When the ruin burst around me like a flood,
Assail’d my soul. I ever deem’d his fall
An act of sudden madness; and this day
Hath in unlook’d-for confirmation given
A livelier hope, a more assurëd faith.
Smiling benignant then amid her tears,
She took Florinda by the hand, and said,
I little thought that I should live to bless
Count Julian’s daughter! She hath brought to me
The last, the best, the only comfort earth