A tempest, thro' the cloud that dimm'd her broke 'Come hither O Psyche,' she cried out, embrace me, come, I should have had to do with none but maids, Dear traitor too much loved, why ?-why ?-Yet see And trust not love you less. And now, O Sire, Grant me your son, to nurse, to wait upon him, L Like mine own brother. For my debt to him, This nightmare weight of gratitude, I know it; Taunt me no more: yourself and yours shall have Free adit; we will scatter all our maids Till happier times each to her proper hearth: What use to keep them here now? grant my prayer. Help, father, brother, help; speak to the king : Thaw this male nature to some touch of that Which kills me with myself, and drags me down From my fixt height to mob me up with all Poor weakling ev'n as they are.' Passionate tears Follow'd the king replied not: Cyril said: That you may tend upon him with the prince.' 6 'Ay so,' said Ida with a bitter smile, Our laws are broken: let him enter too.' 'I stagger in the stream: I cannot keep My heart an eddy from the brawling hour: We break our laws with ease, but let it be.' Ay so?' said Blanche: Amazed am I to hear Your Highness but your Highness breaks with ease The law your Highness did not make: 'twas I. I had been wedded wife, I knew mankind, And block'd them out; but these men came to woo Your Highness-verily I think to win.' So she, and turn'd askance a wintry eye: But Ida with a voice, that like a bell Toll'd by an earthquake in a trembling tower, Rang ruin, answer'd full of grief and scorn. Fling our doors wide! all, all, not one, but all, Not only he, but by my mother's soul, Whatever man lies wounded, friend, or foe, Shall enter, if he will. Let our girls flit, She turn'd; the very nape of her white neck Was rosed with indignation: but the Prince Her brother came; the king her father charm'd Her wounded soul with words; nor did mine own Refuse her proffer, lastly gave his hand. Then us they lifted up, dead weights, and bare Straight to the doors: to them the doors gave way Groaning, and in the Vestal entry shriek'd The virgin marble under iron heels : And on they moved and gain'd the hall, and there Rested but great the crush was, and each base, To left and right, of those tall columns drown'd In silken fluctuation and the swarm Of female whisperers: at the further end Was Ida by the throne, the two great cats That o'er the statues leapt from head to head, Now set a wrathful Dian's moon on flame, And now and then an echo started up, And shuddering fled from room to room, and died Of fright in far apartments. Then the voice |