Another step, and lo! she was launched!
All in white, as Brides are _blanched_,
With a wreath of most wonderful splendor--
Diamonds, and pearls, so rich in device,
That, according to calculation nice,
Her head was worth as royal a price
As the head of the Young Pretender.

CCXXXI.

Bravely she shone--and shone the more
As she sail'd through the crowd of squalid and poor,
Thief, beggar, and tatterdemalion--
Led by the Count, with his sloe-black eyes
Bright with triumph, and some surprise,
Like Anson on making sure of his prize
The famous Mexican Galleon!

CCXXXII.

Anon came Lady K., with her face
Quite made up to act with grace,
But she cut the performance shorter;
For instead of pacing stately and stiff,
At the stare of the vulgar she took a miff,
And ran, full speed, into Church, as if
To get married before her daughter.

CCXXXIII.

But Sir Jacob walk'd more slowly, and bow'd
Eight and left to the gaping crowd,
Wherever a glance was seizable;
For Sir Jacob thought he bow'd like a Guelph,
And therefore bow'd to imp and elf,
And would gladly have made a bow to himself,
Had such a bow been feasible.

CCXXXIV.

And last--and not the least of the sight,
Six "Handsome Fortunes," all in white,
Came to help in the marriage rite,--
And rehearse their own hymeneals;
And then the bright procession to close,
They were followed by just as many Beaux
Quite fine enough for Ideals.

CCXXXV.

Glittering men, and splendid dames,
Thus they enter'd the porch of Saint James',
Pursued by a thunder of laughter;
For the Beadle was forced to intervene,
For Jim the Crow, and his Mayday Queen,
With her gilded ladle, and Jack i' the Green,
Would fain have follow'd after!

CCXXXVI.

Beadle-like he hush'd the shouts;
But the temple was full "inside and out,"
And a buzz kept buzzing all round about
Like bees when the day is sunny--
A buzz universal that interfered
With the right that ought to have been revered,
As if the couple already were smear'd
With Wedlock's treacle and honey!

CCXXXVII.

Yet Wedlock's a very awful thing!
'Tis something like that feat in the ring,
Which requires good nerve to do it--
When one of a "Grand Equestrian Troop"
Makes a jump at a gilded hoop,
Not certain at all
Of what may befall
After his getting through it!

CCCXXXVIII.

But the Count he felt the nervous work
No more than any polygamous Turk,
Or bold piratica