And thus they talk’d,

Till, welcoming doubt, my faith succumb’d to it;

And all the love once making me so proud,

Whose growth, I thought, would be so sweet and fair,

Stung like a very thistle in my soul;

Each breath of theirs would blow its prickles keen,

And sow its pestering seedlets far and wide

O’er every pleasing prospect of my life.

XXXI.

And I recall my calling out in prayer,