And in trustful innocence Draw new strength and courage thence; But the cowardice of sin! She can murmur in her thought One, who living shrank with dread Ah, the dead, the unforgot! From their solemn homes of thought, Back upon the living look. And the tenderest ones and weakest, Who their wrongs have borne the meekest, Lifting from those dark, still places, Sweet and sad-remembered faces, O'er the guilty hearts behind An unwitting triumph find. THE FAREWELL OF A VIRGINIA SLAVE MOTHER TO HER DAUGHTERS SOLD INTO SOUTHERN UP By the kirk and college green, Close behind him, close beside, Flouted him the drunken churl, Prompt to please her master; Cursed him as he passed her. Yet, with calm and stately mien, And, to all he saw and heard, Came a troop with broadswords swinging, Loose and free and froward; Quoth the foremost, "Ride him down! While for them He suffereth long, Scoffing with the scoffer? Happier I, with loss of all, Hunted, outlawed, held in thrall, With few friends to greet me, Than when reeve and squire were scen, Riding out from Aberdeen, With bared heads to meet me. "When each good wife, o'er and o'er, Through her casement glancing down, "Hard to feel the stranger's scoff, "Through this dark and stormy night Faith beholds a feeble light Up the blackness streaking; Knowing God's own time is best, In a patient hope I rest For the full day-breaking!" So the Laird of Ury said, Turning slow his horse's head Towards the Tolbooth prison, Where, through iron grates, he heard Poor disciples of the Word Preach of Christ arisen! Not in vain, Confessor old, Of thy day of trial; Every age on him, who strays From its broad and beaten ways, Happy he whose inward ear And, while Hatred's fagots burn, |