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appeal from that sentence. It needs not to tell The tears of Constance, nor the grief of her lover: The dream they had laid out their lives in was over. Bravely strove the young soldier to look in the face Of a life where invisible hands seemed to trace O'er the threshold these words... "Hope no more!" Unreturn'd Had his love been, the strong manful heart would have spurn'd That weakness which suffers a woman to lie At the roots of man's life, like a canker, and dry And wither the sap of life's purpose. But there Lay the bitterer part of the pain! Could he dare To forget he was loved? that he grieved not alone? Recording a love that drew sorrow upon The woman he loved, for himself dare he seek Surcease to that sorrow, which thus held him weak, Beat him down, and destroy'd him? News reach'd him indeed, Through a comrade, who brought him a letter to read From the dame who had care of Constance (it was one To whom, when at Paris, the boy had been known, A Frenchman, and friend of the Faubourg), which said That Constance, although never a murmur betray'd What she suffer'd, in silence grew paler each day, And seem'd visibly drooping and dying away. It was then he sought death. XVII. Thus the tale ends. 'Twas told With such broken, passionate words, as unfold In glimpses alone, a coil'd grief. Through each pause Of its fitful recital, in raw gusty flaws, The rain shook the canvas, unheeded; aloof, And unheeded, the night-wind around the tent-roof At intervals wirbled. And when all was said, The sick man, exhausted, droop'd backward his head, And fell into a feverish slumber. Long while Sat the Soeur Seraphine, in deep thought. The still smile That was wont, angel-wise, to inhabit her face And made it like heaven, was fled from its place In her eyes, on her lips; and a deep sadness there Seem'd to darken the lines of long sorrow and care, As low to herself she sigh'd... "Hath it, Eugene, Been so long, then, the struggle?... and yet, all in vain! Nay, not all in va
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