has sent his fools away.
Antonia's skill was put upon the rack,
But no device could be brought into play--
And how to parry the renew'd attack?
Besides, it wanted but few hours of day:
Antonia puzzled; Julia did not speak,
But press'd her bloodless lip to Juan's cheek.

He turn'd his lip to hers, and with his hand
Call'd back the tangles of her wandering hair;
Even then their love they could not all command,
And half forgot their danger and despair:
Antonia's patience now was at a stand--
'Come, come, 't is no time now for fooling there,'
She whisper'd, in great wrath--'I must deposit
This pretty gentleman within the closet:

'Pray, keep your nonsense for some luckier night--
Who can have put my master in this mood?
What will become on 't--I 'm in such a fright,
The devil 's in the urchin, and no good--
Is this a time for giggling? this a plight?
Why, don't you know that it may end in blood?
You 'll lose your life, and I shall lose my place,
My mistress all, for that half-girlish face.

'Had it but been for a stout cavalier
Of twenty-five or thirty (come, make haste)--
But for a child, what piece of work is here!
I really, madam, wonder at your taste
(Come, sir, get in)--my master must be near:
There, for the present, at the least, he's fast,
And if we can but till the morning keep
Our counsel--(Juan, mind, you must not sleep).'

Now, Don Alfonso entering, but alone,
Closed the oration of the trusty maid:
She loiter'd, and he told her to be gone,
An order somewhat sullenly obey'd;
However, present remedy was none,
And no great good seem'd answer'd if she stay'd:
Regarding both with slow and sidelong view,
She snuff'd the candle, curtsied, and withdrew.

Alfonso paused a minute--then begun
Some strange excuses for his late proceeding;
He would not justify what he had done,
To say the best, it was extreme ill-breeding;
But there were ample reasons for it, none
Of which he specified in this his pleading:
His speech was a fine sample, on the whole,
Of rhetoric, which the learn'd call 'rigmarole.'

Julia said nought; though all the while there rose
A ready answer, which at once enables
A matron, who her husband's foible knows,