Page, squire, or groom, one cup to bring
Of blessed water from the spring,
To slake my dying thirst!”
Here occurs the immortal tribute to the higher [409] ]qualities of the sex, nowhere seen to such advantage as in the dark hour of helpless suffering:—
‘O, Woman! in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
And variable as the shade
By the light quivering aspen made;
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou!