That she may not live till the year is out. She is so strange, so strange, so strange! GOTTLIEB. I am not troubled with any such fear; She will live and thrive for many a year. ELSIE'S CHAMBER. Night. ELSIE praying. ELSIE. My Redeemer and my Lord, That hereafter I may meet thee, With my lamp well trimmed and burning! Interceding With these bleeding Wounds upon thy hands and side, For all who have lived and erred Thou hast suffered, thou hast died, Scourged, and mocked, and crucified, And in the grave hast thou been buried! If my feeble prayer can reach thee, O my Saviour, I beseech thee, Even as thou hast died for me, More sincerely Let me follow where thou leadest, Let me, bleeding as thou bleedest, Die, if dying I may give Life to one who asks to live, And more nearly, Dying thus, resemble thee! THE CHAMBER OF GOTTLIEB AND URSULA. Midnight. ELSIE standing by their bedside, weeping. GOTTLIEB. THE wind is roaring; the rushing rain Is loud upon roof and window-pane, As if the Wild Huntsman of Rodenstein, Were abroad to-night with his ghostly train! Some one is sobbing in the dark, Here in the chamber! ELSIE. It is I. URSULA. Elsie! what ails thee, my poor child? ELSIE. I am disturbed and much distressed, In thinking our dear Prince must die; I cannot close mine eyes, nor rest. GOTTLIEB. What wouldst thou? In the Power Divine His healing lies, not in our own; It is in the hand of God alone. That for our dear Prince Henry's sake I will myself the offering make, And give my life to purchase his. |