While the folk murmur’d, and the death-bell[749] toll’d,

And the day brighten’d,[750] and his time had come.

… Till, Nan!—all else was silent[751] but the knell

Of the slow bell![752]

And I could only wait, and wait, and wait,

And what I waited for[753] I couldn’t tell—

At last there came a groaning deep and great—

St. Paul’s struck “eight”[754]

I scream’d, and seem’d to turn to fire and fell![755]

God[756] bless him, live or dead!