'Tis strange! he spake of you familiarly As mine and Albert's common Foster-mother. FOSTER-MOTHER. Now blessings on the man, whoe'er he be, That joined your names with mine! O my sweet lady, As often as I think of those dear times When you two little ones would stand at eve On each side of my chair, and make me learn had learnt in the day; and how to talk All you In gentle phrase, then bid me sing to you 'Tis more like heaven to come than what has been. MARIA. O my dear Mother! this strange man has left me She gazes idly!-But that entrance, Mother! FOSTER-MOTHER. Can no one hear? It is a perilous tale! No one. MARIA. FOSTER-MOTHER. My husband's father told it me, Poor old Leoni !—Angels rest his soul! He found a baby wrapt in mosses, lined With thistle-beards, and such small locks of wool As hang on brambles. Well, he brought him home, And reared him at the then Lord Velez' cost. And so the babe grew up a pretty boy, A pretty boy, but most unteachable— And never learnt a prayer, nor told a bead, But knew the names of birds, and mocked their notes, And whistled, as he were a bird himself: And all the autumn 'twas his only play To get the seeds of wild flowers, and to plant them A grey-haired man-he loved this little boy, The boy loved him-and, when the Friar taught, him, He soon could write with the pen and from that time Lived chiefly at the Convent or the Castle. So he became a very learned youth. But Oh! poor wretch !—he read, and read, and read, "Till his brain turned- and ere his twentieth year, He had unlawful thoughts of many things: And though he prayed, he never loved to pray But yet his speech, it was so soft and sweet, The late Lord Velez ne'er was wearied with him. frightened; A fever seized him, and he made confession Of all the heretical and lawless talk Which brought this judgment: so the youth was seized And wander up and down at liberty. He always doted on the youth, and now His love grew desperate: and defying death, He made that cunning entrance I described: And the young man escaped. MARIA. "Tis a sweet tale: Such as would lull a listening child to sleep, FOSTER-MOTHER. He went on ship-board With those bold voyagers, who made discovery |