"In truth the threat escaped me unawares:
Should the tale tire you, let this challenge stand
For my excuse. Dissevered from mankind,
As to your eyes and thoughts we must have seemed[193]
When ye looked down upon us from the crag,
Islanders mid[194] a stormy mountain sea,
We are not so;—perpetually we touch
Upon the vulgar ordinances[195] of the world;
And he, whom this our cottage hath to-day
Relinquished, lived[196] dependent for his bread