THE CAT TRIUMPHANT 141 



In an old empty watering-pot ; 

 There wanting nothing save a fan, 

 To seem some nymph in her sedan, 

 Apparelled in exactest sort, 

 And ready to be borne to Court." 



Finally her taste for seclusion beguiled her into 

 an open drawer half full of linen, delicately laid 

 away in fragrant lavender by Mrs. Unwin's careful 

 fingers. 



" Puss, with delight beyond expression, 

 Surveyed the scene, and took possession. 

 Recumbent at her ease erelong, 

 And lulled by her own humdrum song, 

 She left the cares of life behind, 

 And slept as she would sleep her last; 

 When in came, housewifely inclined, 

 The chambermaid, and shut it fast, 

 By no malignity impelled, 

 But all unconscious whom it held." 



For two days and a night the little prisoner re- 

 mained immured in her dungeon, and then at last 

 her 



" long and melancholy mew " 



reached the sleepless poet's ears, and he hastened 

 to save another of her lives by pulling open the 

 drawer. 



The advent of a new and very frolicsome tor- 

 toise-shell kitten filled Cowper with delight, and he 

 describes her enthusiastically in a letter to Lady 

 Hesketh. — " In point of size, she is likely to be a 



