And drink my everlasting fill,
Upon every milken hill;
My soul will be a-dry before,
But after that will thirst no more.
The musings of the unfortunate but high-souled nobleman in expectation of ignominious death are interesting and pathetic, but they have no claim to a tune, even if they were less rugged and unmetrical. But the poem stands notable among the pious witnesses.
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.
“O Domine Deus, Speravi in Te.”
This last passionate prayer of the unhappy Mary Stuart just before her execution—in a language which perhaps flowed from her pen more easily than even her English or French—is another witness of supplicating faith that struggles out of darkness with a song. In her extremity the devoted Catholic forgets her petitions to the Virgin, and comes to Christ:
O Domine Deus, Speravi in Te;
O care mi Jesu, nunc libera me!