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Victor Hugo - The Lover’s Sacrifice
Work rating: Low

[HERNANI, Act II.]


  DONNA SOL.                  Together let us fly!

  HERNANI. Together? No! the hour is past for flight.
Dearest, when first thy beauty smote my sight,
I offered, for the love that bade me live,
Wretch that I was, what misery had to give:
My wood, my stream, my mountain. Bolder grown,
By thy compassion to an outlaw shown,
The outlaw`s meal beneath the forest shade,
The outlaw`s couch far in the greenwood glade,
I offered. Though to both that couch be free,
I keep the scaffold block reserved for me.

  DONNA SOL. And yet you promised?

  HERNANI _(falls on his knee.)_  Angel! in this hour,
Pursued by vengeance and oppressed by power--
Even in this hour when death prepares to close
In shame and pain a destiny of woes--
Yes, I, who from the world proscribed and cast,
Have nursed one dark remembrance of the past,
E`en from my birth in sorrow`s garment clad,
Have cause to smile and reason to be glad;
For you have loved the outlaw and have shed
Your whispered blessings on his forfeit head.

  DONNA SOL. Let me go with you.

  HERNANI.                      No! I will not rend
From its fair stem the flower as I descend.
Go--I have smelt its perfume. Go--resume
All that this grasp has brushed away of bloom.
Wed the old man,--believe that ne`er we met;
I seek my shade--be happy, and forget!
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