At life that looked so fearfully like death.
And Gilbert gazed, and as he gazed, a change
Passed o’er those features—beautiful but strange—
Such magic change as one might guess would be
When bursts the morning o’er a moonlit sea;
His brow relaxed, his thin lips dropped apart,
More boldly heaved his breast and leaped his heart,
And a faint smile, the ghost of gladness gone,
Played round his mouth like radiance round the sun.
Now sinks his breathing indistinct and low—