"
The hour by grudging kindness spared
Expired too soon--the friends must part--
And Nina from the prison gazed,
With lingering pace and heavy heart.
Shelter, and rest, and food she found
With one who, for the master's sake,
Though grim suspicion stalked around,
Dared his old servant home to take.
Beneath that friendly roof, each night
She stayed, but still returning day--
Ay, the first beam of dawning light
Beheld her on her anxious way.
Towards the prison, there to await
The hour when through that dismal door
The keeper, half compassionate,
Should bid her enter as before.
And well she seemed to comprehend
The time appointed for her stay,
The little hour that with her friend
She tarried there was all her day.
At last the captive's summons came;
They led him forth his doom to hear;
No tremor shook his thrice-nerved frame
Whose heart was dead to hope and fear.
So with calm step he moved along,
And calmly faced the murderous crew,
But close and closer for the throng,
Poor Nina to her master drew.
And she has found a resting place
Between his knees--her old safe home--
And she looks round in every face
As if to read his written doom.
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