"You blackguard !" cries the rural wench,
My lady screams, "Ah, bête!"
And Lady Thrifty scolds in French,
And Cis in Billingsgate;

"Til both their Lords my Second try,
To end connubial strife-

Sir Thrifty hath the means to die,
And Ralph-to beat his wife!

XV.

LORD ROLAND by the gay torchlight
Held revel in his hall;

He broached my First, that jovial knight,
And pledged his vassals tall;

The red stream went from wood to can,
And then from can to mouth,

And the deuce a man knew how it ran,
Nor heeded, north or south:

"Let the health go wide," Lord Ronald cried,
As he saw the river flow-

"One cup to-night to the noblest Bride, And one to the stoutest Foe!"

Lord Ronald kneeled, when the morning came,

Low in his mistress' bower;

And she gave him my Second, that beauteous dame,
For a spell in danger's hour:

Her silver shears were not at hand;
And she smiled a playful smile,

As she cleft it with her lover's brand,
And grew not pale the while:

And "Ride, and ride," Lord Ronald cried,
As he kissed its auburn glow;

"For he that woos the noblest Bride

Must beard the stoutest Foe!"

Lord Ronald stood, when the day shone fair,

In his garb of glittering mail;

And marked how my Whole was crumbling there With the battle's iron hail :

The bastion and the battlement

On many a craven crown,

Like rocks from some huge mountain rent, Were trembling darkly down: "Whate'er betide," Lord Ronald cried,

As he bade his trumpets blow"I shall win to-day the noblest Bride, Or fall by the stoutest Foe!"

XVI.

I graced Don Pedro's revelry,
All dressed in fire and feather,
When loveliness and chivalry,
Were met to feast together.
He flung the slave who moved the lid,
A purse of maravedis ;

And this that gallant Spaniard did,
For me and for the ladies.

He vowed a vow, that noble knight,
Before he went to table,

To make his only sport the fight,
His only couch the stable,

Till he had dragged as he was bid
Five score of Turks to Cadiz ;—
And this that gallant Spaniard did,
For me and for the ladies.

To ride through mountains, where my First
A banquet would be reckoned;
Through deserts, where to quench their thirst
Men vainly turn my Second.

To leave the gates of fair Madrid,
To dare the gates of Hades;-
And this that gallant Spaniard did,
For me and for the ladies.