watch and ward

“We had named it the Bridal Bower -- and bedecking the grassy couch again with flowers, lulled by the drowsy hum of bees and the twitter of birds, I would soothe my darling to sleep, while with a swelling pride of masterful ownership I would sit by keeping watch and ward over her in her slumbers, bewailing only the too, too rapid flight of the golden moments.”

The Story of a Slave. A Realistic Revelation of a Social Relation of Slave Times--Hitherto Unwritten--From the Pen of One Who Has Felt Both the Lash and the Caress of a Mistress