hearts had loved, and even, though in struggles, loved yet. Did they
forswear the vow? Did they abandon the faith? Did even love allure them?
Mejnour, with one voice, they preferred to die. And whence comes this
courage?--because such HEARTS LIVE IN SOME MORE ABSTRACT AND HOLIER
LIFE THAN THEIR OWN. BUT TO LIVE FOREVER UPON THIS EARTH IS TO LIVE IN
NOTHING DIVINER THAN OURSELVES. Yes, even amidst this gory butcherdom,
God, the Ever-living, vindicates to man the sanctity of His servant,
Death!

....

Again I have seen thee in spirit; I have seen and blessed thee, my sweet
child! Dost thou not know me also in thy dreams? Dost thou not feel the
beating of my heart through the veil of thy rosy slumbers? Dost thou
not hear the wings of the brighter beings that I yet can conjure around
thee, to watch, to nourish, and to save? And when the spell fades at thy
waking, when thine eyes open to the day, will they not look round for
me, and ask thy mother, with their mute eloquence, "Why she has robbed
thee of a father?"

Woman, dost thou not repent thee? Flying from imaginary fears, hast
thou not come to the very lair of terror, where Danger sits visible
and incarnate? Oh, if we could but meet, wouldst thou not fall upon the
bosom thou hast so wronged, and feel, poor wanderer amidst the storms,
as if thou hadst regained the shelter? Mejnour, still my researches
fail me. I mingle with all men, even their judges and their spies, but
I cannot yet gain the clew. I know that she is here. I know it by an
instinct; the breath of my child seems warmer and more familiar.

They peer at me with venomous looks, as I pass through their streets.
With a glance I disarm their malice, and fascinate the basilisks.
Everywhere I see the track and scent the presence of the Ghostly One
that dwells on the Threshold, and whose victims are the souls that would
ASPIRE, and can only FEAR. I see its dim shapelessness going before the
men of blood, and marshalling their way. Robespierre passed me with his
furtive step. Those eyes of horror were gnawing into his heart. I looked
down upon their senate; the grim Phantom sat cowering on its floor.
It hath taken up its abode in the city of Dread. And what in truth
are these would-be builders of a new world? Like the students who have
vainly struggled after our supreme science, they have attempted what is
beyond their power; they have passed from this solid earth of usages and
forms into the land of shadow, an