The thought of Egilona’s qualities
Came like a bitter medicine for her grief,
And to the extinction of her husband’s line,
Sad consolation, reconciled her heart.
But Roderick, while they communed thus, had ceased
To hear, such painfulest anxiety
The sight of that old venerable man
Awoke. A sickening fear came over him:
The hope which led him from his hermitage
Now seem’d for ever gone, for well he knew