Beside the block a sullen headsman stood,
And gleamed the broad-axe hi his hand, iha-: soon must drip with
blood,
fV!th alow and steady step there tame a lady through the hall,
And breathless silence chained the lips and touched the hearts of all,
1 knew that queenly form again, though hhglued was its o'oom—
I saw’ ^rarfhad decked it rn.it-— an ottering for the tomb !
I knew the eye, though faint its light, that once so brightly shone;
I knew 1 he voice, though feeble now, that thrilled with, every tone.
I knew the ringlets, almost gray, once threads of living gold!
I knew that bounding grace of .step— that symmetry of mould!
Even now I see her far away, in that calm convent aisle,
I hear her chans; her vesper-hynm, Jl nxr^ lu.-r holy smile—
Even now I see her bursting1 forth, upon the bridal mom.
