Page:Andromeda, and other poems - Kingsley (1858).djvu/122

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SAINT MAURA.
Words which I learnt from thee—I trust in GodNought fierce or rude—for was I not a girlThree months ago beneath my mother's roof?I thought of that. She might be there! I looked—She was not there! I hid my face and wept.And when I looked again, the judge's eyeWas on me, cold and steady, deep in thought—'She knows what shame is still; so strip her.' 'Ah!'I shrieked, 'Not that, Sir! Any pain! So youngI am—a wife too—I am not my own,But his—my husband's!' But they took my shawl,And tore my tunic off, and there I stoodBefore them all. . . . Husband! you love me still?Indeed I pleaded! Oh, shine out, kind moon,And let me see him smile! Oh! how I prayed,While some cried 'Shame!' And some 'She is too young!'And some mocked—ugly words: God shut my ears.And yet no earthquake came to swallow me.While all the court around, and walls, and roofs,
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