Child was a word he never more must speak!

How did he know what villains had defiled

His honest bed?—He spurn’d the name of child:

Keep them he must; but he would coarsely hide

Their forms, and nip the growth of woman’s pride;

He would consume their flesh, abridge their food,

And kill the mother-vices in their blood. 650


All this Sir Owen heard, and grieved for all;

He with the husband mourn’d Alicia’s fall;