Above an entry: riding in, we call'd;

A plump-arm'd Ostleress and a stable wench
Came running at the call, and help'd us down.
Then stept a buxom hostess forth, and sail'd,
Full-blown, before us into rooms which gave
Upon a pillar'd porch, the bases lost

In laurel her we ask'd of that and this,

:

And who were tutors. Lady Blanche' she said,
And Lady Psyche.' 'Which was prettiest,
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 Psyche's pupils.'

This I seal'd:

The seal was Cupid bent above a scroll,
And o'er his head Uranian Venus hung,

And raised the blinding bandage from his eyes:

I

gave

the letter to be sent with dawn;

And then to bed, where half in doze I seem'd 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 thro' the land at eve we went,
And pluck'd the ripen'd ears,

We fell out, my wife and I,

O we fell out I know not why,

And kiss'd 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 kiss'd again with tears.

II.

AT break of day the College Portress came:

She brought us Academic silks, in hue

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 thro' the porch that sang
All round with laurel, issued in a court

Compact of lucid marbles, boss'd with lengths
Of classic frieze, with ample awnings gay

Betwixt the pillars, and with great urns of flowers.
The Muses and the Graces, group'd in threes,

Enring'd a billowing fountain in the midst;

And here and there on lattice edges lay

Or book or lute; but hastily we past,

And

up a flight of stairs into the hall.

There at a board by tome and paper sat,

With two tame leopards couch'd beside her throne, All beauty compass'd in a female form,

The Princess; liker to the inhabitant

Of some clear planet close upon the Sun,

Than our man's earth; such eyes were in her head,
And so much grace and power, breathing down
From over her arch'd brows, with every turn
Lived thro' her to the tips of her long hands,
And to her feet. She rose her height, and said:

'We give you welcome: not without redound
Of use and glory to yourselves ye come,
The first-fruits of the stranger: aftertime,
And that full voice which circles round the
Will rank you nobly, mingled up with me.

What are the ladies of your land so tall?'

grave,