Oh ! gentler than a Fairy creeps
Into a moonlit flower,
Love slides into the heart that sleeps
And hardly shows his power.

But there, a tyrant grown, in vain
His fortress we assail;
The despot laughs at all our pain,
And all our struggles fail.

Too late we learn, at fatal cost,
How impotent we are;
When Caution slumbers at her post,
And leaves the door ajar!