1826.2 Deillr AmaiUiori. 497 



We landed on the Grecian shore ; 



And ere tlie Persian lord went o'er 



That sea again, he paid a ransom 



In good hard gold, tlie sum was handsome ; 



And Procliis gave it, ev'ry cowrie. 



To his bride Zoe, for her dowry ! 



And now I ask of you what must 



Have been my fate, had Proclus thought 

 He had done all a lover's duty. 

 When he iiad made a pretty bust, 

 A picture with fair colours fraught. 

 And sung a sonnet to my beauty ? 



With these words, spoken with a quiet archness of look and tone, 

 Zoe, as advocates of the present time would say, ' closed her case.' 

 The Athenians were a people who understood, and excelled in, graceful 

 and delicate humour as much as any, ancient or modern, which ever 

 existed ; and the manner, more perhaps than the words, of Zoe had 

 won them to regard her with favour, and even fondness. Her quips and 

 (juillets had been delivered with .such a winning and fascinating air and 

 voice, as to redeem them completely from any thing which might have 

 occasionally smacked too much, perhaps, of levity ; shewing them to 

 arise from the overflowingness of a happy heart, and not from the 

 bitterness of a sarcastic one. Her little raps of comparison between 

 the deeds of .her lover, and that of the former candidate, were delivered 

 with such good-humour, that I question whether any one, unless it 

 were Aglae herself, could feel even for a moment angry at them — I 

 am sure Eumolpus, their object, did not. In the delivery of this can- 

 didate also, Love had reason to triumph in his power. When she spoke 

 of her relief on her lover's arrival, of his exertions for her sake, the 

 arch look and ambushed smire, which at other times peeped forth from 

 her eye and lip, were changed into the full and undoubting expression 

 of praise of a loved object, and of glory in being loved by one who 

 called forth and deserved it. There are few things more striking, more 

 fascinating, I might say, more impressive, than the blaze of enthusiasm 

 bursting over a beautiful face, of which it is not the usual expression. 

 The third candidate now stepped forth. The first thing which struck 

 every one, was the singular inappositeness of her dress to the occasion 

 on which she appeared. She was in a robe of the deepest mourning; 

 and grief, rather than love, was the predominant expression of her face. 

 She was taller than either of the others, and of more majestic feature ; 

 chastened and subdued, indeed, by the impress of sorrow which her 

 countenance bore, but majestic still. Her cheek was deadly pale, and 

 seemed still more so by the jet-black hair simply parted upon her brow% 

 and the eyes and long lashes of the same colour, which formed to the 

 marble whiteness of her whole face the most strong and singular relief. 

 She advanced without much apparent emotion ; bowed slightly and 

 coldly to the assembly before which she stood, and, after being silent 

 for a few moments, burst forth as follows. At first she scarcely appeared 

 to address the judges or the assembly. By Love she seemed to have 

 suffered, and to the Mother of Love she complained. She used the 

 regular and sounding measure of the heroic verse : — 

 M.M. New Series. — Vol. L No. 3. 3 S 



