He (with sigh of relief). "Well, do you know, I thought you weren't!"
UNREST!
"The lady sleeps! O, may her sleep, As it is lasting, so be deep." E. A. Poe's "The Sleeper."
Bellona sleeps! If sleep it be That nightmare slumber, restlessly Haunted by dream-world's wizardry.
So Sisera slept within the tent, Restless, though way-worn and war-spent, Whilst Jael's fierce face above him bent.
Wake not, War-Goddess! All the world Dreads now to hear the war-cry skirled, To see the battle-flag unfurled.
Our Deborahs now invoke not war, And urge not to its shock and jar The princes of our Issachar.
An awesome hush is o'er the earth, It checks our joy, it mutes our mirth. Foreboding some prodigious birth,—
Some monstrous issue, that may sweep Earth's plains with red from deep to deep; And thou dost sleep, still thou dost sleep!