Lord, grant your mercy unto me: <br />Teach me some way that he may know <br />My love for him is not an empty show <br />But purest tenderness and constancy. <br />For does he not, alas, ev'n now possess <br />This body and this heart which would not flee <br />Discord, dishonour, nor uncertainty, <br />Nor family hurt, nor evil's worst distress. <br />For his sake, I value all my friends as dust <br />And in my enemies I seek to place my trust. <br />For him, my conscience and good name to chance I've cast: <br />I would renounce the world, were it his whim: <br />I'd gladly die if it should profit him. <br />What more is there to prove my love steadfast?<br /><br />Mary Stuart<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-to-lord-bothwell-1/
