Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps Fra Pandolf chanced to say, "Her mantle laps

Over my lady's wrist too much," or Paint

Must never hope to reproduce the faint Half-flush that dies along her throat:" such stuff

Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough

For calling up that spot of joy She had A heart-how shall I say?-too soon made glad

Too easily impressed: she liked whate'er She looked on, and her looks went everywhere

Sir, 't was all one! My favor at her breast,

The dropping of the daylight in the West,

The bough of cherries some officious fool

Broke in the orchard for her, the white

She speaks

Say after me, and try to say
My very words, as if each word
Came from you of your own accord,
In your own voice, in your own way:
This woman's heart and soul and brain
Are mine as much as this gold chain
She bids me wear; which (say again)
"I choose to make by cherishing
A precious thing, or choose to fling
Over the boat-side, ring by ring."
And yet once more say... no word
more!

Since words are only words. Give o'er!

Unless you call me, all the same,
Familiarly by my pet name,
Which if the Three should hear you call,
And me reply to, would proclaim
At once our secret to them all.
Ask of me, too, command me, blame,—
Do, break down the partition-wall
"T wixt us, the daylight world beholds
Curtained in dusk and splendid folds !
What's left but-all of me to take?
I am the Three's: prevent them, slake
Your thirst! T is said, the Arab sage,
In practising with gems, can loose
Their subtle spirit in his cruce

And leave but ashes: so, sweet mage,

He muses

Oh, which were best, to roam or rest?
The land's lap or the water's breast?
To sleep on yellow millet-sheaves,
Or swim in lucid shallows just
Eluding water-lily leaves,

An inch from Death's black fingers, thrust

To lock you, whom release he must; Which life were best on Summer eves?

He speaks, musing

Lie back could thought of mine improve you?

From this shoulder let there spring
A wing; from this, another wing;
Wings, not legs and feet, shall move
you!

Show white must they spring, to blend
With your flesh, but I intend
They shall deepen to the end,
Broader, into burning gold,

Till both wings crescent-wise enfold
Your perfect self, from 'neath your feet
To o'er your head, where, lo. they meet
As if a million sword-blades hurled
Defiance from you to the world!

Row home? must we row home? Too surely

Know I where its front 's demurely
Over the Giudecca piled;
Window just with window mating,
Door on door exactly waiting,
All's the set face of a child:
But behind it, where 's a trace
Of the staidness and reserve,
And formal lines without a curve,
In the same child's playing-face?
No two windows look one way
O'er the small sea-water thread
Below them. Ah, the autumn day
I, passing, saw you overhead!
First, out a cloud of curtain blew,
Then a sweet cry, and last came you-
To catch your lory that must needs
Escape just then, of all times then,
To peck a tall plant's fleecy seeds,
And make me happiest of men.

I scarce could breathe to see you reach
So far back o'er the balcony

To catch him ere he climbed too high
Above you in the Smyrna peach,
That quick the round smooth cord of
gold,

This coiled hair on your head, unrolled,
Fell down you like a gorgeous snake
The Roman girls were wont, of old,
When Rome there was, for coolness' sake
To let lie curling o'er their bosoms.
Dear lory, may his beak retain
Ever its delicate rose stain

As if the wounded lotus-blossoms
Had marked their thief to know again!

Stay longer yet, for others' sake
Than mine! What should your cham-
ber do?

-With all its rarities that ache
In silence while day lasts, but wake
At night-time and their life renew,
Suspended just to pleasure you

Who brought against their will together
These objects, and, while day lasts,

weave

Around them such a magic tether
That dumb they look: your harp, be-

lieve,

置

III

At last the people in a body

To the Town Hall came flocking:

T is clear," cried they, "our Mayor's a noddy;

And as for our Corporation-shocking To think we buy gowns lined with ermine

For dolts that can't or won't determine What 's best to rid us of our vermin! You hope, because you 're old and obese, To find in the furry civic robe ease? Rouse up, sirs! Give your brains a racking

To find the remedy we 're lacking,

Or, sure as fate, we 'll send you packing!"

At this the Mayor and Corporation
Quaked with a mighty consternation.

IV

An hour they sat in council;

At length the Mayor broke silence:

For a guilder I 'd my ermine gown sell,

I wish I were a mile hence!

It's easy to bid one rack one's brain—
I'm sure my poor head aches again,
I've scratched it so, and all in vain.
Oh for a trap, a trap, a trap!"
Just as he said this, what should hap
At the chamber-door but a gentle tap?
"Bless us," cried the Mayor, "what 's
that?"

(With the Corporation as he sat,
Looking little though wondrous fat;
Nor brighter was his eye, nor moister
Than a too-long-opened oyster,

Save when at noon his paunch grew mutinous

For a plate of turtle green and glutinous)
"Only a scraping of shoes on the mat?
Anything like the sound of a rat
Makes my heart go pit-a-pat!"

V

Come in!"-the Mayor cried, looking bigger:

And in did come the strangest figure!
His queer long coat from heel to head
Was half of yellow and half of red,
And he himself was tall and thin,
With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin,
And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin,
No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin,
But lips where smiles went out and in;
There was no guessing his kith and kin:
And nobody could enough admire

The tall man and his quaint attire. Quoth one : It 's as my great-grandsire,

Starting up at the Trump of Doom's tone,

Had walked this way from his painted tombstone!"

VI

He advanced to the council-table:
And, "Please your honors," said he,
"I'm able,

By means of a secret charm, to draw
All creatures living beneath the sun,
That creep or swim or fly or run,
After me so as you never saw!
And I chiefly use my charm

On creatures that do people harm,
The mole and toad and newt and viper ;
And people call me the Pied Piper."
(And here they noticed round his neck
A scarf of red and yellow stripe,

To match with his coat of the self-same