estled amid the ringlets of his hair,
Like some white dove amid the wav'ring shade;
Her eyes bent softly on his countenance;
The crimson of his fiery southern blood
Burned through the brown of his defiant cheek;
His eyes were downcast, that their sullen fire
Should not too much betray him, as he lay,
A half-tamed lion at his mistress' feet,
Restless, yet yielding to the golden chain.
In a low voice, which, like a pent-up stream,
Chafed at its boundaries, he made reply
To her incessant questions of the world,
Of human life and love, of death, and heaven.

When bold Sir JOHN intruded on the scene
OENE resumed her native haughtiness.

"I've come to plead the cause of a sweet child,
Who, like a wild-bird newly caught and caged,
Within her cell is fretting. Noble Queen,
I'm not an eloquent nor fair young man,
To please a gentle fancy; but my tongue
And mind shall do thy bidding, should there be
Aught which my humble wisdom could expound.
The meanwhile he who now instructs thee, hastes
To ope the prison door and let the bird
Flutter to her true home within his breast."

Scarce were these words with a firm purpose said,
When all the scene was changed. Where erst a Queen,
In shape most loveable, did blushing sit,
A terrible and yet a glorious form
Rose in portentious wrath; her star-crowned head
Paled the chaste lustre of the silvery dome.
It was no shame to him that BERTHO fled,
Dismayed, before the anger of her eyes,
For they were awful. Parted from Sir JOHN,
And flying through a dark, unknown ravine,
He lost himself in tangled labyrinths:
Stumbling o'er rocks--only by daring leaps
Saving himself from dropping into chasms
Which opened suddenly across his path.
From tortuous windings underneath the ground,
At length released, he thenceforth knew the way,
And sped across the mountain to the cave
Where OLIVE pined, weeping despairing tears.
Like a swift arrow through the sunlight shot
He passed athwart its glory, till he reached
Her prison--heard her sudden cry of joy--
Touched the elaborate spring which bound her in,
And freed her, while she gazed in mute surprise.

"Love! look not thus incredulous of hope!
This temple was thy lover's handiwork--
This curious spring he wrought,--and what he did
He can undo. My