"Mother, dear mother! by thy love,
Thy sorrowings and thy truth,
Plead for me in my hour of need!
Think on my sinless youth!

"Ah, no! thou canst not plead for me!

A dark and fearful time

Hath parted us, and death hath oped
The mystery of my crime!

"I made thy nights a weary watch;
I gloomed thy days with shame ;
And a dark word by which men are cursed,
I made my father's name!

"I was the eldest of our house;
Beside me there were three;

And pure and simple had they lived,
Had it not been for me!

But now their blood unto my soul
Doth cleave like leprosy !

"I stood as in a father's place;
As the sun before their sight,
Beloved of all; and in their eyes
Whate'er I did was right.

"Alas! my heart was a cursed thing!

I lured them on to sin;

I lured them to a dark abyss,

And plunged them headlong in!

"Bodies and souls I ruined them;
Yet in men's sight I kept

My name unstained-on theirs alone
The infamy was heaped.

"They were my tools, and subtly
I wrought them to my will;
A tyrant to the wretched slaves
I bound to me for ill!

"No, no! for me thou canst not plead!

I spoke not for the three;

And in thy broken-heartedness,

I kept them far from thee,

With cruel, specious lies!-no, no,

Thou canst not plead for me!

"The first, he died a dreadful death

Of lingering, horrid pain;

I saw him as a stealthy spy

His soul had broke my chain;

"Therefore I gave him to a power

More fell than death, and he

Was racked for crime he had not wrought ;

And so died cruelly.

"The second had a feebler soul;

A gentle, timid thing;

A child in spirit, to whose heart
Good never ceased to cling.

"'Twas vain I crushed him, scorned him, spurned;

His was a truth unchanged;

Fallen as he was, his stedfast love

Kept with me unestranged!

"And, in my after misery,

When evil days came down,
He saved me; and my coward life
He ransomed with his own!

"Brothers! why rise ye not, each one,

Upon this judgment-day;
The bitter wrongs I heaped on you,
Had power my soul to slay!

"The third, a spirit like to mine;
The nearest to my heart;
The only one I counselled with,-

Who in my power had part:

"He sate with me at the board last night,

He took from me the wine;

Traitor, there's blood upon thy hand,

And judgment will be thine!

"Ah, no! the guilt is mine-is mine!
I drew the three from Heaven;
I sold them to work wickedness,
And may not be forgiven!

"Talents and time-the noblest gifts

Ever on man bestowed,

Were mine; a soft and winning speech, And beauty like a god!

"All, all were passion's vilest slaves ;

All ministered to crime;

And now a dark eternity

Doth make account with time!

"I had a power, an awful power
Over men's minds; I wove,
Base as I was, around all hearts
A chain, half fear, half love.

"They were as clay; I moulded them With the light words of my tongue;

Old men and wise alike obeyed:

And thence ambition sprung.

"The sin of angels was my sin;
And, bold as was my thought,
Men, weak and willing instruments,
They gave me what I sought!

"Then woke the tyrant stern and proud; And, as unto the three,

I did to them,-I raised myself