That is again beside him and bending over him, the same as ever; and it was certainly she! So for the few happy moments while the dream lasts; but he awakes, and the spell is broken.

So dear has been that dream, however, that he will keep it as a sacred memory for himself in the last of all his Sonnets:-- "Methought I saw my late espoused saint Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave, Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave, Rescued from Death by force, though pale and faint.
Mine, as whom washed from spot of child-bed taint Purification in the Old Law did save, And such as yet once more I trust to have Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint, Came vested all in white, pure as her mind.
Her face was veiled; yet to my fancied sight Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined So clear as in no face with more delight.
But oh! as to embrace me she inclined, I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night."[1] [Footnote 1: We do not know the exact date of this Sonnet; but the internal evidence decidedly is that it was written not very long after the second wife's death, and probably in 1658.

The manuscript copy of it among the Milton MSS.

at Cambridge is in the hand of a person who was certainly acting as amanuensis for Milton early in 1660 and afterwards.].