173. The Betrayal

WHEN you were weary, roaming the wide world, over,

I gave my fickle heart to a new lover.

Now they tell me that you are lying dead:

O mountains fall on me and hide my head!

When you lay burning in the throes of fever,

He vowed me love by the willow-margined river:

Death smote you there—here was your trust betrayed,

O darkness, cover me, I am afraid!

Yea, in the hour of your supremest trial,

I laughed with him! The shadows on the dial

Stayed not, aghast at my dread ignorance:

Nor man nor angel looked at me askance.

Under the mountains there is peace abiding,

Darkness shall be pavilion for my hiding,

Tears shall blot out the sin of broken faith,

The lips that falsely kissed, shall kiss but Death.