Of headlong passion, aids its rapid course;
Its slight resistance but provokes the fire,
As wood-work stops the flame, and then conveys it higher.
The Husband came; a wife by guilt made bold
Had, meeting, soothed him, as in days of old;
But soon this fact transpired; her strong distress,
And his Friend’s absence, left him nought to guess.
Still cool, though grieved, thus prudence bade him write -
“I cannot pardon, and I will not fight;
Thou art too poor a culprit for the laws,