One braids her showers of raven hair,

Another laves her temples fair,
Another fits the satin shoe,

That for a fairy's foot might do.
Then vest her in a robe of white,

And laces limpid as the light,

With pearls and diamonds twine her brow,

And o'er her drop a veil of snow.

VI.

Aurora, weary of the night,

Has flung apart the gates of light--
And through the drapery askance,
That fairy fingers draw aside,

The Day-god shoots his amorous glance,
Upon the richly jewelled Bride,

Who from her bridesmaids sits apart,

Holding the portal of her heart

Against the knocking of Remorse,

That soon will wrench it ope perforce.

VII.

Aghast and pale the bridesmaids start-

Wild glances on each other dart-

"Ho! Murder! murder!" through the Castle

Bursts from the lip of slave and vassal

"Blood!" rings along the corridor--
Old UGO staggers through the door,
His white hair bristling like the frost
That clings around the Boreal pole--
"Ho! FLORENCE! Bridesmaids! we are lost!
Say mass for LEONARDO's soul !

All pale, and still, and stark, he lies!
His own stiletto in his heart,

Death's white film drawn across his

And icy cold in every part!

For reasons none may e'er divine,

eyes,

For Heaven he's changed the nuptial shrine ! · Oh! Saints! Oh! Holy Virgin! hear!

For LEONARDO's soul my prayer!"

"Oh! Holy Mary! I'm undone ! "

In faltering tones the Bride begun ;
"Sustain my trembling limbs, my sire!
Give! give me air, or I expire!
Although I cannot make thee blessed,
Oh! let me weep upon thy breast!
These tears have given my heart relief!
Methinks I now can curb my grief-
Lead me where LEONARDO lies--

Once more I'd bend on him mine eyes,

And clasp the hand that death has won:
Alas! thou ne'er wilt have a son!"
"Take courage, dearest!" UGo sighed ;
"Bridesmaids! assist to lead the Bride

To her dead LEONARDO'S side:
Instead of nuptial festival,

This day we have a funeral !"

VIII.

Within that Castle's highest tower,
At this serene and roscate hour,
When Beauty walks on heath and hill,
And nuptial guests the temple fill,
Lies LEONARDO stark and still.

So cold, so pale the beams of day
Turn trembling from his icy clay-
Vassals and slaves around him stand,
A ghastly, terror-stricken band,
And, through the solemn portal, glide
The Bridesmaids, UGo, and the Bride,
Who, kneeling by the bloody bed,

Begins to say her Rosary;
When up before her stands the dead,

And, bowing to the company,

As only dead Bridegroom could bow,

Wrote "murderess" in blood upon her brow.

CANTO III.

THE VOYAGE-THE HARPER—THE ACQUAINTANCE-THE WEDDING.

I.

MORN is abroad, the sun is up,

The dew fills high the lily's cup;

Ten thousand blossoms blushing there
Diffuse their incense through the air,

And smiling hail the morning beam;
The fawns plunge panting in the stream,
Or through the vale with light foot spring;
Insect and bird are on the wing,
And all is bright, as when in May

Young Nature holds a holiday.

II.

The rising tide with heavy flow
From sea to shore rolls to and fro,
And wailing, breaks upon the shoal,
Like Sorrow's tempests o'er the soul

Afar upon the restless sea,
Bound to Etnean Sicily,

Lord LEON'S bark with swelling sail
Rushes before the rising gale,

Across the brine, where wildly tost
On rocks Æneas' fleet was lost,'
On-on she flies, before the wind,
The main ahead, the shore behind,
Receding to a misty speck.

The sailors gather upon the deck,
To bid their native land good-night,
And drop a tear to past delight.
On the lofty poop Lord LEON sits,

His elbow resting on his knee; And when the wave no more permits Him sight of sunny Italy,

Like one whose thoughts are far away, He murmurs to himself this lay.

SONG.

Thou hast faded from my sight,

Fair Italy;

But still, thy star shines bright

To me-to me.

Thy sweetest, fairest flower,

My Italy,