midnight
This is not so . You are still but a man in the beginning of middle age , and you are yet strong . You will escape from this ruined land , and when you shake the dust of it off your feet its curse shall fall from you ; you will return to your own place , and there you will find one who has awaited your coming for many years . 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 !