Page:Scenes and Hymns of Life.pdf/15

[Gomez, a Spanish Priest, enters.
Gomez.Daughter, hail!
I bring thee tidings.

Edith.Heaven will aid my soul
Calmly to meet whate'er thy lips announce.

Gomez. Nay, lift a song of thanksgiving to Heaven,
And bow thy knee down for deliverance won!
Hast thou not pray'd for life? and wouldst thou not
Once more be free?

Edith.Have I not pray'd for life?
I, that am so belov'd! that love again
With such a heart of tendrils? Heaven! thou know'st
The gushings of my prayer! And would I not
Once more be free? I, that have been a child
Of breezy hills, a playmate of the fawn
In ancient woodlands from mine infancy!
A watcher of the clouds and of the stars,
Beneath the adoring silence of the night;
And a glad wanderer with the happy streams,
Whose laughter fills the mountains! Oh! to hear
Their blessed sounds again!