Page:Joan of Arc - Southey (1796).djvu/32

Calls on Bizardo's aid; he heard; our hands
Enwove the osier car; the cave receives
The senseless stranger.
"O'er his couch I bent 255
With pious vigilance and fearful hope,
Watching the wounded man till fugitive life
Dubious return'd. His eyes gazed wistful round
And e're again the heavy lids closed on them
Beam'd languid gratitude. Long time elapsed 260
E're thro' his frame the temperate current roll'd
Of former strength: for deeply had he felt
The ruffian's sword, and distant many a league
Domremi lay the strangers native home.

"Scarce eighteen years had nerv'd the stripling's arm;265
Yet Theodore had view'd each deathful scene:
And oft the tear from his averted eye
He dried; mindful of fertile fields laid waste,
Dispeopled hamlets, the lorn widow's groan,
And the pale orphan's feeble cry for bread.270

"But