So for her
Her tribe's men sighed in vain, yet reverenced
The obdurate virtue that destroy'd their hopes.
One man there was, a vain and wretched man,
Who saw, desired, despaired, and hated her:
His sensual eye had gloated on her cheek
E'en till the flush of angry modesty
Gave it new charms, and made him gloat the more.
She loathed the man, for Hamuel's eye was bold,
And the strong workings of brute selfishness
Had moulded his broad features; and she feared
The bitterness of wounded vanity
That with a fiendish hue would overcast
His faint and lying smile. Nor vain her fear,
For Hamuel vowed revenge, and laid a plot
Against her virgin fame. He spread abroad
Whispers that travel fast, and ill reports
That soon obtain belief; how Zillah's eye,
When in the temple heavenward it was raised,
Did swim with rapturous zeal, but there were those
Who had beheld the enthusiast's melting glance
With other feelings filled:--that 'twas a task
Of easy sort to play the saint by day
Before the public eye, but that all eyes
Were closed at night;--that Zillah's life was foul,
Yea, forfeit to the law.
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