Father, keep him, as Thy child.

From the pestilential blight,
From the sun-beams scorching light,
From temptation's mighty power,
In some lone unguarded hour.
From the dangers that we know,
From the dark undreamt of foe,
From the death-splash of the wave,
Father, hear and help and save."

Then came the tidings brought by Robert's hand,
Victor lay buried in a far off land;
Died, wafting my name up to Heaven in prayer,
Leaving his promised bride to Robert's care.
Oft it has puzzled me, until my brain
Has racked itself from thinking into pain,
Why Victor left me thus, for in the past
He surely loved not Robert, perhaps at last
He saw things differently and thought it best
And had his wishes writ, e're he could rest.
But oh, the agony of those past hours;
It seems on looking back, that all my flowers
Looked mournfully at me and drooped their heads,
And lay like dying children in their beds;
And the bright birds in the vine-covered wall
Sang the sad chords of "The Dead March in Saul;"
And I was living, but all else were dead,
The sunbeam shimmered sickly o'er my head,
As when a ray peers in a darkened room,