LXXIII.

And yet I wept thee not, thou true and brave!

I could not weep—there gather’d round thy name

Too deep a passion. Thou denied a grave!

Thou, with the blight flung on thy soldier’s fame!

Had I not known thy heart from childhood’s time?

Thy heart of hearts?—and couldst thou die for crime?

No! had all earth decreed that death of shame,

I would have set, against all earth’s decree,

Th’ inalienable trust of my firm soul in thee!