Nor found my friends; but push'd alone on foot Across the woods, and less from Indian craft WT GREEN Se Than beelike instinct hiveward, found at length The garden portals. Two great statues, Art A weight of emblem, and betwixt were valves Of open-work in which the hunter rued A little space was left between the horns, Thro' which I clamber'd o'er at top with pain, Dropt on the sward, and up the linden walks, And, tost on thoughts that changed from hue to hue, Now poring on the glowworm, now the star, I paced the terrace, till the bear had wheel'd Thro' a great arc his seven slow suns. Of lightest echo, then a loftier form A step Than female, moving thro' the uncertain gloom, Disturb'd me with the doubt if this were she.' But it was Florian. 'Hist O hist,' he said, They seek us out so late is out of rules. To whom none spake, half-sick at heart, return'd. Arriving all confused among the rest With hooded brows I crept into the hall, And, couch'd behind a Judith, underneath The head of Holofernes peep'd and saw. Girl after girl was call'd to trial: each She, question'd if she knew us men, at first Was silent; closer prest, denied it not: And then, demanded if her mother knew, Or Psyche, she affirm'd not, or denied: From whence the Royal mind, familiar with her, Easily gather'd either guilt. She sent For Psyche, but she was not there; she call'd She sent for Blanche to accuse her face to face; And yet,' I said, 'you wrong him more than I That struck him: this is proper to the clown, Tho' smock'd, or furr'd and purpled, still the clown, That which he says he loves: for Cyril, howe'er Might have been worse and sinn'd in grosser lips These flashes on the surface are not he. He has a solid base of temperament: But as the waterlily starts and slides Upon the level in little puffs of wind, Tho' anchor'd to the bottom, such is he.' Scarce had I ceased when from a tamarisk near Two Proctors leapt upon us, crying, Names: By all the fountains: fleet I was of foot: I heard the puff'd pursuer; at mine ear |