18:26.] 



Delur Amaiitiori. 



495 



A pair of minutes, you will know 

 The stiiteineiit is most « propos. 

 For, while along the tide we floated, 



Enjoying the fresh fragrant air, 



I " only wishing Proclus there !" 

 A vessel, which we had not noted. 

 Well armed, well manned, with sail and oar. 

 Bore right down from the Lydian shore ; 

 And, almost ere I could look round, 

 To my no small dismay, I found 

 Myself on board the pirate's bark. 



He was a corsair, used to cruise 

 For an old satrap ; and my spark 



Thought fit, in his bad taste, to choose 

 Me for his lord ; who did not want 

 Ladies so old as was my aunt ! 

 He said (th' unmanner'd knave !) that I 

 Might chance to please his master's eye. 

 Which he pronounced an honour'd fate — 

 " But old ones were not worth their freight !" 



Away we scud ; and I am sold 

 By the sea-captain to the old 



And ugly Persian ; 

 Body, and soul, and heart, a Greek, 

 'Twere vain to try in words to speak 



Th' extent of my aversion ! 

 In the mean time, my aunt arrived 



On shore ; and to her friends had told 



How I had been kidnapp'd and sold. 

 To be by the old Persian hived 

 Within his harem; where his money 

 Bought, for the drone, of other bees the honey ! 



And think you that my lover then 



Sat in a corner down to cry ? 

 Or that, instead, he took his pen 



To write an ode despairingly ? 

 And sing it to a twangling lyre ? 



Or drew me, when the prototype 



Was trembling in another's gripe ? 

 No ! like a man of sense and fire. 

 He took up arms to set me free — 

 He did not pine and pipe — not he ! 

 Nor was he a hot-headed fool. 



Who, like a moth, would headlong fly 



Straight to attack the flame, and die ! ■ 

 Not only brave, but clever, cool. 

 And skilful too, he donned disguise 

 To hide him from the Persian's eyes. 



And yet to me be known : 



He took a woman's garb ; a zone 

 Of gems and gold confined his waist ; 



Flowers and jewels decked the wreath — 

 But death was there — for he had placed 



His trusty steel beneath ! 



He passes to the Lydian coast — 

 They seize him ; and as all the most 

 Beautiful maids who thither strayed 

 Were tribute to the Persian paid, 



