From four winged horses dark against the stars, There stood a bust of Pallas for a sign, By two sphere lamps blazoned like Heaven and Earth With constellation and with continent, Above an entry riding in, we called; A plump-armed Ostleress and a stable wench In laurel her we asked of that and this, "Lady Blanche," she said, Best-natured?" "Lady Psyche." "Hers are we," One voice, we cried; and I sat down and wrote, In such a hand as when a field of corn Bows all its ears before the roaring East; “Three ladies of the Northern empire pray Your Highness would enroll them with your own, As Lady Psyches pupus." This I sealed: The seal was Cupid bent above a scroll, And raised the blinding bandage from nis eyes: I gave the letter to be sent with dawn; And then to bed, where half in doze I seemed To float about a glimmering night, and watch A full sea glazed with muffled moonlight, swell On some dark shore just seen that it was rich. As through the land at eve we went, We fell out, my wife and I, O, we fell out, I know not why, And kissed again with tears. For when we came where lies the child We lost in other years, There above the little grave, O, there above the little grave. We kissed again with tears. II. AT break of day the College Portress came; The lilac, with a silken hood to each, And zoned with gold; and now when these were on, And we as rich as moths from dusk cocoons, She, curtseying her obeisance, let us know The Princess Ida waited: out we paced, I first, and following through the porch that sang Or book or lute; but hastily we past, There at a board by tome and paper sat, With two tame leopards crouched beside her throne. All beauty compassed in a female form, Of some clear planet close upon the Sun, Than our man's earth: such eyes were in her head, "We give you welcome: not without redound "We of the court," said Cyril. "From the court?" She answered, “then ye know the Prince?" and he: |