There the savage woman whom you mated with, the princess of a fallen
house, will become but a fantastic memory to you, and all these strange
eventful years will be as a midnight dream. Only your love for the dead
children will always remain, these you must always love by day and by
night, and the desire of them, that desire for the dead than which there
is nothing more terrible, shall follow you to your grave, and I am glad
that it should be so, for I was their mother and some thought of me must
go with them. This alone the Lily maid has left to me, and there only
I shall prevail against her, for, Teule, no child of hers shall live to
rob your heart of the memory of those I gave you.
'Oh! I have watched you by day and by night: I have seen the longing in
your eyes for a face which you have lost and for the land of your youth.
Be happy, you shall gain both, for the struggle is ended and the Lily
maid has been too strong for me. I grow weak and I have little more to
say. We part, and perhaps for ever, for what is there between us save
the souls of those dead sons of ours? Since you desire me no more, that
I may make our severance perfect, now in the hour of my death I renounce
your gods and I seek my own, though I think that I love yours and hate
those of my people. Is there any communion between them? We part, and
perchance for ever, yet I pray of you to think of me kindly, for I have
loved you and I love you; I was the mother of your children, whom being
Christian, you will meet again.
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