Yes! she could think some pity was his due.
Thus fix’d, she heard not her attendant glide
With soft slow step - till, standing by her side,
The trembling servant gasp’d for breath, and shed
Relieving tears, then utter’d, “He is dead!”
“Dead!” said the startled Lady. - “Yes, he fell
Close at the door where he was wont to dwell;
There his sole friend, the Ass, was standing by,
Half dead himself, to see his Master die.”
“Expired he then, good Heaven! for want of food?” -